Page 35 of Island Rescuer

“I get it.” After this time with her, he understood her frustration wasn’t stubbornness or even overdeveloped independence. She’d taken it as a lack of respect. “I do wish they’d spoken with you first.”

“Same.”

“But you’ve needed me,” he murmured.

A log in the fire popped with a burst of sparks. She jumped, then sighed. “So I have.” She stuffed a big, messy bite of s’more into her face. He wanted to lick off the smear of chocolate at the corner of her mouth. When she swallowed, she continued. “My apologies for sitting here wallowing over any part of my past. Can’t change it anyway. I am thankful for your help. And your creativity. This is a wonderful, happy date.”

“Huh. That sounds like you’re thankful your parents are overprotective.”

She laughed and licked a bite of marshmallow from her thumb. “I guess I am.”

He was quiet, focused on maintaining his self-control. Pulling back from the wild attraction that surged whenever he was close to her.

“What made you decide to go into the protection business?” she asked.

“Honestly?”

“Please.”

“The biggest reason was because my family wasn’t tied to it at all.” It was remarkable how easy it was to share the darkest parts of his life with her. “That, and I didn’t have much of a choice.”

She frowned, creating a little divot between her eyebrows. His fingers twitched, wanting to smooth it away. Of all the ways he wanted to touch her, why did that one seem so important? “You mentioned ugly families.”

Her eyes got wide. “I wasn’t meaning yours, Knox.”

He shrugged. “We both know my parents, especially my dad, have some questionable connections. Growing up, I acted out to get their attention and they sent me away as often as possible.”

“Which was how you ended up here for a year of high school?”

He nodded. “I’d gotten busted again. Kicked out of private school for petty theft. They pulled strings. Knew a politician up here, and got me in.” He wasn’t proud of it and yet those early mistakes all paved the way to a career he truly enjoyed.

“Is that why you travel a lot now? Habit?”

“Not exactly,” he replied. “Being a protector takes me to a lot of different places. Growing up the way I did, I got used to moving around and finding trouble as soon as possible. I got comfortable with it. At least now I stop trouble rather than create it.”

“Why did you ever go looking for it? I mean I remember you as a guy with tons of potential for the good side.”

He laughed. “That’s a question only a good girl asks.”

“Sheltered perfection, that’s me,” she joked. “Seriously, what is it with boys and trouble?”

“We crave the excitement,” he said. “There’s the sense of being immortal and untouchable. Or so my therapist says.”

“You’ve gone through therapy?”

“I wanted to change,” he admitted. “Mostly I wanted to find a way to reconcile who I am with where I came from. You may not like how much your family shelters you but that’s a big step up from being from a family you can’t be proud of.” He’d spent years worried about following in his dad’s unethical footsteps.

“I remember hearing something a few years back about your dad and a real estate deal gone wrong.”

“Two years,” he supplied. “And that’s just the latest one. He managed to wriggle out of it with only a fine. I do my best not to pay attention. You’d think as much as they enjoy the drama of their own legal issues, they would’ve been proud of me drumming up a few of my own.”

“Knox. That’s…”

When she didn’t finish, he supplied a few words of his own. “That’s backwards. Sad maybe. Fairly pathetic.” Irritated with himself for whining, he grabbed a marshmallow and stuck it on the end of the skewer, and put it over the fire. “Definitely not what tonight is about.”

She scooted up close to him, and rubbed his back. “That’s not your fault.”

The move, coupled with her words, startled him. He forgot what he was doing until the marshmallow caught fire and flamed out in a heady rush of burnt sugar.

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