Suddenly Last Summer (O'Neil Brothers 3)

“I don’t want a relationship. The reason for that doesn’t matter.” She didn’t talk about it. Not with anyone. She’d buried it deep and she never, ever wanted to dig it up again. She’d left that part of her life behind and she wasn’t ever going there again.

“If you don’t want to talk about it that’s fine with me, but do you have a towel I could borrow? I’m dripping on your floor.”

“If you left, you wouldn’t be dripping on my floor.”

“I’m not leaving until I’m sure you’re all right.”

“Why wouldn’t I be all right?”

“Sweetheart, you ran through that forest like little Red Riding Hood with the wolf behind her. I know you don’t want a relationship and I don’t have a problem with that. If I’m honest, it’s a relief. You didn’t need to freak out in the forest. You didn’t need to run from me.” His voice gentled. “You don’t ever need to run from me.”

“I did not freak out.”

“Yeah, you did. And so did I. It was pretty intense. Wild. Did I hurt you?” His tone was rough and she felt her tummy clench and emotion jam in her throat.

“No. You didn’t hurt me.” But the fact that he’d ask, that he’d care, unraveled a few more strands of the protection she’d wrapped around herself.

“So maybe I got the wrong fairy story. Is your middle name Cinderella by any chance? You lost your shoe back there so I guess you could have been running for a pumpkin pulled by mice.”

Only then did she see that he was holding her shoe. She’d run through the forest without a shoe and hadn’t even noticed. “I hate rodents.”

“Right, so I won’t buy you a pet rat for Christmas.” A faint smile touched his mouth. “So was it the spiders? There are quite a few of those in the forest.”

“That’s it. That’s the reason.”

“Really?” The smile had gone and suddenly those eyes seemed darker than usual as they lingered on her face. “Because

I figured it had to be that you were afraid. What happened between us scared you.”

“I’m not afraid. It didn’t scare me.”

“Are you sure? Because it sure scared the shit out of me. I’m used to being able to walk away after sex but it’s hard to walk anywhere when your brain is blown.”

She stepped back and the edge of the counter dug hard into her hip. “I want you to leave now.”

“I’ll leave when I’m ready. You need to take off those wet things and get into a hot shower before you freeze. Is your foot all right? You could have stepped on something sharp.” His gaze slid down her body and she felt as if she were on fire. She didn’t need the shower to warm up, she just needed to look into those blue eyes.

“I’ll shower when you’ve gone. And I didn’t step on anything.”

“Do you always ignore what the doctor tells you?” He pulled a face and glanced down at himself. “The problem is that if I turn up at Jackson’s looking like this there will be questions I’m not sure I want to answer. I was hoping to use your shower and your clothes dryer.”

The last thing she wanted was Jackson asking questions. He was very protective of her and she didn’t want to come between the two brothers or be the cause of disagreement.

She would never, ever do anything that might damage a family, especially not this family. She loved them too much. This was the closest thing to a home she’d had for a long time and she wasn’t going to put that at risk.

“You can use my bathroom.”

“You use it first. And while you do that, I’ll make us both a hot drink. Hot chocolate?”

She was shivering but she didn’t know if it was because of the rain or because he was standing in her kitchen. “Chocolate is fine.”

He reached into a cupboard and took out two mugs and then paused. He put the mugs down and picked up the photo of her with her mother. “Is this you?”

Her mouth was dry. “Yes.”

“You were seriously cute as a child. And your mother is beautiful. You look like her. And she clearly adored you.”

Her mouth was dry. “What makes you say that?”