New Year's Eve

Joe sucked in a breath.

“I was so lucky—it was only a couple of minor cuts on my back. But he punched me hard and he was out of it… if my neighbor hadn’t heard the commotion and come running in, it could have been so much worse. The guy took off. He didn’t get any of my stuff. But…” I ran a hand through my hair, embarrassed at what I was about to admit. “He scared me. I’m scared. I… until last night I hadn’t slept since it happened.”

Movement drew my eyes up and I watched as Joe marched around the island. “What…”

Suddenly he hauled me up out of the stool, his arms bound tight around me, crushing me to him. Joe buried his face in my neck, breathing hard.

Realizing he wasn’t just comforting me but himself, I closed my arms around him too, my fingers curling tight into his shirt.

For the first time in days—no, years—I felt something I hadn’t felt since I was fourteen years old.

I felt safe.

And the fact that I felt that, and that Joe needed to be comforted after hearing about my ordeal, made me realize this wasn’t just a one-sided attraction.

What was between us wasn’t just attraction at all.

And that made it infinitely more dangerous to both of us.

Chapter 4

JOE

I wanted to find the bastard who had attacked Ryan. Who had shaken her up so badly she hadn’t slept in days. The thought of what might have happened to her if her neighbor hadn’t shown up made me sick to my stomach.

My arms tightened around her and I breathed her in, reassuring myself she was here and safe in my arms. Her perfume and the feel of her soft curves against my body were sinking in. Causing a blood flow problem.

I gently released her and guided her back to her stool. I then took a few steps back while she stared up at me with those big green eyes, looking confused.

“You okay?” the words were hoarse. I cleared my throat and rounded the island to put some distance between us.

“I’m fine.”

A bite of defensiveness flavored her words. It irritated me. “You know it’s okay not to be fine, Ry. It’s okay to need someone. And believe it or not, Shaw is not a kid anymore, and she doesn’t need you protecting her from shit. What she needs is for her sister to be okay.”

Her chin lifted stubbornly. “I am okay.”

She made me want to round the island and kiss the stubbornness right out of her. Somehow I stopped myself. “You think not sleeping for five days is okay?”

“I didn’t have to tell you and now you’re throwing it back in my face?”

Hurt glimmered in her gaze. My gut twisted and I softened my tone. “No. But it doesn’t make a person weak to ask for help. It doesn’t make you weak to need someone.”

“Yes, it does.”

“Jesus, Ryan, you can’t go through life thinking like that.”

“I’m wrong?” she pushed up off her stool, her chest heaving.

I tried not to notice anything about her but the hard edge in her voice, but it wasn’t easy. It was difficult not to remember sliding the jeans off her long legs last night. I’d tried to avert my gaze as much as possible, but those legs of hers were branded on my brain. Feeling a fresh surge of hot blood heading southward, I cleared my throat. “Yeah, you’re wrong.”

“How can I be wrong?” Ry crossed her arms over her chest.

“Because we’re built to need each other.”

“And leave each other,” she whispered hoarsely, and the devastation in her eyes killed me.

“Ry…”

“Needing people only hurts in the end. I’d rather go it alone.”

“So you’re telling me you don’t need Shaw?” I pushed.

“It’s different. She needs me.”

God, her heart was all fucked up from losing her parents. “No, baby. You need her to need you. But more than that, you love her. So in the end, you just need her. And you should tell her when shit like this happens.” I gestured to the fading bruises on her cheek.

Ry’s expression turned mulish. “I don’t think I should tell my baby sister anything. She clearly can’t be trusted.”

Knowing she referred to our current predicament, I sighed, running a frustrated hand through my hair. “I came up here a day early. Then Dex called to say Shaw wasn’t feeling so great so they were going to stay at home.”

“And Shaw told me she and Dex were coming here early and that’s why I had to drive here myself. And I hate driving in the snow.”

“You shouldn’t have been driving anywhere on no sleep.” Jesus, anything could have happened.

“I don’t need a lecture, Joe. You’re not my father-in-law.”

“Oh, I’m well aware of that.”

Whatever she heard in my voice made her eyes turn hot. Ry didn’t blush like most red-heads, but her eyes gave her away.