Charlie’s face became expressionless as she set her jaw and tugged her hand away. Jack watched as she rose and paced to the end of the cave. The stiff set of her shoulders told him she was shutting him out again.
“I don’t know what happened in your past,” he said, “but I’m not like Dylan’s father.”
“I didn’t say you were.”
“You act like I am.”
Charlie glanced at where he remained seated against the wall with his arm draped over his knee. His hair had dried into a disheveled mess that, annoyingly, made him more appealing.
“Why didn’t you let me go when I slipped on the rocks?” she asked instead of answering his question.
Jack showed no reaction to her question. “Why would I let you go?”
“Because I could have dragged you into the ocean with me. You should have let me go to save yourself.”
“Would you have let me go?”
“Yes.” But even as she answered him, she wondered if she would have let him fall to save herself. For Dylan, yes, she would have done what it took to get back to her son, but if it was only about her? No, she realized with a jolt, she wouldn’t have let him go.
So, after one day of sex, she would have followed him into the unforgiving sea? After all these years, she’d believed herself older and wiser; it saddened her to realize she was still a moron when it came to men.
Although, she had to admit there was no way Chad would have tried to save her. He never would have attempted to stop her fall into the sea, and he wouldn’t have looked back as he continued without her.
Jack had riskedhimselfto save her when he refused to let her go.
Then she recalled Jack, sitting with her son and pointing out the rabbit’s organs. Chad wouldn’t have sat and patiently worked to teach Dylan something new. Chad never would have talked to Dylan as he’d never acknowledged Dylan’s existence.
And why was she comparing the two of them? They were complete opposites in every way. Chad was refined; Jack had a wildness about him that was exciting and a little scary. Chad wouldn’t have survived an hour on this island and never could have killed anyone; if anyone could make it off this piece of land, it was Jack, and he would tear apart anyone who got in his way. Jack was kind and cared for others; Chad was an abusive asshole who only looked out for himself.
Over the years, she’d worked to make sure no one could hurt her again; she hadn’t realized she was hurting herself in the process. Yes, people could tear out her heart and stomp all over it, but they could also be good like Miss Dodd, Mal, and Jack. Okay, the last two were vampires, but Jack had been a mortal.
Was she going to spend an eternity keeping herself locked away becauseoneman shattered her world when she was a teenager? Was she really going to forever fear what someone would do to her because her parents were abusive pricks who tossed her and her baby aside like garbage?
Sure, she’d had it rough, but she’d made her life better over the years, so why was she still so defensive? For the first time, she realized that though she’d come a long way in her schooling and career, in many ways, she remained that abused sixteen-year-old girl. A part of her had shut down back then and never come back to life.
And now… now she didn’t know what was happening, but she felt something changing within her. What that change was, and who she was becoming, she didn’t know, but it had something to do with Jack, and it made her feel vulnerable in a way she hadn’t in years. That terrified her.
It didn’t surprise him to learn she would have released him to save herself, but he couldn’t deny it cut him deeper than he expected. She was his mate; he did not doubt it, but was it possible for one vamp to feel the mate bond while the other didn’t? He’d never heard of such a thing happening, but there were plenty of vampires out there he didn’t know.
“Maybe I wouldn’t have,” she muttered.
“Maybe you wouldn’t have what?” Jack asked.
“Let you go. Maybe I would have kept hold of you, but if I believed holding on to you would keep me from getting to Dylan, I would have let you go.”
“Fair enough,” he said. Mate or not, he couldn’t expect her to choose him over her child.
“Jack?”
The hesitance in her voice and the alarm in her eyes caused his eyebrows to rise. “Yes?”
“Why didn’t you let me go?”
“Because I’m not like the others. I’m not going to let you down, Charlie, and I’m not going to let you go.”
She stared at him for a minute before opening her mouth to reply and closing it again. What did one say to that? They’d only known each other for three, no four… maybe five days. Without Mal’s calendar, she had no idea how much time had passed, and often throughout the year, she rarely knew what day or month it was.
Of course, they always knew when the hunt was approaching. She’d also asked Mal to let her know when November fourth—Dylan’s birthday—Christmas, and Easter were approaching so she could do something special for her son on those days. She never could do much, but every year the others helped her hunt down different colored rocks for an Easter rock hunt. She made him new weapons for his birthday, and last year, he received a fishing pole.
