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chase. If she refused him with any finality in her tone… He’d have to honor her wishes. He loved her too much to not, even if it meant shredding his heart. Both scenarios sucked.
    “You, Lori. I intend to marry you.”

Chapter Five
    You, Lori. I intend to marry you.
    Trevor’s words, spoken as plainly as when he’d agreed to back her business looped in her buzzing brain. Around and around and around they flipped and flopped, zipped and zagged through her head mixed with the cacophony of her slamming pulse.
    Lori locked her eyes on the indentation at the base of Trevor’s neck.
    You, Lori.
    She needed to clear her mind.
    I intend to marry you.
    The words wouldn’t leave her and she couldn’t think of a response. He had to want a response. A specific, agreeable response.
    His throat rippled where she still stared. He was going to speak, add something to what he’d just said. He had to stop. Her head swam with possibilities of what may come next. She quaked, every tissue deep inside, with the need to escape.
    She tugged against his hold, tried to move away. He wasn’t a giant man with seriously sculpted muscles, but he had a solid six inches and fifty pound advantage. And he was strong. Freedom would only come when he allowed it.
    “I love you, Lori.”
    Stop talking please. The unspoken plea drew out like a desperate whine, but remained unspoken because she knew on some level she liked what he was saying. She liked his confidence and his plan, even if acceptance was impossible.
    “You have a lot going now.” His thumbs rubbed tiny circles on the insides of her arm. “You may not be ready to hear me out, and I understand.”
    You just think you do. Her chest was becoming increasingly tight and uncomfortable. She wanted to rub it. Her eyes were beginning to sting with the pricks of tears. She couldn’t—wouldn’t—allow him to see.
    “Lori. I respect you too much to force anything on you.” He kissed the corner of one twitching eye. “But I’m not going to make it easy for you to deny me.” He kissed the other eye.
    With renewed desperation for escape washing through her, she pulled again at her arms.
    His grip broke. He caught the towel at his waist just before it fell. Just before it revealed his arousal in three-dimensional naked glory.
    I’m not going to make it easy for you to deny me. She stumbled back. I intend to marry you.
    Shaking her head, unable to form a word of denial or rebuttal, she backed to the door, cautiously guiding her way with a hand outstretched behind her.
    “I’m going to woo you, Lori.”
    Oh hell. Men didn’t talk like that any more, and damn but it turned her on.
    She edged through the sitting area with escape in her mind and hunger clawing through her belly. She wanted what he offered, craved everything it entailed, had dreamt of it during captivity and months in hiding. Trevor was one wish she’d marked off her list though.
    I love you.
    Acceptance of his claim as a truth, a reality, existed beyond her realm of possibilities. Especially since he didn’t know her like he thought he did. She twisted the doorknob, seconds from freedom.
    I’ll win your heart again, Lori. I’ll make you want me again.Trevor, thank God, hadn’t moved to follow. Only his haunting words pursued.
    If only those were her issues. She needed to figure out who she was without her operative job to define her and somehow she had to come to terms with the wrongs she’d committed in the name of work. Wrongs like getting an innocent man killed and Trevor hurt. She turned and fled, choosing the stairs over waiting for the elevator. Gina said something, but her questioning sympathy went unheard beneath the tearful tirade seeking release.
    Lori held them back by a force of will until she’d run down the nine flights and sequestered herself in the privacy of her office. Sinking to the newly carpeted floor behind her locked door she broke.
    I intend to marry you.
    Weeks of not seeing Trevor, of thinking