His Lover to Protect - Katee Robert Page 0,31

I know it doesn’t seem like it some days, but I am happy to be alive.”

She watched the truth dawn on his face, and wondered if this was the first time he’d said as much aloud. “Good.” She wanted to say more, to point out that there was so much more to the world than war and death and loss, but with her own loss like a monkey on her back, it felt hypocritical in the extreme. Luke admitted he was happy to be alive. That was as much a step in the right direction as her journey to the top of Pulpit Rock earlier.

I won’t be there to see the end of it.

The truth settled in her chest, as heavy as a boulder. Maybe he was in Europe for the same reason she was, but their time would come to an end and their paths would split, and she’d never see the moment he let the chains of the past go. Because he would. She was suddenly sure of that.

“What happened to you?”

Alexis looked up and froze, a deer facing off with a hungry wolf. The way Luke’s eyes pinned her in place certainly felt predatory. “What?”

“Give me a little credit here, darlin’. You didn’t just decide to travel by yourself through Europe for no reason. Well-adjusted people don’t feel the need to hike to the top of a cliff and touch the edge. Trust me.” He jerked a thumb at his chest. “It takes one to know one.”

This was the moment. He’d bared his physical scars to her. Now she had the choice between returning the favor with her emotional scars or turning away. She opened her mouth, but the words wouldn’t come. There were too many other voices in her head. Eric’s saying, “You weren’t that much of a catch to begin with, Alexis. And now I’m expected to give up my future children? Absolutely not.” Yé-yé’s saying, “You had one job, and you’ve failed at that, Alexis. You bring shame on our family.” On her dark days, she suspected they both would have been happier if the cancer took her life, instead of her uterus. Even her sister’s saying, “I’m pregnant.” All of them reminders of how she’d dropped the ball as a woman.

She couldn’t stand the thought of seeing the same disappointment reflected in Luke’s sea-green eyes. He might find her aggravating as all get out, but he wanted her. Would he still feel the same way if he knew about the cancer?

I can’t take that chance.

She pushed to her feet. “I need a shower.”

“Ah, hell, princess. Just when I thought we were getting somewhere.”

Shame heated the back of her neck as she slipped into the bathroom and shut the door, but it wasn’t enough to make her stop and turn around and pour out her broken heart to him.

Chapter Ten

Call him a fool, but Luke was actually surprised when Alexis basically dived into the bathroom to escape him. He wished his question had been idle curiosity—it would have made her retreat easier to bear—but his need to know more about her past had taken on a life of its own. She was so damn strong in so many ways. Aggravating as hell sometimes, but strong. She’d looked at his scars and then called him out.

Even his Aunt Rose had reacted at the sight of his knee. She’d gone back to the ball-busting woman he knew almost immediately afterward, but that half a second of horror on her face had been enough to confirm what he’d already known. He was fucked up beyond repair.

And then here came this little woman who seemed to have more stubbornness than common sense to shine a light on him in a way he’d never experienced before. Alexis didn’t look at him and see a broken man, never able to be whole again. She acknowledged his injury the same way she’d acknowledge that he had green eyes or blond hair—just a part of him, no greater or smaller than any other part.

He didn’t know what the hell he was supposed to do about that.

A scream brought him to his feet before he registered the decision to move. A second one had him hurtling through the bathroom door, ignoring the protest his knee made. He found Alexis huddled in the corner of the shower, but after a quick glance to make sure she wasn’t hurt, he bypassed her to search for the threat.

“What’s wrong? Why’d you scream?” He turned in another