I thought women were…angels. I idolized Gillian. When she left me, it was like a bomb hitting. I had to rethink everything. I went through a really dark time. Honestly, I went a little over the edge.”
“Over the edge? How do you mean?”
He stopped himself before he went any further. “I don’t know you well enough yet. Sorry.”
Her eyes went wide with indignation. “Now that’s a tease and a half. Unfair.”
“How is that unfair when I don’t know the first thing about your life? Except the two-year dry spell. Can’t forget about that. Ever been close to getting married?”
“Nope. Before I came to Lost Harbor, I was one hundred percent focused on my career. Except when I was focused on having fun.” She sparkled a smile at him. “I’ve always kept my relationships…undemanding.”
“What were you afraid of?”
His question seemed to startle her. “Afraid? What makes you think I was afraid?”
“Just an impression.”
She tilted her head, mulling that over. A basket of breadsticks appeared, dropped off by the hostess, and she cracked one in half and dipped it in olive oil. “Maybe I was afraid. I didn’t want to get sidetracked. I didn’t want to get sucked back into the muck. I always figured I was one bad decision away from becoming Naughty Kate all over again. So yeah…I guess I was afraid.”
“Hm.”
She made a face at him. “Hm? What does that mean? Hm.”
“I think you’re brave. You grabbed your life and decided for yourself what you wanted. And hey, you came to Alaska. Farming in Alaska is no cakewalk.”
“That’s true. The other day I literally fell through the snow crust while I was carrying a bag of fertilizer to a shed. I fell on my ass and got showered with chicken manure. I even had some in my eyelashes. I think I still might have a few bits of it here and there. Oh, hello!”
The waitress had arrived and, judging by her look of revulsion, had caught that last part. “Sorry, I’m a peony farmer from Alaska,” said Kate. “I have stories.”
“A peony farmer? That’s a thing?”
“It was a surprise to me too. But yes.”
The waitress, a gorgeous twenty-something, turned to Darius. “Are you a peony farmer too?”
“No. I’m a—”
“He’s my personal bodyguard,” Kate interrupted.
He raised an eyebrow at her, but she just blinked at him innocently and picked up her menu. They placed their orders—both of them going for the steak specials, with all the extras.
When the waitress was gone, he allowed a smug smile to curve across his face. “Your personal bodyguard, eh?”
She shrugged one bare shoulder. “If you’d told her you were a firefighter, she’d be flirting with you nonstop. I rescued you.”
He decided it would be fun to tease her a little. “You keep telling yourself that.”
“What do you mean?”
“You were obviously telling her to back off. You were guarding your territory.”
“My territory? What are you, the back forty?”
He leaned closer to her. “You called me ‘your personal bodyguard.’ Not just your bodyguard. But your personal one. She got the message pretty quick too.”
“Maybe I don’t want you getting distracted when you’re supposed to be protecting me.”
“Maybe you know there’s something going on here,” he waved his hand between them, “and you don’t want anyone messing with it.”
“Oh really, that’s your interpretation? Isn’t that a little bit arrogant?” The quiver in one corner of her mouth took the sting out of her insult.
“It’s not arrogance if it’s true.” He held her gaze, feeling that wild connection flare between them again. It was always there, like background static, and all it took was a little oxygen to make it burst to life.
The muscles of her throat moved as she swallowed. His cock twitched in response. Fuck, why was it that every move she made got a rise out of him?
Their stare down ended when she capitulated. “Okay, say that it is true. Obviously there’s something between us. But it’s probably just…a physical anomaly. It doesn’t mean anything. We’re not compatible, obviously. If we were we wouldn’t argue so much.”
Earlier in his life, that might have wounded him. But he’d grown a thick shield around his heart since his Gillian days.
“Besides,” she added, “I decided to not do anything stupid. My close call, remember?”
“I remember. Never was clear on the reasons, though.”
Well,” she began warily. “If those guys find me, I might have to go somewhere else. I don’t want to put anyone else at risk.”
“What if that ‘anyone else’ decides he’s okay with that risk? I came