Free The Tycoon's Temporary Bride: Book Four by Ana E. Ross

since then, she’d been living with guilt
about the one who’d died to save her. Now here she was, running
again to save another who wanted to help her.
    An inner torment gnawed at Tashi as she faced
the harsh realities of a life of loneliness. Until she knew what
happened in that house after she escaped, until she knew who was
after her, she could never have friends, or a…
    As her fears mounted, she had an overwhelming
need to rest her head on Adam’s chest and feel his arms about her
one last time. Until the day she’d bumped into him, it had been
months since anybody had hugged her, so long since she’d felt the
warmth of human contact. She longed to be close to him again, kiss
him even. But she throttled back those feelings for his sake. If
she showed any weakness now, he would be more adamant about keeping
her around.
    “Tashi? Will you eat something first?”
    His gentle voice pulled Tashi out of the
cocoon of anguish wrapping around her. “Yes. Okay. I’ll—I’ll eat.
Then you’ll take me to my apartment?”
    “Yes.”
    “No more questions?”
    “No more questions.”
     

CHAPTER FIVE
     
    Adam watched relief settle into her features
at his promise to cease questioning her. He knew she was pushing
him away because she was afraid for him. She was all alone in the
world, but when the one person she’d reached out to in her hour of
dire need offered to help her, she panicked.
    “Come.” Taking her hand, he led her out of
the bedroom, across the hall, through the living room and into the
dining area. Her hand felt almost as small as Tiffany’s clasped
within his. She was so frail, a strong gust of wind would send her
toppling to the ground.
    He seated her at the table that was already
set for two. He brought the casserole from the oven and served her
a good portion, then he got the pitcher of vegetable and fruit he’d
juiced while she was in the bathroom and filled up their
glasses.
    “Thank you,” she said, attempting to give him
a smile. “It smells delicious.”
    “Too bad you don’t have a refrigerator to
take some home for later. When do you think you’ll have one? I can
bring some food around for you.”
    She dropped her head, picked up her fork, and
immediately began eating.
    Was she trying to shut him up or was she that
hungry? Maybe a little of both. Adam smiled inside at her subtle
wit as he lowered his weight into the chair across from her and
picked up his fork.
    They ate in tacit silence, and he kept
filling her dish and her water and juice glasses while questions
she’d asked him not to ask swam around in his head. Questions like
who were the ‘they’ she’d mentioned the other night? Why did ‘they’
want her dead? Was she afraid to be around him because ‘they’ had
hurt or killed someone she loved?
    Adam tensed as he recalled Tashi’s reaction
when he’d tried to bathe between her thighs the other night. She’d
been weak and feverish one moment, then the next had suddenly
become violent, jabbing her elbows into his ribs and fighting to
get out of the tub. Had someone sexually molested her? His stomach
crunched at the thought, and a need for revenge he never knew was
in him sizzled through Adam.
    Her attempt to shield him from danger wired
his resolve to find whoever had hurt her and make them pay. She was
a damsel in distress, but a fighting, independent, strong-willed
one, totally different from those in his past who’d expected him to
fight their battles and save them from their plights.
    Tashi was trying to save him by pushing him
away. But if he granted her wish, Adam knew that he would regret it
for the rest of his life. Strange, since he knew nothing about
her—but there it was anyway—that nagging feeling in his gut, that knowing in his heart that his cousin and his friends said
they’d gotten when they first met their wives.
    He’d never felt that with Claire, or Denise,
or any other woman he’d ever dated.
    “What’s in this drink?” she asked,