“You get that don’t you?” Sam was suddenly all up in her personal space. “I won't let you get hurt. Ever. If that man comes near you, I’ll kill him.”
She didn’t doubt that for a second. But what scared her is that the stalker would kill Sam first. She couldn’t take a single second more of this. “I can end this, Sam.”
“No.”
“He went after my sister.”
“No.”
“What if he goes after her again? What if she’s not so lucky next time? Or what if he tries going after Aggie next?”
“No.”
“It’s me he wants.”
“No.”
“If I just go to him, he’ll stop going after people close to me.”
“No.” This time he roared it, grabbed hold of her, and dragged her up against his body. His hand fisted in her hair, and he forced her head back then dipped his own and his mouth claimed hers. By the time he ended the kiss, she was gasping for breath.
Every time Sam kissed her, she got so confused. He had been so amazing through all of this. Putting up with her messed up emotions, putting his life on the line, holding her hand while Jonathon and Allina interviewed her about Harry Caucchi giving her the strength to hold it together.
She didn’t think she could resist letting him into her heart much longer. She wasn't even sure she wanted to. But he didn’t know the whole truth about her yet, and she was very afraid that once he did, he would be out the door before she could blink.
How could she hold on to him? She wasn't sure it was fair to even try. The best she could do for him was make sure he stayed alive.
Of their own volition, her fingers moved to his face, tracing it as she had just before they had made love. “I can't let him hurt you,” she whispered, fighting back tears. She didn’t want to cry in front of him.
His hand covered hers and gently removed it from his cheek, holding her fingers tightly. “Naomi, trust me.”
This didn’t boil down to trust. It simply boiled down to the fact that she could not allow anyone else to get hurt in her place. She was ending this as soon as an opportunity presented itself. Sam couldn’t say anything that would convince her not to, and she didn’t want to worry him, so she wouldn’t say any more about it right now. “Idotrust you, Sam,” she assured.
“But you still want to sacrifice yourself.” Sam sighed and released her hand.
“Are you sure that Clara is okay?” she asked again. She couldn’t go running off to confront her stalker unless she was positive that her sister was all right.
“Do you think I'm a liar?”
“What? No, of course not.”
“Then believe the answer I've already given you the last fifty times you asked.”
“Yeah, okay.” That was fair enough. He had patiently repeated the same information to her several times since Rylla had called to tell them that her stalker had tried to kill her sister. Her best friend’s first words had been not to panic, but invariably when someone said that to you, you couldn’t help but panic. When Rylla had said that Clara had been attacked, Naomi had dropped the phone. Startled, Sam had come running, taken the information from Rylla, then sat her down in a chair and repeated to her over and over that Clara was alive and virtually uninjured until it had finally sunk in.
Well at least partially sunk in. She couldn’t really believe it until she saw it with her own eyes, but she was too afraid to go anywhere near anyone she cared about.
She may as well go get her laptop, maybe she could research Harry Caucchi and see if she could find where he was hiding out. She knew that the police were on it, but she couldn’t just sit back and do nothing. Naomi turned to go, but Sam took hold of her wrist and turned her back around to face him.
“Clara is fine. The paramedics checked her out. The cut on her stomach wasn't even deep enough to need stitches. The one on her arm only needed four to close it. Jonathon is going to stay with her and Aggie until this is over. Rylla and Matthew are working the case with Allina. If you’d let me take you to see Clara, maybe you could finally believe that she’s okay, but since you won’t then I’ll keep telling you it’s true until you can accept it.”
“Thanks, Sam.” What had she done to deserve him? Nothing at all.
“You don’t have to thank me, Naomi. I'm here. I'm not going anywhere. I couldn’t even if I wanted to. And you’re not going anywhere either. Don’t you know that if anything happened to you I …” Sam broke off, his eyes a turbulent mess of emotions. “Naomi, I … I …”
Sam was surprisingly adorable when he stuttered. Naomi smiled in spite of herself.
“Naomi, I love you.”