Off the Grid Read online

  No. That wasn’t what he’d been doing.

  Was it?

  Her eyes shot to his, catching them just as his gaze shifted. But not before she saw the flicker of guilt that popped the bubble of hope in her chest like a pin on an overstretched balloon.

  “Oh my God, that’s it, isn’t it? That’s what all this is about. You’ve been giving me the full-court John Donovan press to keep me from writing any articles.”

  And she’d fallen for it hook, line, and sinker.

  God, did she have idiot written on her forehead? It sure as hell felt like it.

  * * *

  • • •

  John took one look at her expression and knew he’d better explain or this conversation was going to go downhill fast. Very fast.

  It wasn’t like that.

  He winced. Or not exactly like that.

  “What happened between us has nothing to do with that.”

  So maybe that wasn’t the best thinking on his feet that he’d ever done because she took his words as an admission.

  She stood up to face him, her expression incredulous. “So, you admit it? You were trying to distract me?”

  He held her by the shoulders, trying to get her to calm down and listen before she started drawing all sorts of wrong conclusions. “I don’t want you to write any articles about this—you know that. And I may have been trying to keep you busy, but with sightseeing, Brit. Not with anything else.”

  She drew back, stunned—or maybe the better word was “struck.” Obviously, she wasn’t seeing the distinction. Or if she was, she wasn’t buying it.

  “So, the traipsing around town together was all an act, but not the seduction part—is that it?” She put her hands on his chest and pushed out of his hold. “God, you are such an asshole! This is a new low—even for you, John.”

  Christ, wasn’t she listening to what he was saying? He gritted his teeth, trying to stay calm. It wasn’t easy. She made him so damned . . . irritated. “I didn’t seduce you, Brit.”

  She sneered with disgust, but he wasn’t sure whether it was at him or herself. “No, of course you didn’t. You didn’t have to, did you? I came to your bed willingly enough. But it was all a seduction, wasn’t it? You pretended to want to be with me and made me care about you again.”

  Given how angry she was with him, he shouldn’t be so happy to hear it aloud. “I care about you, too. You know that. And just because I may have had more than one reason doesn’t mean I didn’t want to spend time with you or that I wasn’t having fun. I did and was.”

  His words—which were as much of an admission as he’d ever made—seemed not to have had any impact. She had that look of impatience. The kind where she was probably mentally crossing her arms and tapping her toes.

  “I’m supposed to believe that?”

  Her sarcasm brought out a flare of his own temper. “Yes, you are. And if you had been reasonable about this in the first place, none of it would have been necessary.”

  The incredulous look was back. “What is that supposed to mean?”

  “It means that reasonable people might stop doing something when it is putting them in danger.”

  She arched a delicate eyebrow. “Is that what you do?”

  He clenched his jaw with frustration. He should have seen that one coming; he’d pretty much said the same thing to the LC. But it was one thing to be pro-feminism with other women and another when it was his woman, damn it.

  When he didn’t respond right away, she added, “And how do I know you weren’t exaggerating the danger just to get me out of Vaernes and keep me from following up with Nils’s friend? Is that for my own good, too?”

  “That guy in the parking lot wasn’t an exaggeration. If I hadn’t shown up when I did, we wouldn’t be having this conversation.”

  “Maybe, maybe not. But unlike you, I’m not going to live in hiding forever. I’m going home.”

  “What do you mean, you are going home?” Actually, it was pretty obvious what she meant. And the finality of her tone sent alarm, if not something distinctly resembling panic, flickering through him. “You can’t go home yet.”

  “Why not?”

  “It might not be safe.”

  “I’ll take precautions.”

  There weren’t any precautions she could take that would make him okay with her leaving. “No, you won’t. You aren’t going anywhere.”

  Yep, definitely not thinking well on his feet today. He knew it was the wrong thing to say even before she gave him a long, hard look.

  “Are you giving me an order?”

  “Yes!” he shouted angrily.

  “Nice try, John. But you don’t have any authority over me.”

  He took a step toward her, tempted to prove just what kind of authority he did have. But as he was pretty sure that would only make him the subject of more ridiculous accusations afterward, he restrained himself—barely. But he might have to remind himself a few times why he couldn’t just tie her up. Like to the bed.

  He forced his rising blood pressure back down and clenched his fists at his sides instead of touching her.

  He could be rational even if she couldn’t. “I’m asking you to trust me. Give me a few more days. If we don’t find something out by then, you can go.”

  She shook her head. “You had your few days. And asking me to trust you when you don’t trust me about anything isn’t exactly fair.”

  “What do you want from me?”

  “A little honesty to start.”

  “I’m being honest with you. You’re dead wrong if you think anything about last night had to do with distracting you.”

  She held his gaze for long enough to believe him. “Fine. I believe you. But it doesn’t change anything. It’s been a nice few days, but I need to get back to the real world—and my job.”

  He heard the determination in her voice and knew she wasn’t going to be easily dissuaded. Whatever trust she’d had in him had obviously reached its limit with the sightseeing/distraction revelation.

  How could he make her understand that he wasn’t exaggerating the potential danger?

  She turned, grabbed her duffel bag, and started throwing things into it. “Wait,” he said. “Hear me out first. If you still want to go after hearing what I have to say, I’ll take you to the airport myself.”

  She paused long enough to turn to look at him. He waved to the recently vacated edge of the bed where she’d been sitting previously.

  She must have heard something in his voice because she actually did as he requested and sat.

  This went against every bone in his body—not to mention direct orders. The LC was going to be pissed when he found out. But John had his back up against the wall. He had to make her see the danger and restore some of her eroded trust in him. “You want me to trust you? Well, I’m about to do that. But you have to promise me that you won’t repeat or print one word of what I’m about to tell you.”

  Her eyes widened a little, obviously guessing where this was going. She nodded. “I promise.”

  He gave her a sharp nod back. “Good. I’m going to hold you to that.”

  Nineteen

  Brittany sat on the bed waiting while John paced back and forth a few times, obviously struggling with what to say.

  This better be good and not another one of his distracting tactics.

  Though her pride wasn’t stinging quite as hard as it had been a few minutes ago—she was inclined to believe him about last night (she didn’t think he was that good of an actor)—she still couldn’t believe that she hadn’t guessed what he was up to. She’d been having too much fun and assumed he was as well. He’d certainly seemed to be.

  Had it all been an act?

  She didn’t know, but it didn’t matter anymore. Now that she knew what this little seemingly romantic getaway to Copenha