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“Don’t get up,” Linc commanded, walking over to her. “I’m fine.”
Ryleigh tugged the bag of frozen veggies away from his face, wincing. “Tanner, did you have to do that?”
“Yep.”
Lilac shot Tanner a look. “Really? Violence isn’t always the answer, you know.”
Tanner stared at her in surprise. “Lilac —”
“I need to go have a shower.” There was a strange feeling in her stomach. It felt like anger and disappointment. How could he do that? First, he’d started a brawl, and now this? She could forgive the brawl, because those assholes were to blame.
But this . . . this was different.
“And I don’t think you should be here when I get out.”
It hurt to say it. It hurt so bad. But Lilac knew that she had to protect herself. No one else would.
Sure, it had seemed like Tanner might have.
But now . . . she wasn’t so sure.
The last thing she wanted was to go from one violent man’s hold to another. She knew it was unfair to compare Tanner to Stefan. Stefan was a monster. Tanner wasn’t like him.
However, she worried about Tanner’s impulsiveness. Another woman, one who hadn’t been around violence so much, might not have an issue with any of this. And she did like him sticking up for her.
But could she really do this with him?
It had been a pipe dream to think that something might happen between them. Foolishness. She should have known that. She had enough stress going on in her life without adding to it.
25
Fuck.
What had just happened? Tanner stared after Lilac. Didn’t she understand that Linc had deserved the punch? That those men the other night at Dirty Delights had deserved it too?
That all he was doing was protecting her?
Why had she looked at him like she thought . . . like she’d thought that he might harm her?
He’d never do that. Everything he did was for her. All he wanted was to care for and protect her.
Linc picked Ryleigh up and carried her out of the guesthouse. Both of them had given him strange looks. He glanced to Opal who was staring worriedly after Lilac.
Yeah. Nope. He wasn’t leaving things like this. He took a step toward the bathroom, but Opal moved in front of him.
“I need to go talk to her,” he said.
“No, big boy, I think it’s best that you don’t.” Opal’s voice was firm but kind.
“I need to! I can’t leave things like this. I can’t have her thinking that . . . that I might hurt her. That’s what she thinks, right?”
“I don’t know if she thinks that, exactly. Listen, she just needs a bit of time and some rest. She’s exhausted and stressed.”
“I need to tell her that I’d never harm her. Ever.” He ran a shaking hand over his face. “I can’t believe she’d be worried that I would do that.”
“Lilac hasn’t had an easy life. She lived with a narcissist who blamed her for everything that went wrong in his life and . . . shit, I shouldn’t have said that. Fucking big mouth.”
A narcissist? Who was that? Opal said ‘he,’ so it wasn’t the nanny. Her dad or brother?
