Jesus. Catherine’s a quick one, isn’t she? My custom suit wasn’t designed for tearing after a woman on the nature trail from hell. It’s not a straight path. Of course not. That would be simple, and nothing in my life has been simple since I came back to New York.
Perhaps I should have stayed in London.
But if I’d donethat,who would Gabriel have sent to the Bettencourt estate? Catherine would probably still be trapped there with that unhinged bastard.
Not that it matters to me, except that her red, teary eyes made me want to do some hasty, sophisticated murder.
A sharp branch swings out into the trail and smacks me in the face, narrowly missing my eye.
“Fuck.”
When this is over, I’m going to buy this forest and turn it into a strip mall. Not anicestrip mall with color-coordinated stucco storefronts and carefully selected mom-and-pops to go with the national chains. Arun-downstrip mall with nothing but a row of pawn shops.
That’ll show this godforsaken trail for hiding a beautiful, panicked woman from me.
My shoes also deserve retribution.
Around the next curve, she’s…
Gone. No hair flashing in the moonlight. No cream sweater hugging all the available light to what’s undoubtedly soft cashmere.
I steady my breathing. I would never allow myself to become so out of shape that a run like this would wind me, but I wasn’t exactly prepared for her to bolt from the car.
It’s too quiet.
Just night wind moving through the branches, picking up the scent of fallen leaves and…moss, probably.
Off to my left, the softestcrack, like a woman stepping on a dried pine needle.
I whip the branches out of the way and find Catherine standing a foot off the path. She’s barely out of arm’s reach.
“I caught you.”
She folds her arms over her stomach. “Yes, well. I didn’t have time to double back and steal your car.”
“Doesn’t grand theft auto strike you as a bit of an escalation? If you wanted to drive, you only had to say the word.”
The shadows over her face mainly hint at her glare. “It strikes me as perfectly reasonable. You could be just like my father.”
“I’m far more attractive than your father.”
She makes a small, disgusted sound. “That’s not what I mean.”
“While I am also absurdly wealthy, I have no intention of locking you in your bedroom. Or in any room.”
“That would be reassuring. If I believed you.”
I readjust my grip on the branch, because the moment I let go, it’s going to get designs on slapping me in the face again. We are in the forest getting our shoes ruined when we could be in my luxury SUV. I don’t know whether it’s frustration or arousal making my chest so hot. I never imagined Catherine had so much fight in her.
“If you’re not willing to take my word for it, would you rather I left you there?”
A slight tilt to her head communicates a pure, fine exasperation. “Actually, yes. That’s what I meant when I said,no, I refuse to marry Jacob Chambers.”
“Just for clarification purposes, your plan was to…what? Sneak around like a spy in your bright white sweater—”
“It’scream.”
“—race me back to the SUV, and hot-wire it?”