Free Didn't I Warn You by Amber Bardan Page A

rest of him. Holy shitballs . I covered my eyes again. I’d scratched him like a crazy person. I’m not sure what I’d been thinking. Things got a little hazy after I puked on him. I only remembered the stranger, the flash of a needle, and fighting like a demon. Because that’s what you do, obviously, when you’re delirious, and spies are trying to administer medical treatment to you.
    “What’s wrong with me?” Bitterness burned the back of my throat, and my tongue felt twice its normal size. “Did you drug me?”
    Haithem tugged the arm off my face. “You were ill. I took care of you.” The way he’d said that. Slowly. Purposefully. My temperature leaped back up a few notches. I stared at him. The way he looked at me when he’d said that. Intimate—possessive. He took care of me . As though I was his to take care of.
    I went hotter still—hot yet shivery.
    An image struck me of being his. Being his pet. Taken care of. More shivers swept me.
    He released my arm and leaned back. Bristles coated the wide angles of his jaw. Somehow making him hotter. Somehow making him more rugged, a little dirty, yet more touchable. His eyes glowed black in the dim cabin.
    The sheets clung to me—his sheets, the sheets on his giant sex bed.
    “You made yourself sick from hiding in the lifeboat overnight.”
    My mouth opened. “From falling into the lifeboat, you mean.”
    He didn’t blink, just watched me—read me, I’m sure. If he could really read me, then he should’ve known the truth.
    “I need to go home now.”
    His jaw pulsed. A rap sounded on the door, then Karim burst in. My little black bag swung from his hand, and the last dying note of my cell phone ringtone trickled from inside it. He rushed to Haithem and held out the bag.
    “We found this in the lifeboat.”
    Haithem took my bag and yanked out my phone. His finger swiped across the screen, and I sat up, seeing the flashing missed calls notification before the screen faded. He drew back, eyes trained on the screen, fingers tapping. His expression hardened, turned cold and empty.
    He turned to Karim. “How long have we been in range?”
    “About half an hour.”
    Haithem flashed a look at me then handed the cell to Karim. “We’ll detour. Dispose of this immediately.”
    “No, it’s mine.” I lunged for the phone, and my head spun.
    Haithem grabbed my wrist and urged me back against the mountain of pillows. “You need to rest.”
    “I don’t know who you think I am, but I’m no spy—give me my fucking phone.” I shoved his hand away, panic spurting through me with enough force to subdue the hot, sick feeling clinging to me. “I need to go home.”
    Haithem switched languages, speaking softly to the man behind him without taking his gaze off me. Karim nodded and left the room. I pushed off the blankets, scrambling after him. Haithem dropped my bag and seized my arms.
    “Calm down. Everything will be fine.” He spoke in soothing tones, and despite myself, it calmed me. “You’ll be home before you know it.”
    His touch gentled. His fingers on my skin were light, his hold on me ludicrously comforting.
    I relaxed against the pillows and smoothed a hand over the dirty dress that somehow had magically materialized back over my body while I was passed out. “So you believe me?”
    He said nothing but reached down for the handbag on the floor. The mattress rose and fell under his weight. I held out my hand for my bag, but he flipped open the top and rummaged inside. He placed my lip gloss and compact on the side table, then fished inside and pulled out my emergency tampons.
    My cheeks burned. “May I have my bag, please?”
    “Soon,” he said, and drew out my wallet.
    “There is absolutely nothing in there that could possibly interest you.”
    He flicked through the pockets of my wallet, pulling out old receipts and movie ticket stubs and placing them beside the other items. He moved to the inside pocket, and I sat up quickly. He tugged out a