Page 68 of Her Noble Protector

Raiden’s hold remained gentle. His thumb was caressing circles on the back of her hand. “Let’s be straight out, okay? I think what you’re telling me is that some shitheel named Damon hurt you when you were sixteen. Hurt you so bad that the police had to get involved. Am I right?”

How did he know Damon’s name?

Lisa nodded, loving the feel of his touch.

“Did you ever get counseling for that?” Raiden asked softly.

“No,” she answered, her voice a whisper. She wanted to tell him more, but she didn’t know how. His eyes were so warm and kind, so compassionate, but still, how could she say the words?

“Honey, were you raped?” Raiden asked.

Lisa shivered. Her shoulders sagged and her eyes dropped away from his. “Yes,” she answered. When she tried to pull her hand away from his, he covered it with his other hand, his hold warm and comforting.

“I’m so sorry that happened to you.” She looked up at Raiden when she heard the deep rumble of his voice. He sounded in pain.

“I’m over it now,” Lisa rushed to assure him.

“I so wish you were, honey. I wish that with everything in me. But that’s not what you’ve said, is it?” She listened intently to his solemn voice. “You’ve told me that you’ve been living with your head in the sand for years, with nobody getting inside the walls you’ve built around you. Isn’t that true?”

Did I really say that?

“Yeah. That’s true,” she agreed.

He took a deep breath, then expelled it. “Is that how you want your life to continue to be?”

His hands were so warm around hers. His eyes so kind. He felt so safe. “I went to Mexico to find my father’s family. I wanted to take a chance to find my people, to open up,” she admitted.

He nodded like he understood. “Lisa, I want time to get to know you, see if you’ll lower your defenses a little bit, and let me in. I know that’s going to take some time, so I want you to come to Virginia with me. Let me keep you somewhere close by to me, where I can keep an eye on you and make sure you’re safe.”

Her hand jerked in his, but then she relaxed. “You do?”

“I do.”

Lisa pulled back her hand and Raiden released her this time. She fumbled out of her chair and stood over Raiden. “Maybe after a month. Six months. A year. Maybe then I’ll have my shit together and I’ll be good enough for something like that, but Raiden, I can’t.”

Raiden remained seated, he looked up at her.

“You can’t stay here. Maria hasn’t been caught, neither has that guy from the cartel, and he knows you’re here. You’ve got to leave. Nobody would have the first earthly idea that you would be spending some time in Virginia. You have no ties there, they wouldn’t ever look to find you there.”

Lisa sucked in a deep, shuddering breath. Her eyes skittered across her room, landing on her picture of the Alaskan glacier. “Then I’ll go to Alaska.”

“Honey, they know what you used to do, they know that’s where you used to work. They’ll find you up there.”

Lisa snorted. “On an Alaskan mountaintop? Give me a break.”

She watched as Raiden continued to stay seated. He looked calm and relaxed. Caring, even. “Come to Virginia with me. Let me keep you safe. Let’s give you the time you need to recover. Let’s give us time.”

Lisa took one step back, then another.

“I don’t understand. Where would I go?”

“Wouldn’t it be great if you had someone like Paula to live with? Someone warm, loving, caring, and crazy who would make you breakfast in the mornings and make sure you took care of yourself. Someone who would butt into every aspect of your life because she cared so much about you? Better yet, maybe even have a family all around you?”

“Raiden, you’re not making any sense.”

“I thought about it. I can’t have you live with me; that’s not going to give us the space we’ll need to explore our relationship.”

“We don’t have a relationship,” she burst out.