Page 26 of The Risk

“I’m very threatening.” Maybe she was joking, but… oh, she didn’t know what to do with him now. A part of her seriously wished Genny would just pop up like a little Genny-in-the-box and send him running. Then she wouldn’t have to press through.

She should stand up. Go back into his living room and crash out on the end of the sectional, right there next to the queen mattress Genny had ordered her identical brothers to pull out of one of the bedrooms. It was where Aubrey and Ayla slept now. She should surround herself with her friends—protect herself from him. Somehow.

“You are. You’re the kind of woman who would demand everything from a man. I don’t know that I’ve ever been able to give that. Before. I think I can now. I’ve realized a few things. Things that… hell… when we nearly lost Greer when she was nine, I… changed.”

Her breath caught. She remembered. She’d been almost sixteen. Everyone remembered. A former foster son of the Hillers had shown up drunk and high and angry. He and his friend had tried to take thirteen-year-old Genny and nine-year-old Greer. To hurt them in ways she didn’t want to think about.

As revenge.

The Hillers had fired them the weekend before for stealing.

Grady and Gunn, who had been almost nineteen, had been there. Gunn had been able to yank Genny away. To punch the guy who had his hands on her, but Greer had been too far away. Grady had tried, but those monsters had gotten Greer into their car.

And driven away.

Grady had tried to follow in his truck.

Gene had been coming up the drive in a flatbed truck. There had been nowhere for him to pull aside. They’d collided head-on, and Greer had been thrown from the much smaller car.

Greer had been in a coma for days, and it had taken almost two years for her to fully heal. She still had a limp and scars… and pain. Pain that would never fully go away.

People in town had blamed Gene. Said the poor foster boy had been so innocent. Until Grady, Gunn, and Genny had told what had really happened, and the police had believed them.

The man who had been driving, the one whose idea it had been, was in jail. His best friend had also been thrown from the car. He’d been killed instantly. Genny thought Gene still believed that day was his fault.

“It wasn’t your fault. Any more than it was Grady’s for not being able to get her away like Gunn did with Genny.” She’d talked to Genny about that day, and about her brothers’ trauma. Genny’s trauma. “Any more than it was Genny’s fault for not being the one they took away. She struggled with the guilt of that for a long time, too.”

“It was definitely not her fault. Hell, she was just an innocent kid!”

“And you were just driving home from the hardware store, Gene. It was no one’s fault but the men who tried to take them in the first place.”

“Logically, I know that, but for the longest time… I didn’t let anyone close. Not truly close. Because…” He pulled her over his chest, so suddenly she gasped. She wore a thin T-shirt. She had a sports bra beneath that. She felt him pressed against her. He adjusted the blankets over her shoulders, surrounding her with his warmth.

It had been a long time since a man had held her like this. Since she had wanted one to. But Chantal didn’t really want to move away.

Her hands rested on his pecs. He had a beautiful body, built through hard ranch work every day.

She would really like to touch him.

Everywhere.

That thought had her cheeks flaming. She was glad they were sitting beneath the moonlight and he couldn’t see. This was Gene.

“Because?”

“I was afraid I’d fail them like I’d failed my sisters. I was supposed to protect them. And I didn’t. It took me a while to see that there are some things I couldn’t control. Hell, maybe it was becoming a parent that did it. But I know that I am truly sorry for damaging the relationship that was there between us after Mandy.”

“Let’s be honest, there really wasn’t much of a relationship between us. You Hiller boys… tended to avoid us girls like the plague, remember?”

“Yes. Purposefully. And that is something I am going to regret for a long, long time. If I hadn’t been so stupid six years ago, we might have found ourselves right here a hell of a lot sooner than now.”

He scooted her closer.

Then his mouth was pressing to hers.

Without hesitation. Bold, confident, hungry.

Chantal’s hands spread on his chest, feeling him against her. Gene wanted her, and he was letting her know that in the most elemental way possible.

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