The Adventurer

room. Everything seemed pretty much as she'd left it.
    Until she got to her desk. It took her a minute or two to realize that the normal, exuberant clutter didn't look quite right. The desk was still a mess, of course, but it looked different somehow.
    Someone had been through her things.
    The maps.
    On a hunch, Sarah gasped and yanked open the filing cabinet drawer where she had carefully stored the ten photocopies of her precious map. They were gone. All of them.
    "Oh, you're back, are you, Sarah? Have a nice trip, dear?" Mrs. Reynolds from across the hall paused for a moment in the open doorway. "There was the nicest man inquiring about you after you left. A real charmer. Did he find you?"
    "Yes, Mrs. Reynolds. He found me." Sarah slowly closed the cabinet door. Jake Savage had stolen the maps.
    "Excuse me. I'm looking for Sarah Fleetwood's apartment." Gideon's gritty tones came down the hall from behind Mrs. Reynolds.
    "Well, bless my soul, it's another one. Never rains but it pours, eh, Sarah, dear?" The elderly woman winked conspiratorially at Sarah. "Right this way, sir. Never knew our Sarah had such an active social life. Call me if you need help entertaining all these interesting young men, Sarah, dear." Still chuckling, Mrs. Reynolds disappeared into her own apartment and closed the door.
    Sarah stared at Gideon as he came to a halt in the doorway. "What are you doing here?" she whispered.
    "What the hell does it look like I'm doing? I followed you. I should have caught up with you long before you got to Seattle. The fact that I didn't means you drive too damned fast, Sarah."
    She ignored that, feeling strangely weak. The stolen maps were forgotten. All the anger and hurt and frustration she'd been feeling since she'd left the coast were forgotten. All that mattered was that Gideon was here, glowering at her in his familiar, lovable, beastly manner.
    "You
followed
me? All this way? You actually came after me?"
    "Well, I didn't drive this far just to see the Space Needle."
    "You came after me," she breathed, giddy with relief and euphoria. "You tracked me down to the ends of the earth so that you could drag me back to the coast, didn't you?"
    Something warm and tender that was tinged with amusement flickered in Gideon's eyes, softening the grimness that had been there a moment ago. "I never really thought of Seattle as the ends of the earth, but I guess it's all relative, isn't it?"
    "Gideon." She flew across the room and into his arms. When he caught her close, holding her in a grip of iron, she breathed a deep sigh of relief. "I was so afraid. I thought you just couldn't care enough, after all, that I didn't mean enough to you even though in the beginning I was so sure…"
    "Sarah, honey, it's all right."
    She clutched at him. "I don't mind telling you I was scared to death that it really was hopeless. You never seemed to be able to bring yourself to trust me. I couldn't believe I'd been so wrong about us, but you never know for sure. I've been wrong before and all the way back from your place I've been terrified that I'd made another mistake."
    "Sarah, hush."
    "Gideon, I love you so much and I've been so miserable. All those lonely hours on the road. It was the longest drive of my life, I swear. I just wanted to get home so that I could cry in the privacy of my own apartment."
    "Sarah—"
    "I've been telling myself I was a fool. I almost had myself believing it, too. But now here you are. You've come after me just like one of the heroes in my books and everything's going to be all right. I wasn't wrong about you, after all."
    "Sarah, I'm here. Let's leave it at that for a while, all right?"
    She raised her glowing face to his but before she could say anything else, he was kissing her. She parted her lips for him, pressing herself close into the comfort and strength of his big frame.
    Gideon groaned, kicked the door shut with the heel of his boot, and picked Sarah up in his arms. Without breaking the kiss, he carried her over to the black leather Italian sofa.

10
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    S HE WAS CLINGING TO HIM , holding onto him as if she'd never let him go. Gideon staggered a couple of steps and then fell onto the sofa, dragging Sarah down on top of him. He still couldn't believe the depths of the welcome he'd seen in her eyes when he'd stepped through the apartment doorway. He didn't think he'd ever forget it as long as he lived. He'd been right to follow her.
She'd wanted him to come after her
.
    The thing inside