Walker continued to frown, but he grabbed the knob and pulled the door shut. Gillian made quick work of securing the locks and gripped her keys tightly. “Well, thanks for coming by,” she said, not able to be rude, no matter how devastated she felt inside. “Say hello and thanks again to your, um…team for me. I’m running late and really need to get going, or my friends are going to wonder where I am.”
“I’ll walk you to your car,” Walker said firmly.
Pressing her lips together, she nodded. She counted each step as they took the stairs down one flight to the first floor. The silence between them was awkward, or maybe it was just Gillian who felt that way.
Mourning the loss of something she’d never had in the first place, she headed for her RAV4. Clicking the locks, she opened the door and turned to Walker once more. She wanted to ask him what was wrong with her. How it was possible she felt so connected to him when he felt nothing in return. But she merely forced her lips into a smile and said, “Be safe, Walker. It was good to see you.”
“You too,” he returned, his brow pulled down as if he was trying to figure something out. “I really think—”
“Bye!” Gillian interrupted, needing this to be over. She slipped into the driver’s seat and shut the door. Blinking as fast as she could to keep the tears from spilling over, she forced a smile in the general direction where Walker had been standing, put the car in reverse, and backed out of the parking spot. It was a good thing she’d been to The Funky Walrus plenty of times and had the route memorized.
Gillian refused to look in her rearview mirror at the man who, without realizing it, had just broken her heart.
Trigger stared at the taillights of Gillian’s SUV as she drove out of the parking lot.
“That didn’t go as I imagined it would,” he muttered to himself.
He wasn’t sure what he’d expected when he’d driven to Georgetown to see Gillian. At first she’d seemed pleased to see him. And Trigger would never forget how his heart had skipped a beat when she’d opened the door.
She was absolutely fucking gorgeous. Not too tall, but not short either. Curvy in all the right places. His eyes had immediately been drawn to her tits. God, they were perfect. He’d wanted to bury his face between the fleshy globes and spend hours worshiping them, but he’d forced himself to be a gentleman and not stare too long.
Her jeans clung to her curves, and it took everything he had not to pop a woody right there in her doorway. She would’ve slammed the door in his face if she’d looked down and saw his dick pressing against his jeans like that of a prepubescent teenager.
She’d done something with her makeup that made her green eyes stand out, and in her heels, they were almost eye-to-eye. When she’d invited him in, and he’d walked past her, he’d smelled honeysuckle. He had no idea if it was her perfume or shampoo or what, but it made it hard as hell not to grab her and pull her into him and kiss her.
By the time he’d reached her small kitchen area, he’d gotten himself mostly under control, though the smile she’d bestowed on him had left his fingers tingling. He had no idea what he’d even said to her when he’d first entered.
He was more relieved than he cared to admit that she was going out with her friends, and not on a date. He’d been afraid he’d waited too long. Had lost his chance. Not that her going on a date would’ve kept him from pursuing her. He hadn’t been sure about seeing her again, but once he had, he’d been determined to let her know he wanted to be the one to take her out. To take her to dinner. To watch her laugh at a funny movie. To hold her hand as they casually strolled down the riverfront in Austin.
He’d wanted to get the business side of why he was there out of the way first, then he could let her know how he hadn’t been able to stop thinking about her. How proud he was of her and how she’d handled herself in Venezuela. He wanted to tell her that he’d never felt a connection with a woman like he had with her, and even though it was crazy, he’d wanted to see if she felt the same.
But something had happened. Right after he’d told her about the seventh hijacker, she’d seemed to shut down. He’d seen the light fade from her eyes, and while he knew what he’d said was shocking, her reaction didn’t seem to jive with what he knew about her.
Had she been terrified about the possibility of a hidden hijacker? Had merely talking about the incident sent her into a mental downward spiral? He had no clue.
She was polite but distant. The sparks that had been flying between them were suddenly doused, and he wasn’t sure why. Then it was more than obvious she’d tried to rush him out of her apartment, that she’d wanted to get away from him.
Trigger hated that. Hated it.
Hell, in her hurry to escape, she’d nearly locked him in her apartment.
While it was good her apartment complex had rudimentary security, it wasn’t going to keep a terrorist out. Trigger only had to wait three minutes for a resident to appear. He’d simply smiled at the man, and the guy hadn’t even thought twice about letting him slip in behind him.
No, Gillian definitely wasn’t safe here if the hijacker decided for some reason to target her.
But she’d made no secret of the fact that she wasn’t all that fired up to see him again.
Sighing in frustration, Trigger wasn’t sure what to do. He didn’t want to go back to his place in Killeen. He’d spent the last three weeks thinking about nothing but Gillian, and leaving now felt too…final. If he left, he had a feeling he’d never see her again, which wasn’t acceptable.
Taking a deep breath, Trigger argued with himself about his next course of action. Follow Gillian and make her tell him what he’d said that had turned her warm welcome cold?
Retreat and try again when he had more information about the hijacker? It would give him a reason to come back and see her.
Wait and make sure she got home all right?
Sighing again, Trigger headed for his car. He didn’t know what to do, and for the moment he needed to think. He’d sit in his vehicle and try to work through how the evening had gone from one full of anticipation and excitement to getting the cold shoulder.
Trigger admired Gillian. He hadn’t found out one thing about her that turned him off…which was highly unusual.
He liked being alone. Liked not having any responsibilities. But something about Gillian made him want to be tied down. Want to look after her. Want to have someone to worry about other than himself.
It was confusing as hell…and Trigger needed to come to terms with his feelings before he made a decision about what his next step would be.
Chapter Six
“Let me get this straight,” Wendy said. “He only came to see you because he wanted to tell you about this other hijacker?”
Gillian nodded miserably and took another large sip of her margarita. It was amazing how smoothly they went down when she felt like shit. She was on her third one and was definitely feeling the effects of the alcohol. She wasn’t a heavy drinker, but she’d had the biggest disappointment of her life earlier and needed to drown her sorrows. “Yup. He said I looked great, and at first he couldn’t keep his eyes off my boobs. But it became obvious real quick that he was only there because of business.”