Page 12 of Stirring Attraction (Second Shot 2)
His hands dropped to his side, abandoning the attempts to wipe away the pie that had hit its target with near-perfect aim. Lily glanced at Caroline. She wasn’t sure she wanted to see the dishwasher with a firearm.
Then she glanced back at Dominic. Marionberries clung to his beard. He’d always been clean-shaven. But now, his dark hair was long and it looked like he’d lost his razor around the same time he’d kissed the rangers goodbye. She’d loved the hard lines of his jaw and the feel of his skin against her when they kissed. But this look . . .
She ached to touch and explore. He looked wild and unrestrained, as if he didn’t give a damn, as if he didn’t hold anything back. Her gaze headed south to the muscles she’d wanted to memorize before he left. He appeared bigger, more powerful.
Impossible.
He’d always been strong, able to lift her up and press her against the wall. He’d held her with ease while she fell apart . . .
And with that memory, her fury and her fear opened the door to another entirely unwelcome emotion—desire. It was as if they were forming a club determined to barricade her heart, mind, and soul against the feelings that might help her return to her calm, steady life. But no, her unruly emotions took one look at the bearded, buff man in the bar and thought: touch him!
Her feelings needed to shut the hell up, she thought as she stared at him. “Dominic, why are you here?” Lily asked. “Why did they make you come back?”
“To keep you safe.”
“You refused to come home after you were discharged, after you couldn’t serve. But now you show up because Josie and Noah claim I need a bodyguard?”
He raised his right hand to his beard as if to remove the berries and then thought better of it. “Lily—”
“Did they tell you that the police, including your father, think I was in the wrong place at the wrong time?” she demanded. “Did Ryan explain how everyone else believes he was just some crazy person who wanted to slash my face to leave scars . . .”
Her voice broke as his familiar green eyes shone with pity at her words.
“Yes,” he said simply. “Ryan told me.”
“So you came back to protect me from what exactly?” she said, hating that he looked at her as if she’d given in to fear. “My own shadow? The man out to get me that no one believes exists?”
He nodded.
No, no, no! I refuse to let him back into my life now.
“Well, if everyone is so damn concerned about me, if everyone thinks I need a bodyguard—”
“It’s not like that,” he said firmly. “They’re worried and they want you to feel safe. It doesn’t matter if someone is out there or not. If you don’t feel safe, if you need someone to stand guard outside your house and watch the doors, make sure no one is climbing in the windows . . . I can do that.”
Lily let out a laugh. After all this time, after all her attempts to build a future with this man, he’d come back to patrol her street. But she wanted a false sense of security about as much as she wanted empty promises.
I’ll try to make it work, Lil. I promise.
But then he’d deploy with his rangers and send an email listing a bunch of bullshit reasons why she was better off without him. And then after he’d been shot . . .
I’m no good for you, Lil. Look at me. I’m all busted up. I don’t want you wasting your life taking care of me. You’ve done that once. I won’t let you do it again.
Well, now she was broken too. And she refused to let him waste his time watching out for a threat he didn’t believe existed.
No, she wanted security. She needed to feel safe to move through her life, knowing they’d identified and caught her assailant. But Dominic Fairmore was nothing more than a quick fix that would offer a false refuge only to pull it away. She couldn’t trust him to stay, to help her, or to believe her.
“If I need a bodyguard, I choose her,” Lily said, pointing to the woman who wore combat boots to clean dishes. “I want the woman who knows how to throw a pie at my supposedly nonexistent bogeyman.”
Chapter Four
DOMINIC LICKED HIS lips. He could taste the sugar from the pie and recognized the Oregon berry. Hell, it was like being assaulted with a blast from his past as soon as he arrived in town. Ryan had shoved him off the red-eye flight, directed him to the car rental counter, and handed him the key to Noah’s bar. Then his childhood friend had boarded a flight home to the air force base.
And Dominic had driven back in time. He could practically hear his mom laughing as he licked the bowl. The smell of fresh pie used to fill the farmhouse kitchen once upon a time. And then one day it had stopped. His mother had succumbed to a heart condition no one knew she had, leaving behind a son who wanted to make damn sure he left his mark on the world before his life was cut short.
Yeah, one helluva mark.
He glanced down at his injured hand. He’d tried to wipe the food from his face and his damn fingers had failed to comb through his beard.
