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“Yes, ma’am.”
“I’m sure you have before.” The image made her breath hitch.
“Oh, yes, ma’am.”
She laughed.
His brow furrowed as he looked at her hands. “Are your hands all right?”
“Just warming them up from the cold.”
He took both of her hands in his. His large, warm palms encompassed hers and she was instantly hot all over, safe, protected, loved. No. He didn’t love her, but Cade’s instinctive protection overwhelmed her. Nobody had ever been there for her like him.
Wait a minute. Her brother. Quaid had never left her behind or deserted her. Yet … they hadn’t gone over her life’s timeline year by year, but Quaid was a heroic Navy SEAL and from what she understood, she’d been alone with her mother, Elizabeth, and their father for years.
If her mother was anything close to the nightmare everyone made her out to be, her father and Elizabeth her puppets, Jacey had been traumatized, with no support, for a long time. She didn’t want to think about that, but no wonder she couldn’t get enough of Cade and his strong body overshadowing and protecting her, his warm hands surrounding hers and his green eyes lighting up her world.
He gently lifted her hands to his lips and breathed warm air on her fingertips.
Jacey quivered from head to toe. She leaned closer, smitten with this gentle, strong, unreal cowboy.
“Better?” he asked.
“Yes,” she admitted, wanting to lie and say her entire body was frozen and he needed to hold her close and warm her up.
“Good.”
Their gazes held. He had to kiss her now. It was inconceivable that he wasn’t as taken with her as she was with him. She knew he was honorable, but at some point didn’t irrepressible desire have an advantage over duty?
“What do you imagine it would be like?” she whispered, inching closer, thinking about their first night here and watching Sweet Home Alabama. He did resemble Josh Lucas.
“What’s that?” he asked, his warm breath doing a number on her fingers still held close to his mouth.
“If you could ‘kiss me anytime you wanted to’ like Jake expressed to Melanie?” She could not believe she was being so bold.
His eyes widened as he got the reference, and she felt his breath shorten against her hands. “Ah, sweetheart,” he said in a rumbly and husky baritone that shot joy through her body.
He was going to kiss her thoroughly. She knew it.
“Sweetheart …” He shook his head, released her hands, stepped back and murmured, “I think you’ll sleep well after all that cold therapy.” He gave her a forced smile. “It’s supposed to help with circulation and sleep.”
“Wonderful,” she managed. Her pride and her hopes and her heart all stung with his rejection. She knew his reasons, but it didn’t help salve any of the wounds he’d just inflicted.
Not wounds. She was being dramatic. She could hide her emotions and any wounds. Though she couldn’t remember, she knew she’d been well-trained at that.
“Goodnight, cowboy. Thank you for a blessed day.”
He smiled and nodded to her.
She hurried into the room, closing the door softly behind her. She made it to the shower and pulled out the knob. The running water obscured the sobs that overcame her.
Pulling the dress over her head and dropping it in the hamper, she walked into the shower in her swimsuit before the water even warmed up. The cold water reminded her of their multiple leaps into the lake. She was ready to leap into a relationship with her cowboy, but he wasn’t ready and was focused on protecting her.
She admired him for it and hated that she wasn’t done breaking down and crying. She hadn’t since that first day. Cade had been there to hold and comfort her each time. Currently, she felt alone despite her handsome protector. The warm water covered her as she rested her head against the cool marble shower, but it didn’t comfort or warm her.
She was alone.
And somehow, she knew she’d always been alone and always would be.
