Chapter Twenty-Two

Ben

Hell no, she won’t be alone. Not after that asshole bartender threatened me. Tried to blackmail me. Does he have a clue what kind of security I have? He’ll pay for mentioning Dirk Conrad and for trying to get Tessa handed to him on a platter.

Right about now, he’s being escorted off the premises.

Fucking Dirk Conrad.

It’s my own damned fault for getting involved with the likes of him in the beginning.

I think about what Tessa just said to me—about how she was feeling lonely and left out when Skye and Braden got serious.

We have that in common.

I got involved with Dirk in a stupid gang for similar reasons.

I was angry. Angry that I couldn’t have any fun in high school. That I was expected to go to school, get perfect grades, and then go work with Braden and my dad. I felt left out of the fun of my senior year.

I wipe the thought away again.

Tessa needs my attention now. I won’t let her walk alone.

But God…I itch to touch her. Hold her hand again like I did at Dunn’s River Falls, but this time not to protect her.

Just to touch her.

I haven’t been this attracted to a woman in a long time.

Braden would probably tell me I have a savior complex. That’s not it.

I’ve never had a savior complex. Never in my life. That’s Braden, not me. He felt so much guilt about what happened to our mother that now he wants to save everyone.

That’s probably why Skye appealed to him so much. She didn’t want to be saved. She was who she was, and no one was going to change her.

Including my brother.

To see them together is like seeing two interlocking pieces of a puzzle. He with his need and drive for control, and she with the same thing, except to a different extent.

“I’m perfectly safe here.” Tessa’s voice penetrates my thoughts.

I’m tempted to tell her that she’s not. But I can’t because that would just worry her.

“I’m sure you are,” I say, “but I enjoy your company, so please let me walk with you.”

“All right.”

She begins walking then, her toes sinking into the wet sand.

They’re polished now, a light pink. So are her fingernails.

Her hand felt so perfect in mine today. I want to take her hand so badly, but any move has to be hers.

So I’m surprised as hell when she turns to me and scrapes her fingers over my jawline once more.

If I could change that day fifteen years ago, I would.

But I can’t. Tessa deserves so much better than I can offer. I can’t bring her into my own house of horrors when she can barely face her own.

I close my eyes, ease my thoughts. Focus on this night. Nothing else.

Right now, I want to enjoy the soft touch of Tessa’s fingers.

And think about how the rest of her would feel, naked, pressed against me.

I absently reach forward and glide my finger over her lower lip.