The man on the cover looked a little like the one who’d rescued her.
She swallowed. “How did you know I like romances?” she rasped.
He shifted his weight, brushing his knuckle over the pile of books. “I saw the look on your face and asked myself WWEL?”
“What does that mean?”
“What would Ellory do. My younger sister.” Those hard lips curved into the first smile she’d seen on him, and her heart performed a little backflip.
His shoulders relaxed as he went on. “My brothers made fun of her when they caught her reading romances. I didn’t want you to go through the same thing, so I didn’t ask, I just assumed.”
A smile spread over her own face. “You have a younger sister? Me too.”
That changed the air between them in a way she didn’t expect. It wasn’t a huge shift, and no mountains were moving, but she picked up a subtle easing like she could let down her guard just a little.
He leaned back against the wall, arms loose at his sides, close enough that she was aware of him.Tooaware of him.
Before she could fully memorize the bulge of muscles in his sculpted forearms and the veins running up and down them, he broke in.
“They’re older now?”
“Yeah. Three of them—two brothers and a sister. They’re in jobs and college courses. Doing what they’re supposed to be doing.”
His gaze riveted on her face in a way that made her feel like he saw more than she expected to show him or anybody.
“I have three brothers, one sister,” he told her.
It was her turn to study him, and she saw things she shouldn’t notice—like the way his shirt pulled tight across muscle built from action.
She looked up into his eyes. “So you understand where I’m coming from.”
He didn’t answer, but the tendon in the crease of his jaw fluttered as if he was locking his molars together.
God, that’s hot.
She had to get him out of here before she embarrassed herself. “Thanks for the books, but…”
He watched her, waiting.
It was impossible to ignore how good-looking he was, but the long heartbeat they stared at each other worried her more.
Because it felt like connection.
She felt it in the way he swept her off that tower as if they were only fighting a summer breeze. The way he stood in doorways like nothing could get past him unless he allowed it. And for the first time since that terrible day she learned she was in charge of her and her family’s lives, she felt…
Safe.
She scuffed her socked toe on the concrete floor to center her thoughts. “I don’t mean to sound ungrateful, but any idea when I’m going home yet?”
“I’ll ask Cannon.” He pushed off the wall.
“If I could just call my sister—”
“No.” The word came out firm and immediate.
Her jaw tightened with the sharp cramp of holding back sudden tears. “If I could just send her a picture to let her know I’m okay.”
“No.”
