Cherry Adair - T-flac 06 (42 page)

"That's right." Sunny rocked her while smoothing a hand up and down her back. "Cry it out, sweetie, just cry it out. I'm right here."

Lily's throat felt raw, her chest hurt, her head ached—and the tears kept coming. Great wracking sobs broke like crashing waves, one after the other, from an endless well deep inside her. She wrapped her arms about Sunny's waist and buried her wet face against the woman's soft shoulder and continued blubbering like a baby. And through it all, Sunny sat on the floor rocking and stroking, stroking and
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rocking.

Derek was safe.

They'd survived everything by working together.

She'd found more than she'd ever expected to find in the shelter of Derek's arms—and now she had to give it all back.

She had to return to her life. Alone.

If she'd imagined a man like Derek far beyond her reach before, that reality was now magnified by his secret life. What could she possibly have to offer a man whose life was filled with events like this?

Danger. Adventure. Excitement.

She'd never had any illusions. The only comfort she could derive from the last few weeks would be that Derek genuinely seemed to care for her. Not
love
her, no matter what he'd blurted out in the heat of a terrifying race to get to the bad guys. No. She understood where those words had come from. Not from the heart, but from the heat of the moment.

She understood. She really did.

But it didn't make the weight in her chest any lighter.

How could she live without him?

"A little better?" Sunny asked when Lily pulled away. She reached out and snagged a long strip of toilet paper and handed it to her.

"Not better, but calmer, I hope. I feel like an i-idiot," Lily told her thickly, wiping cheeks that felt sunburned.

"Blow your nose, sweetie." Lily honked and Sunny smiled. "And again, that's a good girl. There's nothing to be ashamed of. You've had an action-packed few days of it. Anyone would cry after everything you've been through."

Sunny, a slightly overweight, middle-aged woman with the prettiest skin Lily had ever seen, and a smile as understanding and cheerful as her name, got to her feet. "Let's get you feeling more comfortable." She flushed the toilet and turned on the tap.

Pulling a small plastic cup free from the dispenser, she filled it and handed it to Lily. "You need to replace all the liquid you lost. Keep refilling this bitty-little thing while I go and find a nice washcloth. I'll be right back."

"D—" Lily couldn't make her throat work, but Sunny seemed to understand.

"I'll check on him and report back. Drink." The door slowly swooshed closed behind her.

Lily leaned against the wall beside the sink and let the water run. She gulped down the contents of the paper cup and refilled it. Over and over again. She was parched; her throat felt as though she'd been
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screaming for days. Raw and dry. And her eyes were painfully swollen. Bending over the sink, she splashed the icy water against her face and didn't feel the slightest bit better.

"Pathetic fool!" she told herself in a husky croak. She didn't even have the energy to mock herself for her outburst.

She had absolutely nothing to cry about. Derek was safe. And she barely had a scratch on her. Her eyes welled all over again.

The door whooshed open. "Oh, sweetie…" Sunny wrapped her arms about Lily and hustled her out of the bathroom and a short distance down the hall. The next thing Lily knew, she was lying on a bed, and Sunny was pulling the covers over her.

"Now let me put this nice cold cloth over those poor swollen eyes of yours, and I'll tell you all about your mule-headed man."

"How's she doing?" Marnie stuck her head around the door.

Derek waved his sister in. "Still sleeping," he whispered back.

"The doctor allowed you to come in here because you promised to lie on the other bed." His sister didn't look the least surprised to see him sitting beside Lily in an uncomfortable plastic chair instead of flat on his back. She shook her head. "Don't you have a crick in your neck sitting like that?"

"I'm fine." This was the only way he could sit and hold Lily's hand at the same time. He wasn't letting go, no matter how awkward it was.

"Our plane's been refueled," she told him quietly. "Dad's getting everyone over to the airport, then he'll send a car back for you guys—Hang on a sec." She went back into the hallway, and Derek could hear her whispering to his brothers.

She stuck her head around. "Michael says do you want a wheelchair? Don't roll your eyes at me, pal.

I'm just the messenger—Hang on." She popped out again—and back. "For
Lily
, numbnuts—Hey!" she complained, realizing what she'd just parroted. "You guys! Talk to each other. See you on the plane."

She blew Derek a kiss, then disappeared.

Huntington, Michael, Kyle, Kane and their brother-in-law, Jake, all crowded into the room. "We'll hang with you until it's time to split," Kane told him softly, leaning against the wall with his arms folded for the duration.

It's what he would've done for any of the men standing there like sentinels guarding the door, Derek thought, feeling a rush of love for the combined Wrights. Family. Nothing like it.

"Where are the wives?" he asked, leaning over to brush strands of hair off Lily's cheek. Even after several hours, her face was still flushed from crying. When Sunny had come to find him, he hadn't been able to get to Lily fast enough.

"Dad and Sunny are taking them to the hotel to collect our stuff," Michael answered, watching him with his good eye. He hadn't bothered with the prosthetic. Probably because of the cold. The patch suited
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him. "They'll meet us there."

He checked out Derek's face. "I knew you were always jealous of my patch. You just have to copy me, don't you? What'd you do? Beg some tango to sock you one, sissy boy?"

"Actually," Derek grinned, "Lily did the deed. With the stock of her rifle. I'm grateful she didn't shoot me."

The other men glanced at the bed with new respect. "Oh, I like her already," Kyle said, his blue eyes alight with laughter. "And here we all thought you were going to make a few bucks by winning this race.

You've certainly had an exciting couple of days, haven't you?"

"You don't know the half of it," Derek said soberly.

"The second we were cleared for takeoff we were on our way," Hunt told him. "We passed in flight, us going, you coming. That's how I intercepted Lily. I hailed you. You were clearly taking a nap, and I turned around. You owe me an exciting mission sometime soon, old son."

"Talking a beautiful woman down wasn't enough excitement for you?" Derek mocked.

Hunt's lips twitched. He rarely smiled. "Not if I'm not the guy who ends up with the girl, it's not."

"What's the word on our target?" Derek looked from one to the other. "Everyone rounded up? Did we save the world?"

"Hell, yeah," Jake told him. "You didn't leave many bad guys to clean up. Selfish of you."

"Got the job done," Derek told them modestly.

"With a little help from a friend," Lily mumbled groggily from the bed.

They all turned to look at her.

Shooting a dispositive glance at his brothers, Derek said mildly, "Get lost."

Within seconds they were up, out and the door was closing behind them.

"How's your arm?" Lily asked, voice raspy.

"Good." He cupped her hot cheek in his hand. "I'm sorry I made you cry."

She shrugged, avoiding his eyes. "Too much stress. Adrenaline overload. I'm a doctor. I know these things." What was going on in that active brain? Not happy thoughts, Derek saw with a painful twist to his heart.
Oh, Lily
.

He crooked a finger under her chin to turn her face up to his. Her head moved, but she refused to look at him, effectively slamming a door shut between them. Derek's heart literally ached. After everything they'd shared, she still refused to accept this magical thing between them. How could she pretend not to see it? Feel it? He knew with every fiber of his being that they belonged together. He was sure she felt it, too; now he just needed to get her to admit it.

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"Look at me, Lily." Her lashes fluttered upward until her hazel eyes fixed on his face. "I'm sorry as hell that you had to go through everything that happened there at the end, but I'm not sorry for everything that happened before."

"Me, neither," she assured him in a too bright voice. "Business as usual is sure as hell going to be dull after defusing a bomb and flying a plane."

His arm ached like fire, and he shifted in the hard plastic chair. She shifted at the same time, and his hand dropped from her face. He sat back, missing the contact, feeling the gulf between them widen. "That's not what I was talking about."

A frown pleated her brow. "Oh. You mean the sex? That was spectacular, too."

Derek closed his eyes, feeling as though someone had punched him in the solar plexus. "Jesus, Lily."

"Well, it was."

"Is that all we had? Spectacular sex?"

"I wouldn't say
all
so dismissively," Lily assured him, keeping eye contact, but not able to hide the flash of vulnerability he saw in her eyes. "Spectacular, toe-curling sex is nothing to be sneered a—"

"Shut up," he said furiously. "Just shut the hell up." He rose and looked down at her. Small, belligerent and so afraid she could barely make eye contact.
Jesus, Lily, what the hell am I going to do with you
?

He started walking toward the door. She didn't say anything, and he could tell she was holding her breath. He turned with his hand on the door handle. "Everyone said how brave you were. But you know what, Lily? You're acting like a damn coward, because you won't believe me and you sure as hell won't believe your heart. And rather than take a risk that what we're feeling couldn't last a lifetime, you'll play it safe, never knowing how long we'll last because you won't take a chance on happiness." He yanked open the door. "Maybe, just maybe not everyone you care about will end up abandoning you."

She frowned. "Nobody's abandoned me. What are you tal—"

"Your mother—"

"Died," Lily said in a small voice.

"
Abandoned
you by dying," he want on ruthlessly. "And your father
abandoned
you by remarrying and focusing his attention on his new wife and son."

Her chin tilted even as her eyes filled. "I don't feel that way about them."

"Don't you?"

"No. I love my father, and adore Matt."

"Nice to know. But you still took your father's defection as being abandoned, Lily. I know you."

"No, you don't."

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"Sean abandoned you by cheating on you. Do you want me to go on?"