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CHAPTER
Twenty-one
The drive back to Boston had taken the better part of four hours, but Je
“We’re here,” she said, parking the vehicle inside the large garage and cutting the engine.
She glanced in the rearview mirror, checking on him for about the thousandth time since they’d set out from New York. He’d been quiet in the backseat of the SUV for most of the trip, despite shifting around in obvious agony as he’d tried to sleep off the effects of his ultraviolet exposure.
She pivoted around in her seat to have a closer look at him. “Are you going to be okay?”
“I’ll live.” His eyes met hers through the darkness, his broad mouth quirking into more of a grimace than a smile. He tried to sit up, groaning with the effort.
“Stay there. Let me help you.”
She crawled into the back with him before he could tell her that he could manage on his own. He looked up at her in a long, meaningful silence, their eyes co
“Oh, God,” she whispered, feeling her emotions break and begin to rush out of her. “I was so scared today, Brock. You have no idea how much.”
“You, scared?” He reached up, ran his hand tenderly along the side of her face. His lips curved, and he gave a faint shake of his head. “I saw you in action today. I don’t think anything really scares you.”
She frowned, reliving the moment when she’d realized he was coming after her in the SUV, sitting behind the wheel in broad daylight. But her worry for him then had grown to something close to terror when, after the car she was in had flipped, Brock was there, as well, willing to walk through lethal UV rays in order to help her. Even now, she was awed and humbled by what he’d done.
“You put your life on the line for me,” she whispered, turning her cheek into the gentle warmth of his palm. “You risked too much, Brock.”
He came up off the seat, catching her face in both of his hands. His gaze was solemn, so very earnest. “We were partners today. And if you ask me, I’d say we made a pretty damn good team.”
She smiled despite herself. “You had to save my ass … again. As far as partners go, I hate to tell you, but you got the raw end of that deal.”
“No. Not even close.” Brock’s eyes held her with a deep intensity that seemed to reach right into the core of her being. He stroked her cheek, brushed the pad of his thumb over her lips. “And for the record, you were the one who saved my hide. If that Minion didn’t take one or both of us out, the sunlight would have finished me off for sure. You saved both of us today, Je
When she parted her lips to deny it, he moved in and kissed her. Je
It wasn’t supposed to be like this. She wasn’t supposed to feel such a strong bond to him, especially not when he had made it clear he didn’t want to complicate things with emotion or expectations of a relationship. But when he broke their kiss and looked into her gaze, she could see that he was feeling something more than he’d been prepared for, too. There was something more than desire flickering in the amber light of his absorbing brown eyes.
“When I saw those Minions drive off with you today, Je
“I’m here,” she said, lightly stroking his strong back and caressing his inclined head. “You didn’t fail me at all. I’m right here, Brock, because of you.”
He kissed her again, deeper this time, an unrushed joining of their mouths. His hands were tender on her, weaving into her hair and moving softly over her shoulders and spine. She felt so sheltered in his arms, so small and feminine against the immensity of his warrior’s chest and thickly muscled arms.
And she liked the feeling. She liked the way he made her feel safe and womanly, things she’d never really known before, not even with her husband.
Mitch. Oh, God …
The thought of him made her heart squeeze as though it were caught in a vise. Not because of grief or longing for him, but because Brock was kissing her and holding her—making her feel worthy of his affection—when she hadn’t yet told him everything.
He might feel differently if he knew it was her own selfish actions that had caused the accident that killed her husband and child.
“What is it?” Brock asked, no doubt sensing the change that was coming over her now. “What’s wrong?”
She withdrew from his embrace, looking away from him, knowing it was too late to pretend everything was all right. Brock was still stroking her tenderly, waiting for her to tell him what was troubling her. “You were right about me,” she murmured. “You said I have a problem with needing to be in control, and you were right.”
He made a dismissive sound in the back of his throat and lifted her face to meet his. “None of that matters.”
“It does,” she insisted. “It mattered today, and it mattered four years ago in Alaska, too.”
“You’re talking about when you lost Mitch and Libby,” he said, more statement than question. “You think you are somehow to blame for that?”
“I know I am.” A sob crept up the back of her throat, but she choked it back. “It wouldn’t have happened if I hadn’t insisted we drive home that day.”
“Je
“Let me say it,” she interrupted. “Please … I want you to know the truth. And I need to speak the words, Brock. I can’t hold them in anymore.”
He said nothing more, sober as he took her hands between his and let her tell him how her stubbor
“We were in Galena, a city several hours away from where we lived in Harmony. The state troopers had put on a fancy gala there, one of those a
“It’s okay,” Brock said, reaching up to sweep aside a loose tendril of her hair. “You all right?”
She gave him a wobbly nod, even though inside she was hardly all right. Her chest was raw with anguish and guilt, her eyes burning with welling tears. “Mitch and I argued the whole time. He thought the roads were too bad for travel. They were, but another storm was on the way, which would only make things worse. I didn’t want to wait out the weather because I needed to report in for my shift the next day. So we headed home. Mitch was driving the Blazer. Libby was in her car seat in back. A couple of hours onto the highway, a tractor trailer carrying a full load of timber crossed into our lane. There was no time to react. No time to say I was sorry, or to tell either of them how much I loved them.”