Revealing Us (Inside Out #3)(61)

Chris reaches for my hand. “Sara, baby. Calm down.”

“Calm down? Did you really just tell me to calm down?

That’s not a smart reply at this moment, Chris Merit. Why didn’t you tell me this?”

“I think this is my cue to head out,” Rey murmurs. “I’ll call you, Chris.”

“Coward,” Chris grumbles. “You open your mouth and run away.”

“I’m smart like that,” Rey agrees, and his footsteps soon fade up the stairs.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” I demand of Chris again, ignoring their exchange.

Chris stands up, towering over me, his hands coming down on my shoulders. “This is why. Your reaction is exactly what I expected.”

“Don’t not tell me something just because I might not like it. That’s not how we do things. That’s not what I expect of you.”

He shuts his eyes for a moment and then opens them again.

“It’s not fact, and all it’s doing is upsetting you.” He leans me against the desk and I sit on the edge as he continues. “But this is why I wanted you out of Paris when his name came up. Once you insisted on staying, I decided to bring you with me today for two reasons. I wanted him to see that you’re under my protection, and that you don’t know where Ella is, either. So he’ll lose interest in you now.”

A million possibilities ly through my mind about what this means for Ella. “What if she’s—”

“Don’t do that to yourself,” Chris warns. “Neuville doesn’t think Ella’s dead, or he wouldn’t be looking for her. He has a lot of money and so do I. With both of us looking for Ella, the chances of inding her are high. This is good. Not bad.”

My racing pulse slows slightly. “Why would he want to ind a woman, one he just met a month ago, this badly?”

“Sara, a month after we met, I would have spent every dime I have to ind you. We don’t know what happened between them in those three weeks. We don’t know if this is really anything more than a man infatuated with a woman.”

A bit of hope blossoms inside me. “Maybe he really cares for her, and that’s why he wants to ind her?”

“We don’t know,” Chris says. “That’s the point. If his story checks out and she lived with him even for a short time, it suggests a relationship. And if she was in that relationship up until a week ago, we have every reason to believe she’s living a new life and simply left her past behind.”

“She has to go back to America after ninety days from her arrival because of her passport, right? There’s no exception to this.”

“She has to return,” he agrees. “And that’s the way we’ll ind her if we don’t catch up with her sooner.”



The ight in me fades and my voice softens. “That’s late next month.” My gaze falls to his chest. “I don’t know what to do about Ella.”

His inger slides under my chin. “You’ve done everything you can—and Sara, she might be ine and you’re worrying for nothing. It sounds like she is.”

I glance up at him. “I know. I just . . . I have you, but not so long ago I was just like Rebecca. There was no one to look for me if I was lost.”

“Mark would have looked for Rebecca if he’d known she was due back in San Francisco, Sara. He told me he thought she’d blown him of.”

“You wouldn’t have let me run like she did. You care about me. He let her. She was alone. Ella is alone, Chris. If she’s blowing me of then ine. She’s blowing me of, but I can’t do that to her.”

“We aren’t blowing her of. We’re trying to ind her.” His hands gently caress my hair. “I’m glad you know that I would come after you now. You didn’t always.” He settles his palms on either side of me on the desk and studies me a moment.

Thankful for what this beautiful man has added to my life, I reach out and play with a spiky lock of his blond hair. “I know now. That’s what counts.” I purse my lips at my momentary distraction. “I haven’t forgotten what we’re talking about. You aren’t of the hook. You should have told me about the mob connection.”

“If I tell you I was protecting you, you’re going to come unglued, aren’t you?”

My ingers fall from his hair. “Yes.”

Obviously ighting a smile, he says, “Then I won’t tell you. I think . . . hmmm, yes . . . this would be a good time for me to show you a way to escape.”

My pulse is racing all over again. “Escape?” I ask for one of his “escapes” all of the time. He never gives them to me. He always says it’s not the right time or I’m not ready. He never volunteers.

“I have something to show you,” he adds, and there is a deinitive, sensual gleam in his eyes. “Take your clothes of.” He reaches for his shirt and pulls it over his head.

I’m used to Chris ordering me to take of my clothes but, for once, he’s getting naked at the same time as I am rather than playing the power card of watching. And while I mean to join him in the process of undressing, his shirt comes of and my mouth goes dry. I think I’ll take a moment and enjoy the view.

I stall, hoping for more skin and a longer show. “We need to be naked for you to show me whatever you want to show me?”