I go to push his hand away, and he catches my fingers in his. Just holds on, patiently waiting, but refusing to pull away.
Pressing my lips together, I close my eyes and let him pull the shirt up enough to reveal the ugly yellow and bluish bruise that mottles my skin.
“Fucking hell,” he breathes as his fingers trace the sensitive edges of my greatest shame. “Who did this to you?”
I shake my head.
“He’s never going to touch you again, I promise.” His voice is so tight, so dangerous, it should scare me. But when I finally lift my face, the fury blazing in his eyes, the hard set of his jaw—it doesn’t frighten me. Itsurroundsme, because it’s not directedatme, butforme. It's something fiercer than anger, more primal and protective, and it drives my panic to the far recesses of my mind.
He nods as he watches my face. “That’s it. Tell me what you can,” he says softly. His gaze never wavers. “Trust me with his name. And I’ll keep you safe from him.”
“His name is—” I take a deep breath, my voice shaking. “Derek Hitchkoff.” And then the rest spills out, as if finally naming him tears off a seal. “He often goes by DeHitch online. He’s a hacker, I think. He never let me see much of what he does on the computer. He has an off-grid homestead on Salt Spring Island. I was sleeping in my car. He said he could use a roommate who could garden. I—I didn’t tell him I was pregnant at first, because I could tell he was?—”
I break down, the memory of his early attraction to me making my skin crawl in a way that’s hard toescape. It threatens to drag me into the dark, murky history I’m fleeing.
“Okay. You’re okay.” Zane pulls me back into his lap and rubs my back as he nods, his jaw flexing tight. “You did a lot of things right. You kept yourself and your daughter hidden, better than you thought. You kept your trust circle small. Mercy won't talk. Cash won't either. You're invisible to the outside world here. The only thing that fucker had on you was a piece of hardware, and it's gone."
I stare at his profile, so close to my face.That fucker.To hear someone else put a pin in Derek so succinctly shifts something inside me, something that needed a shove.
Zane shifts his hand from my back to curve around my bare arm, his thumb rubbing up onto my biceps, under the loose sleeve of his rodeo shirt. A micro-movement that he may not even be conscious of, but I feel it everywhere. It’s protective and soothing, but it’s also startlingly intimate.
I don’t…hate it.
I squirm closer.
He’s staring ahead, his jaw firmly set with a plan. "And you can stay here all summer if you want. Nobody has to know. We’ll keep you safe."
All summer.
Letting Bellamy play in dirt and chase butterflies and feed chickens. Watching her learn the names of bugs from Luna. Sleeping in that lovely bed upstairs for more than a few hours, more than a few days. For weeks or months.
Trying to be useful on this ranch that really only needs help for an hour or two a day.
Deep down, I know I’d be taking advantage of them. "I can't ask you?—"
"You're not asking. I'm offering."
“You don’t know what you’re offering, though.” I squirm again, now hyperaware of the hard press of his thighs under my ass.
He groans my name. “Not offering anything other than shelter.”
“That’s not what I mean,” I whisper. I shift to move off him, because we need more space between us for this conversation, and that's when I feel the unmistakable pressure of his body responding to mine.
Oh.
Every muscle in his body goes rigid around me as I freeze on top of a thick erection. Zane’s hand tightens on my arm and his chest heaves with a sharp inhale.
"Fuck," he breathes against my hair.
"It's okay," I whisper, and I'm shocked to realize I mean it.
"It's not okay." His voice is rough, strained. “You're vulnerable right now, and I'm not—I won't be that guy who takes advantage?—”
An unfamiliar lick of heat unfurls in my belly. A flicker, an unlikely flame bursting back to life from embers I thought I’d successfully doused. I’ve been attracted to Zane since I met him, on some level, but not like this. Not like…
"I'm not scared," I hear myself say.
Zane lifts my chin so we’re staring at each other, eye to eye. The raw hunger I see steals my breath. But swirling through that undeniable attraction is something else, something I’ve never seen before—real, caring restraint.
