Total pages in book: 144
Estimated words: 133531 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 668(@200wpm)___ 534(@250wpm)___ 445(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 133531 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 668(@200wpm)___ 534(@250wpm)___ 445(@300wpm)
He shouldn’t have kissed her. The moment she touched him, his entire body remembered that kiss and what she felt like.
“Do you want the truth? I’m afraid if I tell you what I’m thinking, you’ll run away so fast I won’t ever see you again.”
She removed her fingers, and his heart was able to slow down to a normal rhythm. Her smile turned mischievous. “I told you, I can’t run. You’re in luck.”
“I was thinking I was dead inside, and you managed to find a way to bring me back to life. That’s a hell of a responsibility to put on someone. I listen to your voice or your laughter and find myself feeling joy. I didn’t remember there was joy in the world until I heard you laugh. Isn’t that strange?”
He brought her knuckles to his mouth and kissed them before once more tucking her hand close to his heart. “I know we don’t know each other the way other couples do before they declare they want to be together, but I’m certain. Absolutely certain.”
“Gideon.” Her tone was cautionary. “It has occurred to me, and you need to consider this: Someone could have removed my memories. I’ve got skills most people don’t.”
He brought her hand under his chin and rubbed her knuckles along the bristles of his jaw. He found it interesting that she had considered that someone might have removed her memories. That would never have been a consideration to most people. Head trauma, yes, that would be a logical conclusion. Somewhere in the back of her mind, she must have a faint memory because she was genuinely worried. “Have you ever felt anyone watching you?”
She shook her head. “I checked the first few years for someone following me. Or watching. So much time has gone by now that I honestly don’t think anyone’s interested in me. But I still can’t shake the idea that I had to have had my memories removed.” Her frown came back, and she rubbed her left temple. “And that I was trained in things others haven’t been.”
“Are you getting a headache talking about it?”
She nodded and then shook her head. “When I try to figure it out, I get an odd sensation. Not pain exactly. Something else.” She pulled her hand away from him and wrapped both arms around her middle, drawing her legs up even tighter to her body. “It’s getting stronger.”
Gideon didn’t know whether to push her or give her a little time. He decided time was what she needed. He ran his hand down the back of her head, feeling the soft silk of her hair. “I call this place the Eagle’s Nest. Just feel the peace and the way it seeps into you. Don’t think about anything, Red. Just let this place do what it was created for.” He kept his tone light and soothing. A brush of velvet.
Rory sent him a hesitant smile. “You’re really a very special man, Gideon.”
His gut clenched. Tied into a million knots. There would come a time when he would have to open up to her. Let her see all of him, not just pieces—not just the best of him—and there wasn’t much in that regard. He’d lain up on this very rooftop with his rifle. That rifle was a part of him. He’d killed men. So many. Too many. Most he knew were deserving. Some, it was combat. Their side. His side. Someone above them making the call. He protected the troops. He would always do that.
He was good at what he did, and he knew it. Maybe one of the best. That didn’t make it right, only real. But he was also good at hand-to-hand combat. And he had killed too many men that way as well. Those men were never a part of the nightmares, but they should have been. Perhaps if he were really as good a man as Rory thought he was, those men wouldn’t have been staring at him at night, demanding to know why he had killed them. Instead, he put them aside, refusing to give them consideration after they were dead.
“That frown again, Gideon. You don’t like me saying nice things about you.”
“Mostly because I don’t want you disappointed when you get to know the real me. You have this misguided idea of who I am. With you, I suppose I could be considered one way, but with others, I’m not so nice.”
That earned him one of her smiles. It wasn’t her brightest, but she gave him one that lit her eyes. “Do you walk around intimidating other people?”
He couldn’t help flashing a little grin at her. “Well, yeah. That way I’m not expected to talk. And they move out of my way.”
“Why in the world did you go to the bar that night?”
“To see you.”