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He grinned and nodded. He took out his pistol and explained how the safety and magazine worked. He helped her hold it properly and aim at a tree trunk the other direction from their cowboy friends.
“Ready to try?” he asked.
She nodded, forcing a bravery she didn’t feel, but she didn’t move as Hays turned toward the shooting range. What if aiming a gun at a target made her feel like the monster her father and mother had tried to turn her into? They’d never demanded she kill anyone, but she’d been forced to watch many times. She trembled and bit her lip.
Hays turned back to her, lifting an eyebrow.
“Hays,” she admitted. “I’m scared.”
“You don’t have to do this.”
“I want to. I want the tools to protect myself.”
He studied her, then nodded. “What can I do to help?”
“Can you steady me while I shoot?”
“Of course.”
He put her ear protection back on, studying her very seriously as he did so. Elizabeth wished they could be alone and talk for hours, plan a future … but what would that accomplish besides more pain when they had to separate again?
Hays directed her next to Clint Coleville, who nodded to them both. His blue eyes were serious but approving. She liked all these cowboys, but Easton and Walker were easier to let her guard down around. Clint had something in his blue eyes that was familiar—agony. She didn’t want to relate, but she did. So she kept her distance from him.
She couldn’t hear Hays with the thick ear protection on, but she could feel him. He placed the pistol in her hand and eased behind her. Wrapping his large arms around her, he steadied her and guided her as she aimed and shot half a dozen times. His warm breath on her forehead distracted her, but with his help she hit the center of the target several times.
She should insist she shoot on her own, as she’d done everything on her own her entire life. Hays’s strength surrounding her, his presence comforting her, and his very being titillating her senses were too enticing. For now, she’d let him surround her. Soon she’d be fighting alone once again, and this time with him would have to carry her through at least another fourteen years without him. Most likely a lifetime alone.
Chapter
Twelve
Hays was in trouble. Elizabeth distracted him far too easily. On the bank of the lake, he’d almost kissed her with Easton watching on. They hadn’t been in a vulnerable position, but they were only a quarter of a mile from the river, without a grate on it.
He could only kiss her if they were inside the main house and he could let his guard down. Did he even dare kiss her then? Every touch made him more invested and wanting to forget the danger, lose his head completely, and hold and kiss her for days on end.
He walked her up to her room, checked it, then stepped back so she could enter. She paused in the doorframe, her blue eyes searching his. He wished he could eradicate the darkness lingering behind their brilliance.
Please help me know how to help her.
“Thank you for teaching me how to shoot, swinging into the lake with me, being here, and protecting me,” she said. Her words were sweet, the look in her eyes even sweeter. He thought of his best friend Jagger’s wife Belinda or Bee. Jagger loved to say she stung him like a bee but her honey was so sweet. Hays hadn’t known sweet words, touches, or kisses since Elizabeth. He’d tried to forget her and date other women, but no one could compare to her. Not for him. So he’d given up on dating. It helped that Jagger hadn’t dated either. Not until he’d found his Bee again. Now Hays was more alone than ever.
He couldn’t even think of a knock-knock joke to distract himself from the longing to hold her and kiss her.
“Anything for you, Liz,” he said softly. Would this Jarom they wanted to marry her off to say sappier things to her? Would she like what the rich, pretty boy said? How he touched her? Possessiveness filled Hays, and he stepped in close. He wanted to show her exactly why she should never love or touch any man but him.
“Liz.” His voice deepened. “You are the only woman I have ever fallen in love with, ever wanted to be with.”
She sucked in a breath, her pulse racing like mad in her neck. The moment stretched, and he hoped she’d return the words. She didn’t. Her blue eyes beckoned to him and that smooth neck with her pulse thrumming was enticing.
There were so many reasons to keep an emotional and physical distance. To not kiss her. To wait until her father was imprisoned or dead and she knew Hays could and would keep her safe, knew she could choose her path and pray she wanted and loved him like he loved and wanted her.
Hays’s hand lifted of its own volition and cupped her face. His thumb gently traced along her enticing lower lip. Elizabeth quivered and let out a telling whimper.
That was Hays’s cue. He stepped in, his larger body overshadowing hers. He trailed his thumb and fingertips across her neck and up into her silky hair. He massaged her scalp, entangling his fingers in her hair. His entire body ached to hold her close, but he wanted her to long for him like he did for her, wanted her to choose to be with him.
Her eyes fluttered closed, and she leaned her head into his palm. She groaned and her soft lips parted.
Hays framed her waist and hip with his other hand. He tugged her closer, and she placed both of her hands on his chest. His heart raced out of control.
