For the first time in days—no, years—I felt something I hadn’t since I was fourteen.
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 simple attraction.
And that made it infinitely more dangerous for both of us.
Chapter Four
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 my hold and guided her 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?” My 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 that.”
“I’m wrong?” She pushed off her stool, her chest heaving.
I tried not to notice anything about her other than 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 home.”
“Shaw told me she and Dex were coming here early, and that’s why I had to drive 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 redheads, but her eyes gave her away.
Shit.
Why would Shaw do this to me?
“Shaw thinks the world of you. She thinks you’re the absolute shit. And guess what? She wants the absolute shit for her sister. I tell her you two kissed, and she’ll start planning the wedding.”
“Christ.” I leaned back against the counter and squeezed my eyes shut.
Shaw saw more than anyone suspected. She knew there was something between me and Ryan.
“She did this because of me.”
I looked at Ry.
She turned, giving me her profile as she stared out the side door to the woods surrounding the cabin. “I think she might have seen me kiss you at Dex’s party.” She flicked me a quick look but couldn’t meet my gaze. “I’m sorry about that. I don’t remember much, but I remember you having to push me off, which is beyond mortifying. I was drunk. I’m sorry.”
That was how she remembered it?
A part of me wanted to let her continue believing it. It would be easier. But it would also make me a dick. “That’s not how it happened.”
Ryan turned to me, her eyes round. “It wasn’t?”
I shook my head. “You kissed me, yeah. But … I kissed you back.”
Her lush lips parted, drawing my attention. I could still feel them against mine. Still taste her.
“What … what happened?”
“I remembered you were drunk and that I’m not an asshole, and that’s when I stopped the kiss. Not really a kiss.” I smirked. “We were most definitely making out.”
Ry looked confused now, and she was breathing heavier.
It was making me think ungentlemanly things.
“And Shaw saw this?”
“Not that I’m aware of. Dex did. But he warned me off you, so this wasn’t his idea.”
“He warned you off me?” She looked hurt.
Clearly, she was missing the big picture here. “Ry, I’m your sister’s father-in-law. And I’m sixteen years older than you. Dex knows … you and I shouldn’t go there.”
“But you want to?”
I stared into those gorgeous fucking eyes and imagined sinking myself deep inside her. Oh, yeah. I wanted Ryan Baillie more than I could remember wanting any woman. Even as a horny goddamn teenager, I couldn’t remember wanting a girl the way I wanted Ry. Because it wasn’t just sex with her. For the first time in my life, I wanted a woman to belong to me and to belong to that woman in return.
She was just the goddamn wrong woman.
Off-limits.
“Dex is too important to me.” I reminded myself, and her. “I won’t do anything to screw up my relationship with him. Shaw must have kept him in the dark about this.”
Ry lowered her gaze, shielding her thoughts from me. “Yeah, Shaw’s too much of a romantic. She doesn’t live in the real world sometimes.”
Hearing the hint of bitterness in her words was like taking a knife to the gut. I’d hurt her. “Ry—”
“Don’t.” She waved off my words, not meeting my gaze again. “I get it. I’m not really your type, anyway. And we’re totally different people. I don’t want a guy who needs to take care of me, and you love women who want to be taken care of. A little attraction between us isn’t worth the cost to our family. I don’t need anyone. I’m fine alone. And this … is just a disaster waiting to happen, so I’m going to head out.” She strode out of the living room, leaving me seething.