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THE FLOORBOARDS CREAKED beneath the weight of a person.
Gunner instantly awoke, but didn’t move, blink an eye, or change his breathing rhythm. Listening to each step move closer, he lay in a standstill, waiting for the precise moment to confront the intruder.
The time presented itself when he felt pressure against the side of the mattress and his eyes popped open. The sun lit the room enough to see an arm stretching above him toward Izzy, who lay sound asleep, snuggled against his side. He didn’t want to move. He hadn’t slept this contently in years...but her memories of the woods, her fear deeper than that of a missing child, and his need to protect her, overrode everything else.
Gunner gripped the arm, startling the intruder. In a swift movement, he sat up and twisted the man’s arm behind him and slammed him to the floor. Digging his knee into the man’s back, he ground the man’s chest into the wood slats below them.
The man cried in shock, shouting out Izzy’s name.
“What do you want?” Gunner demanded. He couldn’t help but wonder if this was the man from the woods in Izzy’s stories. Had there been a man? Had everyone else been wrong about her hallucinations?
“Oh my gosh, Gunner!” Izzy cried. “Let him go.” He felt her hands grip his biceps. The heat went directly south. He shook it off and glanced up to find her pleading eyes. “Please?”
He let go and the man scrambled backwards to the doorway. “Are you okay, Isabelle?”
Izzy moved around Gunner and kneeled beside the man. She helped him to his feet while tightly grasping the blanket wrapped around her. “I’m fine. Are you okay?”
He gave a shaky nod. “I saw your dad’s car.”
“It was an accident. Are you hurt?”
The man eyed Gunner, clearly coming to his own conclusions about the situation. “Are you hurt?”
Oh lord. The gossip around the resort would be rich today.
Izzy stepped away and laced her fingers in Gunner’s. “I’m fine.” She glanced at Gunner with a beautiful, sleepy morning glow. Drowsy eyes, a natural pallet of cream and rose on her face and a sincere smile she’d yet masked. “Better than fine.”
That misguided statement wouldn’t help with the gossip. As long as it didn’t get back to Anton...or Marc.
Izzy looked back at the confused man. “Can you give us a few minutes to get dressed? We need a ride back to the resort.”
He reluctantly nodded and left.
Izzy stared at the empty doorway until the sound of the front door slamming shut made its way to them. She glanced down at their hands and then slowly unlaced her fingers.
Smiling up at him, she said, “No man’s ever slept with me without sleeping with me. I don’t know if this counts because we already had sex, but thank you for making me feel safe enough to close my eyes and for listening to me without judgement.”
“There was a little judgement.”
“It can’t be more judgement than what they’re thinking out there.”
He chuckled.
“Where are my clothes?” Her shyness was cute.
“On the kitchen table.”
Her eyes didn’t move from his. He felt rushed, wished they’d had a morning alone, but knew going their separate ways with no more said would be better for both of them.
She stood on her tip-toes and lightly brushed a light kiss across his cheek. “Thank you,” she whispered, before leaving the room, the blanket trailing a path behind her like a goddess.
Gunner rubbed his hands over his face, but nothing took away the tingling her lips left. He paced the room while giving her enough time to dress. When she hollered, “It’s all you,” he quickly dressed.
What a way to spend a night.
Outside, the sun blasted his eyes, and sent him wildly blinking and wishing for a pair of sunglasses. The sun rose quickly, or they’d stared at each other longer than he’d assumed.
Scanning the area, he found it more run down in the daylight. Overgrown weeds and grass, and wood split the house worse than he could tell in the dark. However, Izzy’s beauty made any area dazzle. Standing by the ditch where Carl’s car dipped beyond his vision, her hands visibly demonstrated what had occurred last night to the man who had woke them. Another woman stood at his side. Of course, Izzy would be leaving out details.
Stains highlighted the wrinkles across her blouse, her hair crinkled to match, but damned if she didn’t look sexy as hell.
Izzy smiled as he approached. The couple eyed him up with suspicion and distaste.
“Ready?” Izzy asked.
He nodded, again wishing for a pair of shades to hide his face from these onlookers. He liked to hide the emotion in his eyes as much as be able to evaluate situations and people.
Izzy rode in the back seat, leaving a space between them, and turned away from him, solemnly watching the passing trees. The couple dropped them off at the front entrance to the resort.
Inside, the foyer’s elegance splashed with a summer touch. Who would have thought palm trees and crystal chandeliers would accent each other? But the resort pulled it off with class.
No words were exchanged as they walked through the halls. He held back a smile when Izzy tried to tame her hair as guests passed or ducked her face altogether in the other direction. He pretended not to notice her relieved sigh when they started down the Caliendo’s private corridor.
When she stopped at her suite door, he should have continued walking, but something stopped him. A nagging inside over her unresolved hallucinations surged through his chest. Hallucinations she still reacted to.
With her back against the door, facing him, more than likely about to give him another thank you, he invaded her space. Stepping closer, he trapped her between him and the door, then lifted his arm to rest on the door frame above them. He could kiss her. Her eyes darted to his mouth, letting him know the idea wasn’t lost on her, either.
Her eyes lingered there, filled with desire, before looking up at him again, confusion dancing in the intensity of her stare and reluctance. She’d already made her move by the pool, and he’d rejected her, tossed her in. As funny as it was, it left him in charge of the next move. A non-existent move. He hadn’t stopped here to kiss her or give her the wrong idea, so he pulled his thoughts away from the undeniable attraction between them and focused on what she needed, not what she wanted. He couldn’t fix her the way his suggestion would.
“The files in the library don’t belong to me or Anton. They’re yours and your family’s. What’s in between the manila folders might be some of the answers you seek. Why accept only the bits and pieces your family has chosen to offer you when you could read them yourself? First hand. You have a choice. Take your future into your own hands instead of relying on the people around you for answers.”
Her warm smile fell and it was replaced with a cold stare. “We aren’t in the woods anymore. I don’t need your protection, physically or emotionally.”
“Emotionally, you don’t need anyone’s protection. You’re a strong woman.”
He saw her resolve slip. “I thought so too...until last night...”
She continued to be too hard on herself. “Even the strongest person has fears.”
She rolled her eyes. “Fears of a childhood hallucination.”
“Your time missing caused a dramatic experience. You were little. Of course it’s going to live with you, haunt you. You believe something happened when everyone else tells you it didn’t.”
“Because it didn’t.”
“Maybe when you stop lying to yourself, you’ll be able to move on.”
Izzy’s lips tightened and her gratitude slipped away.
He tucked a piece of her wayward hair behind her ear, only his finger lingered against the side of her face. “I’m not trying to hurt you.”
“What are you trying to do?”
Help you.
But he couldn’t find the words. Who was he to help her? He couldn’t even help himself.
“I’m just saying there’s always room for you in the library, an empty chair, and you can pick my brain as much as you need to.”
Her lips pursed, drawing her eyes together. “Are there handcuffs waiting for me, too?”
Gunner laughed.
Izzy cracked a smile and reached out to lightly hit his chest. “That’s not an answer. If anything, it makes me think that’s your plan.”
He caught her hand. “Sweetheart, the next time I use handcuffs, you’ll be begging me to cuff you.”
She gasped and he felt the wind swoosh out of him.
What the hell was that?
“Okay,” she said, a slow smile creeping up her lips. “I’ll remember that.”
He let her hand slide away from him and pushed off the doorframe. “Physically, you’re the weakest woman I’ve ever met and in desperate need of a lesson or two on how to defend yourself.”
She smiled. The only woman to take an insult with a smile. “I’ll see you around, Gunner.”
He hoped so, but, at the same time, prayed not at all. It was an internal mixture he didn’t dare debate.