Page 32 of Hard Knock Hero

“I didn’t think it was. And I don’t expect anything else.” With aching slowness, he reached over and carefully took my hand again, this time in both of his. Cradled it like a fragile, precious thing. “This is perfect. If it’s good with you. Just this.”

I felt exposed right now, and if he’d wanted to, he could’ve singed me down to my center with a careless word. “How long are you staying in Hartley?” I didn’t want to ask this question, but I had to know the answer. Ideservedto know. “If the bridge opens up tomorrow, will you go?”

“This morning, I would’ve said yes. Probably would’ve said yes a couple hours ago.”

As I had expected. Aiden had never promised more.

“But now?”

He traced the tops of my fingertips again. “That cabin in the woods will still be there another time.” He shook his head. “I wouldn’t feel right leaving you until your brother gets here.”

I forced myself to take a breath. My heart kept racing. “I’d appreciate that. Thank you.”

“I have a hard deadline, though. I’m catering a wedding in Steamboat. The bride is the daughter of my parents’ friends, and my family will be there. I can’t let them down. The wedding is on Saturday, and I have to be there by Friday.”

I nodded. Of course he wouldn’t let them down. I’d known that Aiden wasn’t going to stay in Hartley. Obviously. He lived in California.Just passing through. Yet his answer settled something within me. He was the kind of man who kept his word, who loved his family, even if he also claimed to be a loner who didn’t fit in with them.

He would remain until Trace got here, or until Friday. Today was Monday, so he’d leave at most in four days.

I liked Aiden. I wanted to know more about him. AndGod, I wanted to be touched. To be close to a man who was kind in the ways that counted, who cared enough to keep me safe. Even if it only lasted four days.

Just this. This is perfect.

You feel good, Jessi.

Aiden was the kind of man who said exactly what he meant. Wasn’t he? I’d been wrong about so many things in my past, but I wasn’t wrong about this. Was I?

His fingers moved over my own. Caressing my knuckles. Drawing stars on my palms.

“Do you like that?”

Yes. Yes, please don’t stop.

I nodded. I didn’t trust myself to speak. My heart was running too crazy. Like a wild horse. I was scared of makingmyselfrun away, and I didn’t want this to stop. I wanted,neededhim to keep touching me.

But that sliver of fear still lay embedded in my heart, and it wouldn’t disappear so easily. I was holding my breath again. Waiting for him to cross the line we’d set.Just this.

He didn’t.

He talked and talked as he ran his fingers over my hand. He told me more than he’d said in the entire last day, and the rhythm of his caresses lulled me, the gentle cadence of his deep voice.

I was hypnotized. And it really was perfect.

CHAPTERTEN

Aiden

Sometime during the night,I woke with Jessi’s head resting on my shoulder, both of us slumped into one another on the couch. Her slender hand was still nestled in mine.

I looked at her for a moment. How her lips were slightly open as she slept, and her lashes spread like a fan below her eyelids. Her damp hair had dried into soft waves.

Damn, she was beautiful.

Earlier, as we’d been talking, I’d wanted to do more than just touch her hand. I’d wanted to smooth my fingertips over her face. Run them through her hair. And then kiss every place that my fingers had touched. Of course, I didn’t. Because she didn’t want me to.

The last man she had been with had put her in the hospital. I couldn’t get my head around it. The way an experience like that would mess someone up.

And yet, she was trusting me.

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