Page 125 of Down and Dirty

“I’d like to give you something, but it’s not a stitch.”

“What’s wrong? Why won’t you talk to me?” He was in front of her now, walking backward as he tried to see her face.

She refused to answer him.

“I have missed you so much.”

Still no response.

Finally, he caught her by the upper arms and made her look at him.

She was crying. For chrissake, she was out-and-out crying.

He didn’t even ask her what was wrong; he just pulled her into his arms and hugged her tightly, not loosening his hold, no matter how hard she squirmed. But then she wasn’t squirming anymore. But he was still holding her.

Leaning back to look at her, he said, “You’re back.”

“Smart-brained, as always.”

He ignored her sarcasm and gave her a quick kiss on the mouth before she could slap him. “Where have you been?”

“Where in bloody hell do you think I have been?”

“I thought you were dead.” He began to back her in the direction of his car. With the cold and the wind, she was shivering, even with that strange cloak. Or maybe she was shivering because of him. He could hope.

“Did Sammy get away?”

He nodded.

“Unharmed?”

“Perfectly unharmed, thanks to you.”

She made a harrumphing sound as if to dismiss his compliment. “Well, that is one good thing in this whole sorry mess.”

“I missed you so much, Britta. Honest to God, there were times I wanted to die, too.”

“Hah! You were not missing me much in there with your hands on that woman’s arse.”

Francine? She saw me with Francine. “My hands were not on her ass. Besides, you were in the arms of a man, and I don’t like seeing another man’s hands on you.”

“He is married.”

“Like that matters!”

“He is married, and I have been staying with him and his wife the past sennight.”

Oh. Well, okay then! “Where were you before that?”

She closed her eyes for a minute as if seeing some painful memory. When she opened them, she said, “I killed my father.”

He let those words sink in. “Oh, Britta.”

“I have no regrets. My father was a nithing, less than nothing.”

“Are you saying you traveled back in time, and are now back here again?”

“It would seem so,” she grumbled.