So I swallowed back the giant ball of emotions too numerous to be named and nodded. “Anything for you.”

I just prayed she knew that I meant it.

Chapter Thirty-One

Rachel

Korea

“Are you sure this is right?” I asked, the giant map taking over most of my view of the rural road. We were about an hour outside Seoul, which meant we were close. Supposedly.

“Nope.” His answer was way too chipper. “Penna supplied the directions, and she could be getting back at me for any myriad of transgressions.”

I snorted. “Great. You just watch out for mudslides, and I’ll try to figure out where we’re at.”

He leaned over the steering wheel of the little SUV. “Blue skies, bright sun, no rain, no mud. We’re in the clear.”

“You forget,” I said, trailing my finger down the skinny line of the road on the map. “You’re traveling with the curse.”

He swerved onto the shoulder and hit the brakes.

“For fuck’s sake, Landon!” I shouted, catching myself on the dash even though my seat belt locked me into place.

He ripped the map down, more furious than I’d ever seen him. “Enough! You’re not a damned curse.”

I rolled my eyes at his bluster. “Maybe we’re the curse.”

His hands flexed on the wheel, and he took a deep breath, his eyes showing an unspoken battle.

Then he lurched across the console, grasped the back of my head, and pulled me into his kiss. His mouth opened over mine, his tongue demanding entrance, and in my surprise, I gave it to him.

Two seconds later, I melted, unable to resist the effect he had on my body, my heart. He kissed me breathless, until my tongue was as wild in his mouth as his was in mine, until I clutched the fabric of his shirt in my fists.

Then he let me go.

I blinked at him, dazed and more than a little turned on.

“Does that feel cursed?” he asked.

I touched my fingers to my lips. “Sometimes.”

He sighed in exasperation.

“Sometimes I hate the control you have over my body, the way I melt for no one else but you. But no, it’s not a curse.”

He relaxed in his seat, checked the mirrors, and pulled back onto the empty road. “Well, okay then.”

I hid my smile with the map and shook my head. As much as I hated loving him, it was pretty much a foregone conclusion in my life. And as much as I didn’t trust him, I also couldn’t ignore that he’d given up Nepal for me.

He’d been right—showing me was the only way he could earn that trust back.

And he was doing a damn good job of it.

“Left up there,” I told him after I figured out just where we were on the map.

He made the turn, and we were on an even more rural road, had that been possible. The hills rose up across the fields from us, but I saw the outline of a town ahead.

“You ready for this?” he asked.

“No,” I answered truthfully. “But it seems like it would be a shame to turn around and go home at this point.”

“Truth.”

My stomach tied itself in knots as we crossed the river and entered the small town. Everything was gray, but I didn’t know if that was normal or a consequence of the cold January weather.

We passed through a small, thriving part of town, Landon’s head moving constantly as he drove—taking everything in. “There’s a hotel there,” he said.

“How can you tell?” I asked, unable to see where he was gesturing to.

“It says ‘Hotel.’”

“Smart-ass,” I muttered, but it brought a much-needed smile to my face.

A few more turns, and I was genuinely ready to puke. What the hell was I thinking? What was I going to do? Walk up to the door and assume they spoke English? That they’d have any idea what I was talking about? That this was the one-in-a-hundred chance that the same orphanage in the town my biological mother was born in would be the same orphanage I was adopted from?

“You’ve gone silent. That’s never a good sign,” Landon commented.

We came upon a large, gray building on the right-hand side. “That should be it,” I said, matching it to the picture Penna had printed out for us.

Landon pulled the SUV over and parked but didn’t shut off the engine. I cranked the heat, my hands suddenly cold.

He reached for them and warmed the digits between his palms. “What do you need?”

“I don’t have the first clue.”

“You don’t have to do this today. We can fly back tomorrow afternoon and still make the boat. If you need time, I can give you that.”

I shook my head. “I didn’t come this far to chicken out.” My hand sought the door handle, and I pulled, a rush of frigid air hitting my face.

“Do you want me to wait here?” Landon asked.

My booted feet hit the pavement, and I looked at him watching me with no expectation, just overwhelming support. “Come with me?”

He immediately shut off the engine and got out of the car, locking it as he made his way over to me. I took the hand he offered and squeezed, needing something solid.

He opened a metal gate that was the only opening in a three-foot-tall stone wall, and we walked inside the small yard. There were no toys that would mark this as an orphanage, but there were two uniformed teenage girls sitting on a bench toward the back, their heads bent over a book.

One of the girls looked up as we approached the door, and I had the weirdest chill slide down my back—like I was looking at an alternate timeline where I’d never left. A timeline where I spoke Korean and grew up surrounded by girls exactly like me. A timeline where I’d never met Landon.