Page 17 of A Bed of Broken Promises

“What is it?” He asked, amusement rich in his voice. “I know when you look like that you’ve got something on your mind.”

Her eyes went wide with surprise. “I guess that’s true.” She moved her hand to cover his bandage again, swirling her fingers over his bare skin. “What happened? Here?”

He could have lied. Said something benign, like that he’d had a skin cancer removed. But he wanted to stick as close to the truth as possible. “I was in a fight.” It hadn’t been a fight. Not a fair one, anyway. Bryan and he had been locked in that squalid basement for over a week before he’d escaped. Bryan hadn’t been so lucky. He closed his eyes now, thinking of his best friend and business partner, and the two days he’d spent chained up next to his body, after he’d died from the wounds.

“A fight?” She shook her head. “What kind of fight?”

A picture of the Swiss army knife he’d finally been able to fish out of his pockets sprang to mind. “A knife fight.”

“A knife wielding teacher?” She said with a flicker of a smile. “You really do trash all the stereotypes.”

He ran his hand over her exposed hip, thinking her skin was the most flawless ever created. “I aim to please.”

She rolled her eyes, wanting to ask more but sensing the line of questioning would not be welcome. “Could you be in any doubt?”

He grinned, glad to move past the talk of his ordeal in Iraq. No amount of talking was ever going to bring Bryan back, and the weight of survivor guilt he carried would dog him for life. Bryan had left behind a wife and a daughter. It should have been him instead. Before meeting Katie, he had had nothing to live for.

“Well,” he pulled her so that she rolled on top of him. “I’m not entirely convinced. Perhaps another demonstration…”

CHAPTER FIVE

“You know, for someone with a professed love of birds, you’re not really doing much bird watching,” Katie said teasingly, lifting her camera and pointing it at David. She captured him at the precise moment he turned to face her, one eyebrow lifted quizzically, his lips curled into just the hint of a teasing smile, showing one dimple in his left cheek. A slight breeze had ruffled his dark hair, and he looked better than handsome. He literally took her breath away.

“Perhaps that’s because I can’t take my eyes off you?” He responded in kind, coming to wrap his arms around her waist and admire the view in front of them. They had walked miles, and it had felt so good to get his legs moving. Wadeford was a poky little town but the scenery was second to none. He took in a deep breath of that clean, cold air. They were at the top of a cliff, and beneath them, the ocean sang noisily with each crashing wave. The sky was dark and gloomy, but Katie had assured him it wouldn’t rain.

“It looks like rain,” he said now, causing Katie to shake her head.

“I’m telling you, it won’t rain.” She scrunched her nose. “I’m almost never wrong about the weather.”

His laugh was throaty. “Almost never wrong? I’m glad I brought a weather proof jacket.”

“Oh, pish. A bit of rain never hurt anyone, anyway.” She spun in the circle of his arms and looked up at him, thinking how amazing the last few days had been. Once they’d got over the initial awkwardness of what she saw as her professional duties, and the ways he wanted to help her, they’d formed a surprising partnership. She couldn’t believe he’d already been at Wadeford House for five days. At the same time, five days could have been five years, for how well she felt she knew him.

“Katie, can I ask you something?”

“Truth or dare?” She said with a wiggle of her eyebrows.

“Just truth.”

“Oh,” she said with mock disappointment. “I thought you liked to dare me…”

“Okay, fine. Dare.”

In what was a now familiar biological response to him, she felt her heart race. “Dare me, then.”

He linked his fingers through hers and brought one hand to his lips. “Have dinner with me tonight. I dare you.”

“Dinner? With you?” She eyed him quizzically. “Like a date?”

“Not like a date. A date.”

“Ah…” She blushed and looked down at the ground. Panic rose inside of her. “I don’t think that’s such a good idea.”

“I see. Would you care to explain why?”

She continued to stare at the pebbled earth beneath them. “It’s just… that’s not what we agreed.”

He willfully misconstrued her objection. “We have dinner together every night. Why can’t we eat out? What harm would it do?”

---