Sadness creased her brow. “I thought I could trust Les.”
Air hissed through my lips.Point taken.“I’m sorry.”
“For what? Because I’ve lost people I loved or trusted people I shouldn’t? That’s not a tragedy; it’s life.”
My exhale evacuated from my lungs like she’d speared a hole straight to my chest. Her words were the whole reason I was here. At Sherwood. Part of the Vigilantes. The reason we were all here. We’d lost a brother we loved and trusted someone we shouldn’t.
And in that split second, I saw myself mirrored in her. The defenses. The solitude. The shields.And the way we both desperately craved and violently feared the attraction we had.
“Loss is like crashing through a glass window. You don’t know it’s there until it’s shattered.” She gave me a sad smile.“But there’s nothing in life that can’t be learned from, right? So, I guess the silver lining is that I’ve done a lot of learning.”
“Who told you that?” I rasped. It sounded like she’d repeated those words a thousand times.A Merritt mantra.
“A friend. A mentor,” she said, her tone slipping for a second into sadness. “He… he passed away right before I came to the States. He was the last…”
“Person you had,” I finished for her, hating the utter loneliness that drowned out her tone. That made her leave Spain.The last loss that kept her alone.
I stopped walking and waited for her to do the same. After a few steps, she did and faced me, standing so still she reminded me of a doe in the forest. Poised and ready to run. Like she expected an attack at any moment.Even from me.
“I only want to help you, Merritt.”And hold you. And kiss you. And keep you safe.Goddamn, what I wouldn’t give for her to know she was safe with me.
“You shouldn’t.”
She turned to walk away—to flee—but moved too fast that her foot caught on a branch on the ground, and she tripped.
Instinct sent me reaching for her, hauling her upright until her back was pressed to my chest, my hands denting my leathers to firmly imprison her arms.
“Merritt,” I breathed next to her ear, and her face turned up to mine, her lips an inch away.
Our breaths collided in a puff of steam in the chilled air, the urge to kiss her so strong I felt the strain on my heart. The tightness in my chest. The sharp pain with every beat. It attacked my hesitation and demanded my surrender.
“I’m sorry,” she said, lifting her chin higher, her eyelids fluttering shut.
A groan rumbled from my chest, my mouth inching its way toward hers as I rasped low, “Why does it feel like you’re hiding something from me?”
Her tongue slid along her lips, the sight burned forever in my mind. “Everyone has secrets. It’s part of survival.”
Dammit.I released her and stepped back, dragging my hand through my hair as she pulled my jacket tight over her front. Was Dare right? Was I thinking with my dick and not my brain?
No, Harm had agreed with me. That had to count for something.
“I can’t help you if?—”
“I promise, I don’t know anything else about Les Wheaton,” she said softly. Sadly.
“Then what is it?”
Her lips peeled apart, and her gaze caressed my face, tracing it like she was immortalizing it in her memory.
“My secret is that I don’t have anything left to lose.”
Real,my brain screamed.Real. Real. Real.
And then she turned and walked back toward the cabin while I stood there like a fool and watched.
Fuck.
Chapter Seven