It felt right.
This was where she was supposed to be, and he was done with letting other people dictate who he spent his life with.
He wanted Abigail, he wanted to marry her and have a family with her, and whether it took him a day or the rest of his life, he would find a way to make it up to her for all the pain he’d caused.
Keeping one arm hooked around her waist to make sure she didn’t slip down under the water, he used his other hand to scoop up handfuls of water and splash it over her head and chest.
“Come on, baby, come back to me,” he murmured in her ear. “You’re the strongest woman I know, Abby, you can’t give up now. I’ve got you and I’m not letting go, you fought hard waiting for someone to come for you, now I’m here, and I’m going to take you home, but you have to hold on a little longer. You hold on for me, okay, sweetheart? You hold on tight and you don’t let go.”
Once he had her completely wet, Spider began to run his fingers through her hair, gently easing out the tangles. Abigail hated to have her hair messed up, in all the years he’d known her, even back when she was just a little thing, she’d always had her hair done perfectly. It must have killed her not to be able to brush it these last fourteen months.
One arm snug around her waist keeping her close against him, in an effort to make sure he didn’t do anything Abigail might construe as taking advantage, he let his other hand settle on her shoulder. Her skin was soft and smooth despite months of being held in captivity, and he couldn’t stop his fingertips from stroking along its silkiness, but then he froze.
Was it his imagination or was she feeling a little cooler?
Spider put his hand on her forehead and was convinced that she did indeed feel cooler to the touch. Was her fever breaking?
He could only pray that it was.
Picking up a cake of soap that set on the edge of the bath, he grabbed one of her arms and began to wash away the grime that months of being held hostage had caused. He had to believe that being in the bath was helping and that sooner rather than later she would wake up, fix him in a hard stare those unusual eyes of her glittering with anger, and tell him off for walking out on her a second time.
After coming so close to losing her he would relish her anger.
2:54 A.M.
She wasn’t burning up.
That was the first thought Abigail had as she slowly became aware of her surroundings again.
There was something cool lapping against her skin, she was resting against something warm, but it was a nice warm, a comfortable warm, it was vibrating and she could hear music in her ear.
It sounded like someone was humming.
None of the men who had brought her food every day had ever hummed so she knew it couldn’t be them, but it took her brain a moment to figure out that it had to be Ryder.
She tried to lift her head, found it far harder than it should be, and moaned a little before prying open her eyes.
“Is that my girl finally waking up?” Ryder asked, taking her chin between his thumb and forefinger and tilting her face up so she was looking at him.
Why did he have to be so sexy?
His hair was as black as coal, and he wore it just long enough that the natural waves curled around his ears. His cerulean blue eyes were impossible not to stare into until you got lost and forgot where you were, forgot who you were. He had just enough scruff to be sexy, and she wanted to brush her fingertips across it before pressing her mouth to his.
No.
Resist temptation.
She knew all too well what happened when you got sucked into the sex stratosphere of Ryder Flynn. Abigail had no intention of falling into that danger all over again. She wasn’t that stupid.
“Abigail?”
“Hmm?” She flicked her gaze to his and found his blue eyes crinkled in concern as he studied her.
“How are you feeling?”
“Better,” she answered honestly. Her chest still hurt to breathe and she was exhausted down to her very bones, but she felt better than she had. “But, Ryder, I’m not your girl.”
His eyes narrowed and his lips pursed together into a straight line, she felt the ripple of denial move through his body, but he didn’t address her words. “I think this bath did the trick, got your fever down. Do you think you could eat something?”
“Bath?” she echoed, glancing down to find that she was naked in a tub.
“I had to, Abby,” Ryder said quickly. “You were burning up, your fever was spiking, I didn’t know what else to do, I had to cool you down or I would lose you. I didn’t touch you inappropriately, Abby.”
She startled at his words.
Did he think so lowly of her that he honestly thought she believed he would take advantage of her when she was deathly ill?
Abigail swatted weakly at his impressively chiseled chest. “I know you would never take advantage of me, Ryder.”
Ryder’s eyes softened. “We haven’t had a chance to talk yet, Abs, so I don’t know what they did to you while you were here. I didn’t want you to be triggered waking up to find yourself naked in a bath with a man.”
“Oh,” she said softly, touched that he was worried about her and wanted to make sure she was okay. She was no longer his responsibility in any way, shape or form, they weren’t even friends, they were just two people who had known each other as kids and slept together. Given how easily he’d walked away from her, she didn’t even think of what they’d had as a relationship. It was just sex. Sex that had obviously meant a whole lot more to her than it had to him.
Suddenly filled with an irrational need to make sure he didn’t feel bad or worry about her anymore, she lifted her hand and placed it on his forearm. “It’s okay, Ryder, they didn’t do anything to me.”
His forehead furrowed. “What?”
“They didn’t do anything to me. They just put me in that cage and left me there.”
Something in his gaze screamed disbelief but he quickly locked it away. “What’s the last thing you remember before you were abducted?”
“I was leaving the studio late after working with a kid going for an audition. Her mom picked her up, I tidied up, turned all the lights off, locked up, and was walking to my car. The next thing I remember I was in that room where you found me.”
Ryder said nothing for a long moment, but she could see the wheels spinning in his head. He lifted his hand and pressed it to her forehead and then her cheeks. “You’re still hot but your temperature is definitely going down. Let’s get you out of here, dried off and dressed so you don’t get chilled, and we’ll see about getting you something to eat, you must be starving.”
“Not really.” Abigail shrugged, the idea of eating actually made her nauseous but she knew she had to keep up her strength. “But I will.”
“That’s my … I mean, that’s the spirit,” he finished lamely, but they both knew what he’d been about to say. He’d been about to call her his girl again and she had no idea why he would want to, he was the one who left not her.
Twice.
She would have been his girl if he’d wanted her, she would have been his everything, his best friend, his partner, his lover, his biggest supporter. She would have loved him with everything she had, but he had thrown her away.