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If he had been disappointed in her before, how much more would he be now?
“Come on, Eve; just talk to me for a minute,” he called out again as Brogan moved back from her, his jaw clenching, his blue-gray eyes flickering with frustration.
Jerking his shirt from the floor, he tossed the towel to her bed and hurriedly moved to the door connecting the bedroom to the sitting area.
Jumping from the bed, Eve grabbed her robe from the tall dressing screen on the other side of her bed and quickly pulled it on, tying it as she rushed to the patio door.
She opened the door just enough to face him, glaring at him, uncertain whether it was Dawg or herself she was suddenly angry with.
“Don’t you ever sleep, Dawg?” she questioned him, hearing the roughness in her voice, feeling the heat that still flushed her body, and terrified he’d realize what she had been doing.
The look in his eyes sent guilt tearing through her.
He looked as miserable as she had felt at the bar. His celadon eyes were a shade darker, still such a light color it was hard to tell whether they were green or a very light blue or gray in the dim light of the room.
A heavy frown pulled at his brow as he reached back, rubbed at his neck, and sighed wearily.
“I couldn’t go home without checking on you,” he admitted. “I had to make sure you were okay. ”
“I’m fine, Dawg,” she said with a sigh, her chest tightening with such regret and pain that the ache actually tugged at her heart. “But isn’t it a little late for a married man such as yourself to be running the roads?”
A heavy expulsion of breath met her question. “Some things can only be done at night, it seems. ” He grinned back at her. “But this couldn’t wait. ”
“Well, as you can see, I’m fine. ”
He shook his head, ran the fingers of one hand through his hair, then propped both hands at his hips before sliding them into the back pockets of his jeans.
Damn, her brother was nervous. She had never seen Dawg nervous.
“You know,” he finally said roughly, “I was damned proud of you tonight at the bar. You kept your head and didn’t let Sandi goad you with her insults. But once she struck, you took care of things damned well, Eve. I worry, you know. ”
He looked away from her for a second, clearly not finished.
“Why?” she asked anyway.
“I worry about you and your sisters,” he admitted. “That somehow you’ll get hurt, seriously hurt, because I might not be where you need me. Or because someone decided to go on a rampage wherever you are. Knowing you have the ability to defend yourself makes me breathe a little easier. I’ll sleep a little better. ”
God, he was serious.
The surge of thankfulness that he even thought about her while she wasn’t in his sight rushed through her. It was almost as strong as the guilt tearing her apart now that Brogan was no longer touching her.
“Dawg, I try to be careful,” she promised him. “And I know Piper, Lyrica, and Zoey do as well. You, Rowdy, and Natches have taught us to fight and how to use our heads. The rest of it is up to us. You can’t watch us twenty-four/seven. ”
He nodded slowly, looked away again for long moments, then turned back to her.
He cleared his throat. “About Brogan—”
“No. ” Eve gave her head a hard shake as her hand clenched on the side of the door. “I can’t talk about Brogan, Dawg. Please. ”
This was tearing her apart. It was destroying her as nothing ever had. As nothing ever could. Guilt at her deception, at the knowledge that Brogan was standing just on the other side of the door between her bedroom and the sitting room, dug into her heart. It was like a lance piercing her soul, the knowledge that she was breaking her word to the only
person who had ever given a damn about her besides her mother and sisters.
* * *
Dawg knew guilt when he saw it. Just as he knew the agony of thinking, believing something that should have been his never would be.
The day Christa had told him she had lost their baby when she had been little more than a teenager, that summer she had run from Somerset. He’d felt it then. Felt his soul being sliced in two with a jagged blade.
