was sexy and tempting. A warm glow started in her heart and between her legs, and it frightened her even as it gladdened her.
He tightened his grip on her hands. “Believe me, Sky, I’m not doing anything out of a sense of duty. Not today. I’m here because I want to be.”
His hands holding hers felt so good. His skin was warm and dry, and slightly roughened from work. Not like Hector’s soft hands. It gave her something to cling to. “Thank you,” she offered tentatively.
“I don’t know what that guy did to you, but it must have been some number. I see this wonderfully independent, outspoken, determined woman, and then I see something crumple inside you. Just every now and then. I don’t even know who he is, but it makes me want to shake him.”
“Hector,” she managed. “His name is Hector. And you’re right, he did a number.”
“That’s plain to see. I don’t want to add to what he did, but I can honestly tell you that I want nothing more than to carry you to those sleeping bags and make love to you. I’d even,” he added a little wryly, “like to think I could make you forget he ever existed.”
What a beautiful thought that was. She ached for him to do exactly that. But she was frightened, too, and suddenly she loathed that fear. With all she had been through, how was it that a man had succeeded in making her afraid of life? Nothing else had.
“You’re crumpling again,” Craig remarked. He released her hands, brushed the back of his fingers against her cheek, then rose. “I’ll get us some coffee. We’re not done talking.”
They weren’t? But he had pegged her exactly, she realized. He had read her like an open book. She wouldn’t have believed that anyone could see through her like that. She didn’t know whether she felt uncomfortable or relieved that she didn’t have to explain every little thing.
He handed her a mug and she cradled it in her hands, welcoming the heat. The stove was keeping the cabin warm, but for some reason, despite the actual temperature inside, whenever it got chilly outside her hands grew cold. Almost as if her body were adapting even though it didn’t need to.
Craig pulled a bench over and sat close to her. “You said Hector cheated on you?”
“Yes.” Then she blurted, “Worse than that. He said I was a lousy lay.” She almost wanted to crawl under the floorboards as the words escaped her.
Craig swore quietly. “So basically he gutted you. By cheating, by claiming you didn’t pay enough attention to him and by attacking you as a lover. That pretty much cover it?”
She nodded, but she didn’t dare look at him. Not at this instant. She’d just revealed one of her deepest scars and she felt more vulnerable than she’d ever felt on a too-quiet street in Iraq when they knew there were snipers around.
An odd thought, but one that told her she might be taking what Hector said way too hard.
“So he wanted you to pay more attention to him.”
She nodded.
“Selfish. And you know what else that tells me?”
“No.”
“The only lousy lovers I’ve ever run into were the selfish ones. I’d stake a year’s pay that Hector was the lousy lover. Selfish. If you can stand it, think back over what it was like with him. I’d willingly bet that it was all about him. All of it.”
“I don’t know,” she whispered. That revealed a whole lot, too.
“Was he your first?”
“My only.”
“Then don’t take his word for a damn thing. This whole picture says that Hector was the center of the universe and that anyone who didn’t appreciate that fact wasn’t good enough for him. How much time did he really spend trying to please you?”
She couldn’t answer that, but the question made her start thinking. Other than the earliest days with him, she did seem to remember always trying to please him, and often failing miserably. Was that because of him or her? She didn’t know.
Craig reached out for her hand and squeezed it. “I’m no lothario, although there may have been a time when I was younger that I strove for the title.”
Out of the miasma of despair that had been filling her, she felt an irrepressible little bubble of humor. At last she was able to look at him. His expression was gentle. Kind.
“I’ve had more experience than you,” he said frankly. “I’ve grown up a lot since then and