Page 61 of Her Faithful Protector

Camilla looked up at Nic’s face. Her dream was uppermost in her mind—she just couldn’t let him go.

“It’s okay, Mother, he can stay.”

“As you wish,” she clipped out. Then she let herself out of the room.

* * *

Nic looked down at Camilla. There were bruises on her face. Between the massive bandages that started up at her neck and went down to her right elbow to the smaller bandages on her left arm she almost looked like a mummy.

“Thank you for letting me stay,” he said. She didn’t respond. “Why are you letting me stay?” he finally asked.

“Lots of reasons. Who you were back then, the man you are today. The man who put his life on the line for people he didn’t know. Take your pick.”

Her blue eyes studied him. He remembered that, how she used to watch him. It had been like she was trying to get under his skin and understand exactly what made him tick. It had amused him back in high school because even he hadn’t known what made him tick back then.

She didn’t say anything else, and finally, he blurted out what had been eating at him.

“You’re not married. Your name is still Ross. I don’t see a ring.”

She frowned. “No. Are you?”

“Nope, never been. And you? Ever been married that is?”

She was still frowning up at him. He wanted an answer. Not just to this, but to everything. He wanted to know about every single day of her life since he had last seen her. But first, he wanted to know about Harris Prescott, the man she’d been engaged to.

“No, I’ve never been married, not even close.”

What the hell?

“That’s not true, Cami. You were engaged.”

Wide blue eyes met his. “I was never engaged,” she denied.

“Does the name Harris Prescott ring a bell?” He kept his voice soft and even. There wasn’t a chance in hell that he was going to be anything but gentle with this woman who had been mauled two nights ago. But at the same time, he wasn’t going to let this slide, either.

Camilla rolled her eyes. “Oh him. According to Mother and Dad, I was engaged all right. He’s an archeologist who worked with Dad. He asked me to marry him. I put him off, but as far as my parents were concerned it was a done deal. They even put an announcement in the paper. But no, I’ve never been engaged.”

What in the ever-loving hell?

Nic reached behind him and his fingers touched the chair. He tugged at it and sank down.

“Are you okay?” she asked him. She shifted in the bed, trying to turn so she could see him better, and winced.

“Stop, don’t hurt yourself, baby.”

Nic gave her a strained smile. Now was not the time to go into the shit of their past. Right now she needed to focus on getting better, and by God, he was going to be the one to take care of her.

“How did you know about Harris?” she asked him.

It was his turn to wince. “I saw that engagement announcement,” he admitted. He just wasn’t going to tell her how he got his hands on it. “But let’s not worry about that right now, we’ve got bigger things on our plate. I’ve visited my teammates when they’ve been in the hospital, and I’ve got to say, you are showing all the classic signs of being in pain, am I right?” He offered up his most charming grin.

“But I want to know—”

“Later, Cami, I promise. But right now I want to make sure you’re taken care of. Let me call a nurse so she can give you something for the pain, okay?”

Again with that blue-eyed stare that he swore could read his heart, but she finally nodded. “Yes, call the nurse.”

He got up from the chair, then bent over and touched his lips to her forehead. “I’ll be right back.”