No. Not for this. It couldn’t have been.
She turned on the sink, ran cold water over her wrists. Then she looked at the smudge on her cheek, and took her wet fingers, scrubbing at it. Then at her neck. Her collarbone. Until it was gone. The evidence of all that had happened.
Except even as she left the bathroom, no longer bearing evidence of his touch she felt like it was still there, sunk down deep beneath her skin.
Like it still burned.
She did her best to smile. Her best to join her family in looking at Christmas decorations.
Go right back to ignoring the world.
Except she couldn’t.
Because the things she ignored, she had been unaware of. The thing she ignored, she really hadn’t known about.
She hadn’t known what she hadn’t known.
And now, because of his hands, because of that thumb, she did.
And she didn’t see how she was ever going to be okay again.
CHAPTER SEVEN
THAT HAD BEEN a mistake. A huge damn mistake. He had never intended for it to go that far. He had never intended to put himself in that kind of position. Not ever. Not with her.
He’d always seen her as someone to be protected, and then something about yesterday...
She’d made a mistake.
And somehow that made her more touchable. Made it seem like she was more in his reach instead of up in the stars, protected by virtue of the fact she was Rose. A sort of otherworldly being to him.
And no, he didn’t think she was a kid. He knew she was a woman.
He damn well knew it.
But he had put her on a pedestal. Put her out of reach.
Now that she’d fallen to earth with him...
He’d touched her. He’d touched her and she’d been as soft as he’d let himself fantasize she might be.
There wasn’t an amount of physical labor to burn that out of him. He had continued to pound iron, but it had just reminded him of her. Of what he’d promised. Of how the heat between them would light her up. Ignite her. Ignite them both.
Hell, getting close to her like that, touching her the way that he had...
It had been damn near innocent. Compared to the way he had touched women in the past. She had been fully clothed. He had put his hand on her cheek, on her neck, on her collarbone.
And he burned. All the way down. He was burned all the way to his soul. Little Rose Daniels was going to be the death of him. She had already become the death of everything potentially good or honorable inside of him.
Hell, if Ryder had any idea what he had wanted to do in that moment...
What he’d wanted to do in the moment was bad enough. Because he was supposed to protect her. He felt protective of her. Like she’d said, they knew the same grief. And he had known her since she was a child grappling with it. But the problem was, he wasn’t confused about the fact that she was a woman. Because he did see her as a business partner. Because they worked together day in and day out. Because he had watched her grow from a child into an adolescent, into a smart-ass teenager, into a strong woman. Because he didn’t doubt for one moment that she had the kind of maturity and passion to burn them both to the ground.
But she was avoiding it.
That he was right about. There was a reason she was fixating on doing things for Iris. On worrying about his loneliness.
Determinedly not seeing that Elliott so clearly had a crush on her, and redirecting it all toward Iris.
She didn’t want to see any of this. Didn’t want to know any of it. Him forcing it on her was...
She was denying it all for a reason, and hell if he knew what it was. He wasn’t the person to try and figure it out, either. He was his own whole mess.
He gritted his teeth, making sure everything in the forge was well handled before pushing the door open and greeting the cold air like an old friend.
“Well,” came an all-too-familiar voice from behind him, “you look...angry.”
He turned and saw Sammy standing there, her pregnant belly round, her eyes far too knowing. It was easy to see, even in the darkness.
“What the hell are you doing here?”
“We are doing Christmas decorating. So I came to see if you were committed to your yearly avoidance. And to see how you were because I know you hate this time of year.”
“Just working.”
“Okay. You seem pissed.”
“Christmas,” he growled. “And I’m roped into this whole parade thing and I’d rather not deal with it. You know that.”
“Right.” Sammy let out a slow breath. “And it has nothing to do with why Rose came running into the house looking like the hounds of hell were on her heels. And why she had soot on her face.”
He gritted his teeth and looked square at his friend. “Are you accusing me of something?”
“Just a suspicion. One that’s been growing for a while.”
“I haven’t touched her,” he said, the lie tasting like grit on his tongue. “I mean, not like you’re implying.”
“But there’s something there.”
“It doesn’t matter, Sammy. She’s a kid.”
“I don’t think you mean that, Logan. Because while all of us sometimes fall into treating her like the baby around here, you never do.”
“You know what I mean.”
“You mean that you think you’re not right for her. And that my husband would kick your ass.”
“That,” he confirmed.
“I can’t keep secrets from him,” Sammy said, her voice soft, a little regretful. Because he knew if Sammy would keep a secret for anyone, it would probably be him. But never from Ryder.
“There’s not a secret
