Page 40 of When He Protects

Oh, she’d done a bit more than that. And she’d never said it was a criminal buddy. Hadn’t she told him that she had good and bad contacts? “I arranged for you to be placed on the team at Jorlan’s house. I needed to see you in action for myself, after all.”

His eyes widened. “Thousands of people in the worldand you picked me to be your protector?Why?”He appeared stunned.

She had that effect on some people. Unfortunately. But as to the why, well, she’d already started going down the truth road, so she’d just continue on this path. “Ten years ago, a hurricane slammed into a small southern town. Nearly wiped the place out. Marines rushed in to help the survivors. A picture circulated online of a man who was pulling a terrified family through waist-high water in a small boat. The boat the family huddled in was an old rowboat. Only no oars were in sight. The man was just walking. Pulling them. Not stopping.”

“That fucking picture.”

The picture had been of a younger Tyler. He’d been the one pulling the rowboat by hand through the water and helping the family. That picture was burned in her mind. She inclined her head. “Let’s talk about that same Marine, a few years later.”

Tension coiled around his body.

And hers. “A bomb went off in a Paris café.” The memory could still make her shudder. “Some Marines were in town, on leave, and they ran toward the explosion. They pulled out three survivors before the entire building collapsed. You were one of those Marines.”

“You have been doing your research. Consider me impressed.”

“I was in Paris that day.” Again, the words just slipped out. “I saw you.”

His eyes narrowed. Then widened. His stare swept over her. So intense. So sharp. So…

Her breath rushed out. It was almost a relief to get this out in the open. “I know sign language because right after the blast, I couldn’t hear. Not for several weeks, actually. Ithink that is probably why silence makes me uncomfortable. It takes me back to one of the worst times in my life.”

“No.” He backed away. “No fucking way.”

“Yes, yes, fucking way. I look different, of course.” She stepped away from the wall. Motioned toward herself. “At the time, I was in my blond hair period, though I doubt you noticed since I was covered in blood and ash and blackened debris.” Another heave of her breath. “It’s hard to look your best when you are at death’s door. So don’t hold that against me.”

Shock covered his face. “I-I tried to find you after?—”

“After you put me in the ambulance? Yes, I know. But my father didn’t want me to be found. I wasn’t supposed to be at that café, you see. So I wasn’t. He erased me. And it’s not like the brave Marine who saved my life was being chatty with the press. Instead, he was finishing up his service, and, lo and behold, he soon got the position he wanted with the U.S. Marshal’s office. He deserved that position. He deserved a lot of things.”

Tyler swiped a hand over his hard jaw. “Wait. You’re saying thatyougot me that position?”

“It was the least I could do.” She’d had to be careful and pull lots of strings without letting anyone know thatshewas the one working behind the scenes. “Without you, I would have died that day. I would have been buried beneath all of the debris and forgotten.”

His gaze slid over her. And then…

Tyler grabbed the hem of her shirt. Lifted it up.

“You should at least ask first,” she murmured. “Manners, you know. Personal space and all that. Not very gentlemanly to just lift up a woman’s shirt without asking permission first. Unless we are in the middle of a very sexy and intense scene, and we are currently not.”

“You have the scar.” His fingers skimmed over the puckered line on her stomach. A line that snaked and twisted near her belly button. “You were bleeding so much.You were covered in blood and ash.”

“Told you before.” Esme ignored the way her stomach seemed to be flipping and churning as he touched her. “I don’t mind scars. Not at all.”

“Fuck.”

He was staring at her as if he’d just seen a ghost.

“Fuck,” he bit off again.

“You said that already,” she pointed out. “Such dirty talk.”

His hand flew back.

“Once a hero, always a hero,” she told him. “At least, that was what I was hoping would be the case with you. I just needed to have that acquaintance of mine dig a little to see what you’d been doing since our paths last crossed.”

The shock had faded from his face, but Tyler still appeared dazed. Trapped between his memory of the past and her in the present. “You never opened your eyes. I never saw your eyes.”

“My eyes are open now.” Open and on him. “I needed a hero, so I found myself one.” Trips down memory road sucked, so she preferred to skip them whenever possible. “Despite the brief hesitation earlier—I’ll blame that on the large butcher knife and me not having enough sleep—I truly don’t think you’re the kind of man who would sell out his charge for seven million dollars. I don’t think you’re the kind of man that wouldeversell out anyone. You’re a very rare breed. And you’re exactly what I need.”

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