Page 42 of Her Guarded Hero

“The only one I have to explain myself to is Aurora,” Dalton bit out.

“Then you better fucking do it.” Tate’s eyes narrowed. “In the meantime, I’ll stay here with Hal and Erwin, tomorrow you and Aurora can spend the day at my ranch with Rhys and Luke.”

Dalton pushed away from the rail and started to head toward the house, then he hesitated. Turning back, he looked at a man he respected. “I’m not going to hurt her.”

Tate sighed. “Yes, you are, but you’re also making her happy, so Gunnar and I are going to see it as a wash.”

* * *

Aurora was half asleep when Dalton crawled back into bed. He was cold. When she went to put her arm around his lean waist he stiffened and eased away from her. She rolled against him, so that she could at least warm him up, but again he pulled away, that was when she realized it wasn’t just his body that was cold.

“Dalton?”

He went still. “I didn’t mean to wake you,” he whispered.

Aurora had to strain to hear him, since he was facing away from her and he didn’t turn over. “Were you outside? I thought I heard the front door,” she said.

“Yes.”

She waited for him to elaborate, when he didn’t she finally asked, “why?”

“I thought I heard something.”

It was obvious he didn’t want to be touched, but to hell with it. She tugged at his shoulder and he rolled to face her. He looked grim, almost as if he was carved out of stone.

“Did I do something wrong?” Aurora finally asked.

She watched as the strong line of his neck bobbed as he swallowed. “No. It’s not you.”

“But it’s something,” she guessed.

His eyes looked black in the moonlight, she had to imagine the navy-blue color as he looked down at her. “I don’t want to lead you on,” he finally said. “I’m going to be leaving soon.”

His words hurt. They were so final, and they sliced through skin and twisted into her guts. There shouldn’t be any pain. She’d known. She’d known that this was just a moment out of time, but after the way they’d come together? It had felt like so much more.

Suck it up, Buttercup.

She plastered on a smile.

“How could you possibly be leading me on?” she asked. “Dalton, you live five hundred miles away from me, I always knew this was a one off.”

“Four hundred and fifty.”

“Huh?”

He cleared his throat. “It’s four hundred and fifty miles between Tahoe and San Diego.”

She pushed upright in her bed and looked down at the man who had, just hours before, taken her to the heights of ecstasy. Dalton’s entire body was rigid, like he was expecting a blow. He was not some man who was just playing fast and loose with her, she knew it, he had too much honor. But looking at him, he reminded her of Aladdin. Who had abused him?

“Look, I don’t need a geography lesson, so don’t play semantics. It doesn’t matter if it was twenty miles or two thousand I always knew this was going to be finite.”

His impassive face twisted, a deep pain was etched across his features. “It’s not you, it’s me,” his normally smooth voice sounded like it had been scraped over glass.

Her lips twitched, and he frowned. Long moments passed.

“I didn’t mean to hurt you,” he growled.

Aurora bit her lower lip until she was afraid it would bleed, just to keep herself from smiling. “I know you don’t want to hurt me,” she finally said.