He had been as socially awkward as she had back in high school. While people said he was shy, she’d never seen him that way. Problem was, Zane was too smart to be happy having a conversation he thought was irrelevant. He’d been too busy trying to figure out every scientific mystery that existed on the planet. Most other high school guys had just wanted to get laid.
“I’m stuffed,” she groaned as she pushed her plate back.
He looked up from his plate. “You hardly ate anything.”
“My stomach is smaller,” she informed him.
“You’re too skinny,” he replied gruffly.
Ellie laughed. “I’ve never had that problem before.” She was still thin, but now that she was being pumped full of nutrition and hydrated, it probably wouldn’t take long for her to gain weight. It never did.
She smiled at him, liking the fact that he was blunt and always said whatever he was thinking. His words were rarely censored, and he didn’t seem to care whether they were tactful or not.
“They’re going to let you go home in a few days. I thought we could go to my house in Denver, but it’s a media circus outside. I think you’d be safer in Rocky Springs. My property there is secure, and if they set one foot on Colter land, they’ll be arrested. We can take off from the helipad on the roof.”
“Zane, I can’t go home with you. I’ll stay with Aileen for a while if I need to, try to figure out what I’m going to do. You’ve already lost enough time trying to find me and then taking care of me. I’m going to have to get my shit together pretty fast.”
“You’re staying with me, even if I have to toss you over my shoulder and take you to my house. Mom’s home isn’t secure. Hell, she doesn’t even have an alarm system. My property is fenced. I have a small lab there, and it needed to be secure.” He took her plate and started to finish off her food after dumping his own empty dish into the garbage.
“My apartment—”
“It’s been rented. All of your stuff was sent to my house, and the furniture was put in storage.”
Ellie’s heart sank. “I didn’t think my landlady would evict me.”
In a kinder voice, Zane answered, “Nobody believed you were even alive anymore, Ellie. You were gone seven months. She didn’t exactly evict you.”
You believed it, or you wouldn’t have kept searching. Ellie still wondered why Zane had kept searching when even the police had given up hope of finding her alive.
She sighed and started plucking at the white blanket nervously. “I suppose. Life moved on without me.”
“Not for everybody. And never for me,” Zane told her in a graveled voice as he dumped her now-empty plate and opened the bag of candy.
“Why didn’t you and Chloe give up? Why didn’t you just assume I was dead or gone?” Ellie knew Zane was analytical and realistic. He was a scientist. After seven months gone, the likelihood of him finding her alive had been pretty much nil. A brain that was as rational as Zane’s should have told him to quit looking.
He pinned her with his intense stare, his eyes smoky and dark. He took one of the chocolates he’d unwrapped and held it to her mouth.
It was a strange sensation, having a guy feed her, but she opened her lips and sucked in the round chocolate, the explosive taste of sweetness making her bite back a moan of pleasure.
Finally, Zane answered, “Because I didn’t want to believe it, Ell. Until I had positive proof that you were gone, I wasn’t going to stop looking for you. It’s as simple as that.”
The use of his shortened version of her name surprised her. Nobody had ever called her that but him, and not since they were teenagers. She’d always kind of liked it when they were young. Ellie looked up at him, mesmerized by the fierce expression on his face. Zane was a scientist. Of course he would have wanted to find her body for her family and Chloe, but she sensed his reasons were somehow…different. Like a personal mission he wasn’t willing to stop. “But there was no hope.”
“Bullshit. I always had hope, Ellie. I know you well enough to know you’re a fighter, and so does Chloe. Neither one of us ever believed the bullshit assumption that you just left in your vehicle and never came back. It made no sense. Both of us discounted that theory as soon as the police threw it out.”
Thank God for that! If he hadn’t been so tenacious, she’d be dead by now.
“Thank you,” she whispered. “I’m grateful you never gave up on finding me.” If he had stopped looking for her, she wouldn’t have lasted much longer alone. Her doctors had told her bluntly she probably couldn’t have survived another day without water, food, or warmth.
“I would have never given up,” he grumbled.
He fed her another chocolate, preventing her from responding. Eventually, they needed to talk about his plans to take her home with him. Until then, she’d savor both the sweet treat and the man who had given it to her.
His desire to help her, and his gruff tenderness, were a side of Zane she’d never seen before. Of course, she’d seen little of him since he’d left for college, and he’d turned into one hell of a grown man. She’d just never spent enough time with him to realize just how special he’d grown up to be.
However, he’d done enough for her, and he’d eventually see the sense in her staying with Aileen until she was fully recovered. The media would find another story and stop hounding her after a while.
She knew she’d have to stop depending on Zane. He’d been her rescuer, and that was enough. Somehow, she’d pick herself up and recover from the damage that had been done to her body, mind, and soul.
As he offered her another piece of candy, she shook her head. She was going to have to learn to resist temptation. Somehow, she was pretty certain that avoiding chocolate wouldn’t be her most difficult test in the near future, but it was definitely a place to start.
Two days later, Ellie still hadn’t convinced Zane to be more reasonable or sensible. Exactly when he had become so hardheaded and bossy she wasn’t certain, but he could be relentless and uncompromising when he really wanted something, or thought it was the best solution.
She knew she had to either cut her ties to him now, or she’d end up needing to see him every time she was afraid.
“I’m not going home with you,” Ellie told him stubbornly as a nurse pushed her toward the elevator in a wheelchair after she was discharged.
“I’m afraid you don’t have much of a choice. I’m your ride out of here. The media is still camped outside the hospital. I guess you’ll have to stay,” Zane answered matter-of-factly as he walked beside her wheelchair.