Page 33 of The Mating Frenzy
She didn’t know whether to be flattered or insulted. He was the most amazing man she’d ever met. He spouted charm and chauvinism in the same breath. Ella set down herglass.
“That’s incredibly condescending of you, to think women need protecting because we are the weaker sex.” She made quote marks with herfingers.
“No, it’s not. It’s simply being a good male.” Kieran drank his non-alcoholic beer. Odd how he didn’t like to drink. Perhaps he was a recoveringalcoholic.
“Women are not the weaker sex. Far from it. Can you imagine a male giving birth? At the first labor pain, we would doom our race toextinction.”
She laughed at his exaggerated shudder. “I’ll agree. But why do you act like we’re the weakersex?”
“It’s in a true male’s DNA to cherish and protect the women in his family. If he is a male of worth, he extends that protection to all women he meets. She could be the most powerful and athletic woman in the world, and he’d still fight forher.”
Captivated by his husky voice, the steely glint in his eye, she remained riveted to her seat. There had been only one man in her life who’d cared about to protect her with his life, and her father had been gone for fiveyears.
The air grew thick with an intensity and tension she needed to break. “If I were the strongest woman in the world, would you still defendme?”
She’d asked this in a teasing manner, with a wide smile, which Kieran did notreturn.
“Yes,” he said quietly. “Iwould.”
There was nothing but sincerity in his dark gaze as he drew himself up. Ella felt newfound respect. The man was whip-chord lean with muscle, and she suspected some would underestimate that wiry strength, think that because he wasn’t huge and bulky, that he could bebeaten.
“I’m sure your mother and the rest of your family are proud of you for being sodedicated.”
Ella caught a flicker of emotion on his face. “Does your family live here?” heasked.
Familiar grief pinched her insides, tightened her throat. “I live with my mother. My father…he died five yearsago”
“I am sorry. Was heill?”
“No.” She thought of the horrible night the police arrived at their door to inform her mother that Cecil had been killed in a car crash. “It was an accident. One minute he was driving on the highway, the next dead in aditch.”
Wishing to change the bitter subject, she gestured to him. “What about you? Siblings? Parentsnearby?”
“No.” He went silent for a long moment. “My family…they’re all deadnow.”
Ella blinked hard, stunned into silence. His entire family? She’d lost one parent and thought her world had ceased toexist.
“What happened?” shewhispered.
“There was a war and they became victims.” He swallowed more beer, his fist tightening around the bottle so hard she heard it crack. Kieran set down the bottle and rubbed hispalm.
“I’m so sorry. What war? The war inIraq?”
Kieran shook his head, staring at the table. It was probably too terrible to talk about. She had no desire to cause furtherpain.
“Did you have any brothers or sisters?” sheasked.
“One brother died in the war. My sister and I survived, only because we hid from the invaders. For eight hours, we concealed ourselves in the bushes. I covered her with branches and beseeched her to be quiet so no one could seeus.”
She let out a breath. “Wow. No wonder you’ve so protective. What happened to yoursister?”
Sorrow filled his eyes and his jaw tightened. Kieran turned away. “She was murdered some timeago.”
“I’m so sorry.” Ella was the one now to cover his palm with her own. Life was cruel. To survive the horrors of a war, and then to have your only surviving family member slaughtered. “Did they ever catch the person who didit?”
Kieran shrugged. “There was nojustice.”
“Were youclose?”
