Immortal Cowboy
Page 24
“Are you ready?” Kane asked Lilly, holding out his hand.
Though she nodded, she stepped back rather than touch him. Which was okay, for now. Eventually, he hoped she’d trust him enough to welcome his touch.
And more, his inner voice whispered. He banished the thought as soon as it occurred to him. Life was messy enough without unnecessary complications.
* * *
Lilly waited until they were on the highway before speaking. “More than anything,” she said, sounding softer than she would have liked, “I wish I could be like everyone else.”
“Really?” A smile curved Kane’s hard slash of a mouth. “How’s that?”
She shrugged, hurriedly glancing away from him. “Normal.” Hesitating the space of a heartbeat, she resolutely continued. “Sane. I’m not, you know.”
Though he had to realize she was, in all fairness, trying to warn him, Kane didn’t appear concerned. His chiseled features still radiated masculine confidence, as if there was no problem she could throw his way that he couldn’t handle. “Don’t be so hard on yourself. You’ve been through a lot. You’re stronger than you think. Not too many women could have survived an ordeal like that.”
Rote words, the kind of meaningless phrases her therapist was fond of throwing around. The anger surging through Lilly startled and surprised her. “You don’t even know me.” Her even tone gave no hint of the resentment simmering just below the surface. She’d learned the hard way how to impose an icy self-control, to pretend a confidence she didn’t feel.
Even now, having finally gained both her freedom and her brother, she felt as if she walked under the shadow of her father’s madness. He’d hurt and abused her, all in the name of love. After fifteen years of living as his captive, trying to hang on to the rapidly diminishing spark that made up her inner self, she no longer knew how to interact with others. Especially not men. Most particularly men like Kane, the kind that embodied all that was male.
“You’ll be fine,” he said, smiling, looking like some dark angel who ought to frighten her, but instead intrigued her way too much.
“Don’t,” she ordered, the catch in her voice contradicting its sharpness. “Don’t patronize me.”
“I wasn’t,” he said firmly. “Believe me, Lilly Gideon. That’s the last thing I want to do with you.”
She didn’t dare ask him what the first was. Though she knew he didn’t do it on purpose, the underlying sensuality in his husky voice made her shiver. If that was, in fact, what sensuality sounded like. She, who knew everything about how to endure torture and experiments and pain, knew absolutely nothing about a healthy relationship between a man and a woman. The closeness she’d experienced with her brother and his wife had been her first experience in fifteen years with anything remotely resembling love.
If that’s what it was. With the ground constantly shifting under her feet, she didn’t feel certain about anything. After all, she’d just begun to feel comfortable around her new-found family, and now she was being sent away with a man she barely knew.
“For your own safety,” Kane said, making her start and wonder if she’d said what was in her head. She hoped not.
“Did I...?” she asked, waving her hand to indicate what she meant.
“Speak your thoughts aloud? No.” He shook his head. “But you didn’t have to. Believe me, Lucas loves you. He only wants to keep you safe.”
“I understand.” Again, she thought she sounded cool and confident, the opposite of how she felt. Everything about this man made her feel unsettled. Even the throaty rasp of his voice danced along her nerve endings like a silk edged sword soaked in fire.
How did one respond to that?
“What’s in this for you?” she asked, more to distract herself than any real curiosity.
Instead of answering, he laughed. While she stared at him with a weird mixture of annoyance and trepidation. “Not everyone is completely self-serving. Some of us do things because it’s the right thing to do.”
She wanted to ask him to explain this cryptic message, but wasn’t sure how. Instead, she turned and pretended an interest in the passing scenery.
He didn’t speak again, which should have relieved her. Instead, her discomfort grew, making her fight the urge to squirm in her seat. Finally, she gave in and glanced at him. “Where are we going?”
“Someplace safe.” Though he barely looked at her, one corner of his mouth lifted to take the sting off his words.
“How far away?” Again she had to quell her own uneasy restlessness. She hated—no, despised—this weakness within her. She’d felt unsafe for so long she’d begun to wonder if she even knew how to be strong. Even with her brother, she’d found herself jumping at the slightest sound and battling the urge to crawl into her bed and take refuge under the covers.
“Across the country. It’ll take us four days to get there, if we travel easy.”
Again she nodded, keeping her face expressionless while she wondered what the hell was wrong with her, that she could don a mask of normalcy while inside she struggled with a maelstrom of conflicting emotions.
“And then what?”
He cocked one eyebrow, looking devilish and dangerous and a thousand other things that all made her want to wrench open her door and leap from the vehicle. Only the knowledge that she’d promised her brother—sworn to Lucas that she’d let Kane keep her safe—made her stay in the car.
“Once we arrive at our destination, we’ll work on beginning to teach you to protect yourself.”
Even trying to understand his cryptic pronouncements fatigued her. In fact, weariness slammed her with a force nearly as strong as one of her father’s blows. Too exhausted to fight any longer, she relaxed and gave in to it, closing her eyes and willing herself to fall asleep.
Copyright © 2014 by Karen Whiddon
ISBN-13: 9781460329139
IMMORTAL COWBOY
Copyright © 2014 by Patricia L. Pritchard
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