Verdammt.
“Excuse me,” I said to Hannah, regretfully untangling myself from her to go to the door.
As expected, the police had arrived to return Hannah’s documents. I thanked them and blew out a sigh before walking back to the living room, where Hannah was curled up in my vacated spot, still watching the movie.
“I have some incredible news,” I told her, forcing myself to sound happy. “That was the police.”
“Sounds great,” she said, her brow furrowing as she stared at me. But then her gaze traveled down to my hands which were clutching her passport and wallet. “Oh my God! Is that my stuff?”
She jumped to her feet and ran to me, grabbing the items out of my hand before throwing her arms around my neck and hugging me tightly, her entire body shaking as she sniffed against my shoulder.
“They didn’t recover your phone, unfortunately, but it seems the thief dropped everything in the woods in his haste to escape my men. I apologize that my guys weren’t the ones to find it.”
She pulled away from me and opened the wallet, her gaze scanning over the contents before she clutched everything to her chest and wept.
“I just can’t believe it, it’s all here” she said. “Thank you. Thank you so much.”
“It was nothing to do with me,” I assured her. “But I’m glad you’re so pleased.”
“Of course I’m pleased,” she said, laughing. “I can go home now.”
“Or you could stay.”
Hannah stared at me, blinking rapidly.
We’d had a perfect day, and I truly believed that it could be first of a lifetime of perfect days. I hadn’t meant to upset her, but I was a take charge kind of guy. When I found something I wanted, a car, a company, Hannah…it wasn’t in my nature to hesitate.
And Hannah was the only woman I’d ever wanted. Hell, today had been my first date…if I was even allowed to call it that. My brother teased me about my lack of interest in women, but the truth was that I think I’d been waiting for Hannah my entire life. And now that she was here…it was impossible to accept that she’d be leaving.
“What do you mean?” she asked finally.
“I mean, delay your trip home,” I admitted. “Stay in Germany for Christmas. Stay with me.”
“Hez…” I didn’t have to know her well to understand that she was trying to find a way to let me down gently.
“I’m sorry,” I said quickly. “That was selfish of me. Please, forget I said anything.”
“No,” she said quickly. “I’m flattered, really, that you would want to spend Christmas with me. But…Hez…I have to go home.”
“I know,” I assured her. “I don’t know what I was thinking.” I smiled and shook my head. “Please forget I said anything. Let’s go finish the movie.”
We settled back onto the sofa together, and I was pleased when she moved back up against me, resting her head on my shoulder and allowing me to lay my arm around her.
I knew I’d scared her, and that hadn’t been my intention. But the thought of her leaving left a pit in my stomach and an ache in my heart. It hadn’t been fair for me to ask her that. But I’d have regretted it forever if I hadn’t at least tried.
The movie continued, but I was too lost in despair at the realization that I was running out of time with her to pay attention. And when the credits started rolling I realized that Hannah was softly snoring.
She’d fallen asleep in my arms.
Unwilling to move and wake her, I grabbed the remote and started playing the second Die Hard movie. Then I played the third…which was far superior to the first two.
Once the fourth one began to play as well, the clock ticking ever closer toward dawn, I finally closed my eyes and allowed myself to drift off as well, the warmth and softness of the woman beside me a cold comfort to the fact that I might never experience this much happiness again as long as I lived.
Chapter Nine
~Hannah~
You can’t fall in love with a man you’ve known for just a couple days.