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Nik’s text came in right behind it.

Get a move on.

I thumbed the screen off and set the phone on the edge of the table next to the sofa.

Isabella watched it leave my hand. “They’re going to come in, aren’t they?”

“Not if I keep answering.”

“And if you don’t?”

I looked at her. “Then you’ll meet Rory, and he won’t be nearly as charming as I am.”

A quiet laugh slipped out of her.

“You’re charming?”

“On my better days.”

“Is this one of those?”

“No.” I leaned down, my nose an inch from hers. “This is the day you need to get dressed, pick up that bag, and walk into a new life that has nothing to do with me.”

She nodded, but she didn’t move toward the bag.

Instead, she came right back to me.

Her hands caught my face this time, firm and unhesitating, and she pulled me down until our mouths were almost touching.

“Lachlan,” she whispered, and hearing my name from her lips did more damage than it should have. “In another lifetime, I would have wanted you. Not your money. Not your protection. You. The man who was furious with me and was still willing to come to my rescue.”

My hands closed around her wrists. “Don’t.”

“You’re the kind of man I would have wanted a forever with.” Her mouth trembled against mine. “But tonight is all I have, and I want something to remember when I’m no one.”

“Isabella—”

“I know. I know. We have to go.” Her thumb brushed my jaw. “I know we do.”

Then she kissed me again.

This time, I stopped pretending I didn’t want it.

She drove me back into the wall with her mouth on mine and her hands on my chest. My shoulder hit hard enough to rattle the door, and I caught her waist, spinning us until her back hit the wall. I meant to pin her there, to give myself one second to stop this, but she used it against me.

Her hands clamped down on my shoulders and she jumped, locking her legs around my hips. I caught her under the thighs, and my body answered with a hunger that had no interest in my better judgment.

I tried to pull my mouth from hers. “We don’t have time for this.”

“Then don’t waste it talking.”

Her teeth caught my lower lip, and the last of my restraint took a hit. She kissed me rougher, pressing herself against me, hips working into mine with enough need to make my body stop listening to my brain.

I should have put her down.

Instead, I carried her to the old sofa in the middle of the room and went down with her still wrapped around me. The springs groaned under our combined weight. Her hands were already on my jacket, pushing it off my shoulders.

“This is a bad idea,” I said against her mouth.