Rescue My Heart Read Online Free PDF Page B

unpleasant experience. Derek had fought her and then hadn’t even bothered to show up for their court date. Twice. Finally, just last week, the judge had agreed to sign off on the case without him, and, as far as she was concerned, the deal was as good as done.
    And Holly was over faking her happiness.
    Adam was still just watching her. She had no idea what it was about his melting-chocolate eyes, but they had a way of looking at her, as if he could see all the way inside, pasther walls, past her guard, past everything, to where her real thoughts and feelings were laid bare.
    It was disconcerting.
    Terrifying.
    Arousing.
    “My past isn’t up for discussion,” she said. “It’s…complicated.”
    The very hint of a smile curved his lips. “And what with you isn’t?”
    She was pretty sure that wasn’t a compliment, but she didn’t want to go there. To give herself a moment, she walked the length of the loft. He hadn’t lit a fire, and the place was chilly. Framed pictures sat on the mantel. Adam with a search dog on either side of him. Another with a handful of guys on a cliff in full combat gear looking into the camera with varying degrees of stoic strength and camaraderie.
    But it was the last picture that grabbed her by the throat. It was small, the photo itself a little wrinkled, as if maybe it had spent time in a wallet before making its way to a frame. It was Adam circa his Troubled Years, wearing loose, low-slung jeans and down jacket, hood up. No smile, dark glasses in place, hiding the eyes already old beyond his years. He had his arm slung around a girl.
    Her.
    She ran a finger over the frame and asked the question she didn’t know she’d been holding on to. “So, how is it that you ended up in Sunshine again when you told me you wouldn’t ever be back?”

Three

    H olly held her breath for Adam’s answer, but he ignored the question and headed toward the far end of the loft, and the tall dresser standing there.
    “You’re right about the weather going to hell,” he said. “It’s all over the news.”
    “Which is why we need to find my dad quickly,” she said.
    He shook his head. “There’s no we.”
    Disappointment rolled over her like a wave. So he wasn’t going to help. “Okay,” she said, having no idea why she was surprised. “I’ll go alone. It’s not like it’s the first time someone’s walked away when I needed them.”
    The silence was weighted, and she bit her tongue. She hadn’t meant to go there, but apparently she was holding on to some resentment. A lot of resentment. Who knew? Unable to take it back, she strode to the door and, dammit, fumbled with the handle. Before she could get it open, Adam’s hand settled on the wood above her head, holding it closed.
    He had long fingers, and more than one scar on them. His forearm was corded with sinew and felt too close. Intimate. She closed her eyes and took in the scent of masculine soap and warm, male skin. He wasn’t touching her in any way, but she felt him surrounding her just the same. And the bigger problem? Her body remembered his. Remembered…and ached. She thunked her head to the door, desperately searching for balance—which wasn’t going to happen, not with him so close.
    “I didn’t say I wouldn’t do it,” he said.
    Processing his words, she turned and flattened herself against the wood, staring up at him, relief filling her hot and bright, so that for a moment she couldn’t breathe. “You’re going to help me?”
    “Yes,” he said. “But I go alone.” His eyes were shadowed, his mouth tight and grim.
    And she realized something else that she’d missed when she’d first soaked up the sight of him, dazzled by his perfection.
    He seemed utterly and completely exhausted.
    And, she realized in horror when he turned away from her and headed back to his dresser,
injured
. At the sight of his back, she gasped. “Adam.”
    He didn’t respond.
    Shock.
    She stared at the long, jagged laceration on his