God, she was wonderful! “That’s brilliant.”
“I just wonder what they’re going to think at the Agency, when it arrives.”
“You sent it to the Agency?”
Mia nodded. “Yesterday. Evalina came by. She thought you were still here but… Well, I asked her if she knew where there was a Fed-Ex office.”
Matthew shook his head in wonder. “And?”
“And she said there was one in the next town, that her husband drove by it every day on his way to work. So I put the compact into a padded envelope I found by going through your desk. I hope you don’t mind.”
“No,” he said, trying not to smile, “I don’t mind at all.”
“Her husband dropped it off for me. Evalina brought me the receipt this morning.”
Matthew gave her a long, deep kiss. “You’re an amazing woman, Mia Palmieri.” His arms tightened around her. “Let’s go back to the house,” he said softly. “I’ll build a fire. You can tell me the rest after you’re warm again.”
“I’m fine,” Mia protested, but he knew she wasn’t. She was trembling; her skin was cool and damp. She was a heartbeat away from shock and he knew, without question, that if he lost this woman, his life would have no meaning.
He swept her into his arms, carried her through the moonlit night to the house. He wrapped her in a blanket, slipped on a pair of sweatpants and built a fire. Then he poured brandy for them both and drew her into his lap.
“I almost went crazy,” he said gruffly, “when you let Hamilton take you away.”
“I didn’t have a choice.”
“He threatened you, right?”
“Yes.”
His voice hardened. “The bastard said he’d hurt you unless you went with him.”
“No.” She caught his hand in hers and pressed it to her heart. “He said he’d kill you,” she whispered. “That he had other men, hidden in the dark, and they would—they would kill you if I didn’t—if I didn’t…”
Matthew cursed, drew her to him and kissed her again. His Mia was the most courageous woman he’d ever known. That she would have willingly sacrificed her freedom, her very life for him was a gift beyond any he could imagine.
“But I escaped.”
“How?”
She giggled. It was such a nice, normal sound that Matthew grinned from ear to ear.
“Ah,” he said. “You did something amazingly clever.”
“Amazingly devious, you mean. We’d been driving for maybe half an hour. I was desperate.” She leaned back in Matthew’s arms. “See, there was this boy who lived next door, when I was maybe six or seven…”
“Don’t tell me. He’s my competition?”
Smiling, she looped her arms around his neck. “He was my very best friend. I wanted to do everything he did, so he taught me some stuff.”
“What stuff?” Matthew felt his body starting to stir. His desire for Mia had been banked by the anguish of her story but now, with her safely in his arms, the hungry need he always had for her was coming back.
She knew it, too.
“Matthew,” she said, shifting her weight in his lap. ?
??Don’t you want to hear how I got away?”
He gritted his teeth. “Yes. Yes, I do.”