faster speed as the past twenty-four hours came back to her in a rush. The minute he’d slept with her, he’d compromised his job. He’d taken time off to care for her when his boss vetoed protection. He’d talked her sister into spending time with a friend. And he’d crawled into her bed to keep her warm. In Kayla’s book that went beyond police protection.
The answers about Charmed! might have to wait, but the ones about Kane would not. “You could have left. Even your boss wouldn’t authorize this kind of protection.”
His hand stilled and his eyes cleared. “My gut told me the case wasn’t over yet.”
She swallowed hard and forced herself to continue. She might never get another chance to find out the truth. “And that’s the only reason you’re here?”
“If I’d trusted my gut instinct I wouldn’t have left you alone. You wouldn’t have been attacked.”
“Guilt.”
“Reality.”
“Whatever.” Let him think what he chose. Neither answer accounted for the more intimate aspects of their relationship…like the hard arousal pressed against her belly each time she’d awakened in his arms last night.
“So you’re making up for…what?” she asked.
“Sleeping with you made me lose my focus.” His grip on her leg loosened and he stood. “It won’t happen again.”
“I see,” she murmured. A mixture of understanding and awe filtered through her.
And hot sex with Kane wasn’t enough. The realization came to her as clear and strong as the sunlight suddenly streaming through the window. She blinked against the harsh glare. He walked across the room and drew the shades.
Kayla folded her arms over her chest and lay back against the pillows. She’d gotten to him once. She could do it again. She had as much to prove to Kane as to herself. Her ability to trust her instincts was at stake. She’d read him so wrong that first night. She had to know she was right about him now.
Exhaustion threatened, but she couldn’t give in. She intended to test his resolve. He might think he was here as her protector to atone for his sins. Was he in for a surprise.
She glanced across the room. He stood, legs braced apart, staring out the slit in the blinds. She knew the muscles in those legs, the feel of him pulsing in her hand. She knew how it felt to be comforted and held through the night.
She wanted more from Detective Kane McDermott than his guilt-induced protection. She wanted the chance to see if they had a chance. To see if this man was the one to breach her own walls, and show her men-and relationships-had potential. To do that she had to get past his barriers.
And Kayla intended to get what she wanted.
CHAPTER SIX
KAYLA SUSPECTED HE’D fight her by erecting barriers so high, she’d have to learn to mountain climb to achieve her goal.
“Kane?” He turned at the sound of his name, his hands tucked in his front jean pockets.
“Thank you.”
“For?”
“If you’d come over here, I’d tell you.” She couldn’t trust herself to stand and she couldn’t talk to him if he stood so far away. She had more than physical barriers to breach. She just hadn’t yet learned what the others were.
He walked over and lowered himself onto the bed, causing the mattress to dip beneath his weight. Kayla drew her legs up and scooted closer to the edge. Closer to him.
She placed a hand on his arm. Muscles tightened beneath her fingertips. She didn’t loosen her grip. “I appreciate your being here.”
“Why? I lied to you from the second we met.”
She’d expected to have to force truths out of him. Instead he’d given her the opening she sought. “Because you were doing your job. I realize that now.”
“If I was doing my job, you’d have been protected before you got hurt.”
She laughed, but knew better than to shake her head. Eating had helped, but she still felt drumbeats when she moved too fast. “Sometimes we mistake what our jobs are. I remember one night when I was younger. Catherine wanted to go out with her friends. I knew these friends were trouble, that she was headed in the wrong direction. So I snuck into her room and stole her wallet and what little money she had inside. She went anyway, and got caught sneaking out of a restaurant without paying the hefty bill.” Kayla gnawed the inside of her cheek, remembering the night the police officer had brought her sister home.
His strong hand touched her cheek. “What’s your point?” he asked in a gruff voice.
“We raised each other. It was my job to look out for her and I blew it.”
“Was she arrested?”
“No. The owner refused to press charges. He gave her a job washing dishes instead. The point is, I didn’t do my job, but looking back, it wasn’t mine to do. Just like the minute I walked out of that hotel room, I wasn’t yours to look out for anymore.”
“I agree with you about Catherine. As for me, I was still on a case.”
She raised an eyebrow. “Sleeping with me was work-related?”
“Don’t twist my words.”
“Then let the guilt go.” Kayla couldn’t reach him if he hid behind his job and sense of duty. “Look, when you were a teenager, did you ever get in an argument with your mother, then storm out into the street?”
He met her question with a vacant stare.
Curious she pushed on. “At that point, there wasn’t anything she could do to stop you from getting into trouble.”
“There wasn’t a damn thing she could have done about anything. She was dead.”
Her mouth opened and closed again just as fast. “I’m sorry.”
“Don’t waste your time feeling sorry for her. She killed herself. Took herself out of the game.”
“Took a hike when I was five. Is there a point to all this?”
A smile tipped the edges of her mouth. “There was, but you’ve cut off every one I was about to make.”
Kane let the tension ease out of his shoulders. She didn’t treat him with the sad look or pitying expression his friends, teachers and the authorities had used in his youth. He hadn’t voiced his story again until now, but wasn’t surprised he’d confided in Kayla.
He’d known many women. None affected him on any level other than physical. None attempted to challenge him. He’d met his match with Kayla and he respected her for it. Respected her far more than women who played the weak heroine to get his attention and into his bed.
He’d begun having sex early in his teens, too often he’d come to realize. Later he’d become smarter, more discriminating. Only one thing remained constant. He came and went with no thought to looking back or revealing inner truths. Not so with Kayla. After all she’d been through-thanks to him-she deserved a little honesty.
But that wasn’t the sole reason for his confidences now. He didn’t want to think about why he wanted to share the most painful parts of his life with this woman.
She shifted, the movement revealing pale skin and an expanse of thigh that aroused him in an instant.
“My point is you aren’t responsible for me,” she said, meeting his gaze.
Primitive possession flooded his system. “The hell I’m not.”
