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“Of course,” Guido murmured, amused. “Young people have many things to discuss privately.”
His soft chuckle followed them up the hall as Jed led her to her room. Opening the room and stepping in, Piper quickly pulled her arm from his grip.
“Since when do we have things to discuss?” Piper asked roughly as the door closed behind them, very well aware of the fact that he let her go. She wasn’t free because she wanted to be; she was free because he let her be.
Crossing her arms beneath her breasts, she glared at him, wishing she could push back anger, guilt, or any of the other emotions tearing through her, as she could with her family.
She could stare back at Dawg and freeze any response to the knowledge that he was frightened for her, hurting for her, worried about her, or just plain pissed off at her.
Her sister Eve had always been so thankful to be accepted and loved by her brother and cousins that she would have done just about anything—anything but deny the man she loved.
Lyrica, a year younger than Piper, had such a guilt complex that she worried constantly that she would never be good enough, act properly enough, or be strong enough to be part of the Somerset Mackays. God only knew what their youngest sister, Zoey, felt. She rarely talked about it, and if asked would just laugh and say she was where she belonged. But Piper had always felt there was so much more beneath that statement.
Of the four of them their eldest sister, Eve, had handled Dawg best. They all loved him, but each of them had different ways of dealing with him.
Him, or any other man.
Unfortunately, the defenses Piper had built over the years didn’t work with Jed.
“Have you talked to Dawg yet?” he asked.
Piper looked away and shrugged. “He hasn’t been around for a while.”
Guilt was lashing at her now.
God, she remembered the look on his face when he’d seen the bruises on hers. He looked as though someone had died. Or something inside him had died. She ha
dn’t seen him since.
“I’m going to talk to him,” she promised.
What the hell was it with Jed Booker?
He was just staring at her. There was no force, no guilt-inducing comments, just those dark, dark blue eyes watching her with that silent, deep curiosity.
“Are you?” Jed asked.
It was a simple question. No mockery, no sarcasm, nothing offensive, but Piper could feel the guilt growing inside her.
“You don’t understand what he’s like, Jed,” she burst out, pushing her fingers through her hair in frustration as she turned and stomped to the other side of the room before turning back. “This is how he gets you. He knows how to work every damned one of us.”
“Does he, Piper?” he asked her quietly. “Or is he just struggling with his inability to protect four girls he loves nearly as much as he does his own daughter? Four girls whose abandonment and hardships as children torment him?”
She shook her head fiercely. “That wasn’t his fault.”
“Fault doesn’t matter, Piper,” he said calmly, moving to her, making her all too aware of the sudden sensitivity of her body whenever he was around.
His voice was steady, every movement deliberate, but his eyes were like deep pools of sexual heat. His gaze licked over her as his hands curved against her bare shoulders. They slid down along her arms, then back up, the rasp of the calluses against her softer flesh so erotic she was forced to bite back a moan.
“What does matter, Jed?” she asked, unable to break her gaze from his. “Should I give in to him as Eve tried to do, and refuse to end up in your bed? Should I promise not to live or have a life so Dawg can sleep at night?”
Tears filled her eyes at the thought. “Don’t you think I’ve learned how I have to handle him by now? If I don’t defy him, then I won’t have a chance at having a life myself.”
“And there are those times you could defy him and lose your life, Piper.”
“Then he has to learn to talk to us.” Frustrated anger hoarsened her voice as it tore through her emotions. “Why do we have to automatically give in and bury our heads against life or risk dying? Jed, I can’t do that. If I’m in danger then I have to know, and I have to know why. Just as you would.”
His gaze flickered and she knew he understood that.
