We’re surrounded by nothing but the air and water, we’re utterly alone out here, with no one to overhear or watch us like we’re fish in a bowl.
The salty breeze blows Dare’s hair around his face and I turn to him.
“I’m ready to use another question,” I tell him. He grins.
“So soon? It’s only been days since the last one.”
I ignore that. “Why are you such a gentleman?”
Meaning, why are you so resolute to keep your distance until I figure my shit out?
He shifts his weight and crosses his feet at the ankles. “So you’ve noticed.”
His tone is wry. I roll my eyes.
“Seriously. Why are you trying to force me into doing something for my own good that I don’t want to do? All for the sake of being a gentleman? Maybe being a gentleman is overrated and archaic.”
He scoffs at that, shielding his eyes from the sun with long fingers of one hand. I stare at his silver ring glinting in the light.
“It’s not, trust me.” The way he said that is so knowing, so strange.
I raise an eyebrow and he sighs.
“My step-father, while refined and rich, was not a gentleman behind closed doors. From the time I was very small, I decided that I would always be the opposite of him. My mother always gave me lessons on what a gentleman should do. She spoke of those traits with such…reverence that I knew that’s what I wanted to be.” He pauses. “Are you going to make fun of me now?”
He stares at me, his jaw so sculpted, his eyes so guarded. I find all I want to do is reach out and stroke the coarseness of his stubble with my hand. “No,” I tell him. “Not at all.”
Because he made that hidden part of me ache, the maternal place, the place that wants to protect him from everything, even if that means from me.
“What did your step-father do?”
My question is quiet in its simplicity and Dare sighs again.
“You’re really burning through your questions today.”
I nod, but I don’t back down.
“My stepfather was unfortunately, very much like his mother. A very calculating, controlling person. He had to have everything his way exactly and those people who didn’t comply were punished severely.”
I swallow hard at the closed look on Dare’s beautiful face.
“How severely?”
He turns to look at me, his black eyes staring into my soul.
“Severely.”
My heart twinges at the vulnerable pain in Dare’s eyes. He thinks he’s concealing it, but he’s not. “And being the rogue that you are, I’m guessing you were punished a lot.”
He nods and looks out at the sea and I pick up his hand, spinning his ring round and round.
“And no one interfered? Not your mother or your grandmother?”
He looks at me now, stricken. “She’s my step-grandmother. And of course she wouldn’t interfere. She never approved of me. She thinks I deserved everything I got and then some. My mother… she couldn’t stop it. She couldn’t stand against the two of them. They were an unstoppable force.”
“Why didn’t your mom leave him? If he was so bad, I mean?” I ask hesitantly.
“It’s not always that easy,” he answers tiredly. “Where would she have gone? She didn’t have anywhere to go.”