Page 34 of Lone Star Country Protector
It was probably more of his bruised ego talking, but he didn’t like the fact her law professor had tracked her to the hospital. He must have believed that he would find her lying in the bed instead of her sister. He understood keeping up professional connections in a small world. But showing up at the hospital made Dalton believe the professor might be interested in more.
Blakely wasn’t naïve, but he also didn’t think she realized how desirable she was or how interesting she was to talk to. Dalton didn’t do long talks after sex, and yet he had with her. They might have kept professional details out of the picture, but they’d discussed everything from favorite foods to favorite colors.
He didn’t do that either. He didn’t get too personal with the women he spent time with. Dinner and a movie, their pick on both counts. Walks in the park. One of the women he’d dated had been more into fitness than him. But his abs had never looked better than when they were together because her favorite activity was working out at the park. He didn’t argue. The workouts were intense. The sex wasdecent. But when he had to fight with the mirror for her attention, he’d drawn the line.
Then, there’d been the hairdresser who’d tried to convince him to shave the sides of his head and leave a thick patch on top. Not quite a mohawk or mullet. Definitely not him. He’d learned early on to walk away from anyone who saw him as someone they could change. She’d been into fashion and the latest trends while he’d been content to watch a game on his day off.
Lately, though, he was starting to feel like he was missing out on something. He blamed his family. All three of his cousins had found the loves of their lives. Until recently, he hadn’t believed in such a thing. He and his brother, Camden, were the lone holdouts. Or, maybe the lonemissing outs. He couldn’t be certain which one.
Or had it been his time with Blakely that had changed his mind? Opened him to new possibilities?
* * *
“Ready?” Blakely saidafter clearing her throat while she closed and then locked the gun drawer.
“Mind if I step into the hallway to make sure no one is out there?” Dalton asked.
“Go for it,” she said as she closed her laptop and then rounded the desk. She’d bought the Sig never in a million years expecting to have to use it one day. It was meant to be insurance. And like most policies, no one ever intended to need to cash them in before they were good and ready.
She wasn’t ready to shoot someone. Being around guns at all ushered her back to that chilly Sunday morning when Eric, her fifteen-year-old ex-boyfriend, had shown up at her home wild-eyed and blank-faced. Distant. Like he’d gone somewhere far away mentally, and no one could reach him again.
She remembered his anger the moment he’d jumped her and put the sharp blade to her throat. He’d held her head back and threatened to call her sister outside so Bethany could watch as he sliced Blakely from ear to ear.
Somehow—she could never remember the exact details—she’d managed to drop down and avoid having her throat sliced. Her forehead was another matter. That had been cut while she’d fought Eric. He’d been strong. Stronger than she remembered.
“Hey,” Dalton said to her, breaking through the memory and bringing her back to the present. “Are you all right?”
“To be honest, Dalton, I’m not real sure that I’ll ever be all right again, but I’m going to do what I always do.”
“What’s that?” he asked.
“I’m going to keep on keeping on, no matter who tries to stop me or what bastard thinks they can take me out,” she said, pulling on all her strength. After Eric, she’d promised herself that no one got to make her feel weak again. No one got to make her scared of her own shadow again. And no one got to take away her sense of safety and security again. “If Johnny Spear wants to come for me, he better be ready for a fight.”
“Good,” he said to her. “Because that’s exactly the person I wanted to get to know more in Galveston that weekend. And since we’ll be spending a lot of time together until this case is resolved, I hope to see more of that fight in you.”
“Do you have any regrets?” she asked before adding, “Tell me honestly.”
“About us?” he asked, cocking an eyebrow.
“Yes,” she managed to say.
“I think it’s unfortunate we met when we did,” he said. “And if I could turn back time, I’d rewind the clock and do things a whole lot differently.”
“That’s probably good,” she said, his words the equivalent of a knife through the center of her chest. Despite the heat in the kiss they’d shared, which to be fair, might have been more on her side than his, he seemed to have a lot of regret when it came to her. It was good. It might keep them from making another mistake—though, she couldn’t bring herself to categorize that weekend as a bad thing. Time waited for no one. It moved on. And she needed to move on with it. They’d shared a moment in the past. Key words beingin the past. Today was a new day, and she needed to get with the program no matter how strong the pull was to this man or how damn good he smelled when they were close. She’d memorized his woodsy and spicy all-male scent. Her fingers had mapped the lines and curves in his back.
“Do you think so?” he hedged.
“I believe everything turned out the way it should have,” she quipped, masking the hurt she felt in his words. In order to keep herself safe, she had to keep everyone else at arm’s length. Since Eric, she couldn’t afford to let her guard down with anyone. Even her relationship with Bethany changed after that day. Bethany became needier, and Blakely stepped even more into a parenting role.
Did she have regrets?
The short answer was yes. But since she didn’t dwell on the past or mistakes, she pulled herself up by her bootstraps and moved on.
Except when it came to Dalton. For some reason, a reason she didn’t want to acknowledge or examine, she couldn’t seem to move on. The recent kisses they’d shared were right up there with the best of her life. No one had ever even comeclose to making her want to stick around or dig deeper into someone’s mind until Dalton.
Leaving him again was going to open those still-fresh wounds. Was there an alternative?
Chapter Thirteen
