Page 43 of Her Guarded Hero

“Are you smiling?” he demanded to know.

She looked at him helplessly and shook her head.

“Why are you smiling?” He was clearly frustrated.

“You know that’s the oldest brush-off line in the world, right?”

She saw the light dawn and he sighed. He sat up and pulled her hand into his and twined their fingers together.

“I didn’t mean to demean our time together,” he said softly.

With her free hand she touched the underside of his jaw, tracing downward to the rapid beat of his pulse. God, he looked so solemn. Who had hurt him, she wondered again.

“It’s okay.” This time her smile was weary. “I know it’s not true, I know that you didn’t mean it.”

His hand squeezed tight, “I did mean it. I am leaving.”

“I know that,” she assured him. “You didn’t mean to hurt my feelings and give me the time honored ‘it’s me, not you’ line.”

His thumb brushed tenderly over her knuckles and she all but melted. “How can you know me less than a week and read me so well? My-” His lips clamped shut.

She wasn’t going to press him. The man had secrets, that’d been clear from the get-go, and the last thing she wanted to do is to be intrusive.

“Dalton let’s just enjoy the time we have left, okay?”

“I don’t want you to get the wrong idea. I don’t want to lead you on.”

“You’re not. You didn’t. I promise.” She stroked her fingers down his neck, over his sternum. Now his skin felt hot. “Dalton, when you leave here, we might not be lovers anymore, but this is always going to be a safe place for you. A haven. You’re always going to be welcome back.”

* * *

He had never met another woman like her. She was beyond his comprehension. She deserved him to be as honest as possible.

“I’m not coming back.”

She continued to stroke his chest. “Okay, but know that if you change your mind, the gate will always be open.”

His forehead tipped in surrender to touch hers.

“You need to know why,” he said hoarsely. He hated talking about this. Only his team knew, and now Zed.

“You don’t have to tell me anything, especially if it is going to bring you pain,” she reiterated.

“I’m a bad bet. The worst bet you can imagine.” A tiny cream casket floated behind his closed eyelids.

Warm arms slid around his neck. How did she know what he needed, even if he didn’t deserve it?

“I failed my daughter. She died because of me.”

A soft feather of fingers fluttered through the short hair at the nape of his neck.

“Tell me,” she whispered. He heard no judgement.

“Lacey had been out of rehab for the third time. She’d been sober for three months, but that didn’t matter, I knew better. I fucking knew that this time wasn’t any different, but did I listen to my gut? Hell no.” How often had he replayed that last morning in his mind?

Aurora moved so that her head lay on his chest. He soaked in the comfort.

“Lacey had opened two credit cards while I was overseas and hid them from me. I was furious. I didn’t want to yell because Reagan would hear and get upset, so I just left to go to the gym. Then I grabbed a burger with Hunter and Dex and bitched.”