Page 56 of Pirates in Calusa Cove

“No.” He shook his head. “But Joe and I, we’d scare them. We’d let them know if they ever hurt our baby sister, there would be hell to pay. And let’s just say we weren’t subtle about it.”

“I’m so glad I didn’t have brothers.” She patted his chest, laced her fingers through his, and tugged him into the house and toward the bedroom. “While it’s honorable how you looked out for Tilly, women don’t always need protection.”

“I know that,” he said grimly. “And please don’t start with the whole women aren’t weak or frail or any of that business, because I never said that.” He closed the bedroom door and pushed her back up against the wall, shoved his knee between her legs and tangled his fingers through her hair. “It’s just that some men can beassholes—you know, like your ex, Charlie. Or worse. And I’ve seen that firsthand.” Gently, he ran his thumb across her cheek. “I had a friend in high school. She was just a friend. A good one. A guy she was dating raped her.”

Trinity gasped, covering her mouth. “That’s horrible.”

“She trusted him, and he took advantage. It was years before she could reassemble her life.”

“Where is she now?”

He smiled. “She’s a counselor back in Colorado. She’s friends with Tilly. She works with young girls who have gone through what she did. She turned a shitty situation into a positive one. But not everyone can do that. So, trust me when I say I’m not like this because I don’t think you’re incapable or incompetent. It’s just that I know men, and most of us are jerks.”

She palmed his face. It was scruffy from not shaving for the last three days, and she relished in it. “You’re not.”

“That’s not what you said for the first year we knew each other,” he mumbled.

“Yeah, well, neither one of us made a good first impression, now did we?”

“I always thought you were special. You just…scared me.”

“Because I was reckless,” she whispered.

“That was the reason I made myself believe. It was the only thing I could grab hold of that allowed me to make sense of the fact that I not only found you attractive, but that I cared about you.”

She opened her mouth to respond, but he didn’t let her. He ravished her mouth with a passionate kiss.

His lips bruised hers, and his tongue twisted and twirled around hers as a deep guttural moan filled her throat.

She tucked her free hand under his shirt. The first time they had been together had been raw. It had been pure sex. Pure gutted pent-up desire. Sure, they had shared some deep emotions. They had run the gamut with them and come to one simple conclusion.

They wanted each other. Needed each other. But this was different.

It wasn’t just about sex. Or purging misunderstood emotions and intentions. This went deep.

It wasn’t love. She couldn’t describe it as that…could she? It was too soon for that.

His breathing hitched as she moved her hand up, tracing the contours of his muscular back and the scars that lined his skin. His touch was like fire, igniting a sensation that caused a gasp to escape from her lips. The heat between them was like an ember, a spark that intensified with every flickering second.

He pulled back, his gaze holding hers. The intensity in his midnight-blue eyes told her more than a thousand words ever could. He ran his fingers through her tangled hair, gently tucking a strand behind her ear.

“You do scare me,” he confessed, his voice a mere whisper as if he were divulging a secret that had been locked away for centuries. “You scare me because I feel things for you that I haven’t allowed myself to feel in a very long time. Things that I thought I never wanted tofeel again. It’s why I kept my distance this past year. It’s why I’ve been so reserved.”

His revelation both shocked and humbled her, but she could understand. She could relate.

“And you frighten me because I’ve discovered parts of myself with you that I didn’t even know existed,” she admitted.

His smile was half-wistful, half-amused, yet fully disarming. “I guess that makes us equally frightening then.”

And as passion flared anew between them, they relinquished themselves to this fresh terrain of affection. One that demanded exploration—no stone unturned, no emotion unconveyed, naked and bared in every sense of the word.

Carefully and gently, he undressed her as he pressed his lips over every inch of her body. He left no speck of skin untouched by his mouth. And when he was done, he laid her on the bed, standing before her, and removed his clothes.

God, he was beautiful, scars and all.

In her eyes, each scar etched upon his skin was not a mark of detriment but rather a testament to his resilience, an ode to survival. Her fingers traced the path of each battle wound, soothing and adoring. His body trembled under her touch, his heart pounding against his chest like a wild drum echoing her own racing heartbeat.

He rolled to his back, making it easier for her arm to remain in the sling.

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