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“I’m sure that’s true,” he said. “I seem to remember a woman whose sole purpose in life was pleasing the men in her bed.”
“That was a long time ago,” she snapped.
“It was last week,” he assured her.
“Maybe to you. To me, it was two lifetimes ago.” She looked around the room and her gaze held at the far window. A beat-up pickup truck dragging along a fancy horse trailer drove through the main gates. “I asked you a question.”
“Yep, you did.”
“Well? What about it? Why are you hell-bent on helping me?”
“Some say a man in love will do anything and everything for the woman who belongs to him. You’re mine, Julie. You always have been. Time and distance separated us. Almost losing you forever brought us back together again. You might as well get used to the fact. Now that you’re back where you’ve always belonged, Hank and I will never let you go.”
Chapter Three
She looked like a beauty queen who might have won the swimsuit competition if only she’d worn the string bikini flashing bare skin. Then again, if she’d sported much more, Hank wouldn’t have been able to remain a gentleman.
Her long red locks clung to slender shoulders while spirals of curls dipped toward the open scoop revealing the small of her back. Scars marked her pale skin. Deeply embedded, those wounds would most likely never heal. Fire had seared her flesh, and the scorching reminders perhaps forever earned their place in her memory as much as anywhere else. The third-degree burns would indeed heal, but Hank worried if Julie ever would.
The bad dreams Hank watched her survive told a tale he wouldn’t soon forget. Julie was troubled, truly tortured by what she witnessed in those nightmares. As much as Hank wanted to enter those dreams and protect her from what she saw, he couldn’t go there. She had to walk down Memory Lane alone.
Hank clutched the bright orange towel as he strolled toward the ladder. Offering his hand, he hoisted her into his arms where he immediately wrapped her small frame against his much larger one, draping the beach towel over her shivering form.
He kissed the top of her head and she immediately jerked. “Why’d you do that?”
“I don’t need a reason, do I?”
“Yes,” she snapped, turning to her physical therapist. “We’re done here, right?”
“Yes, ma’am,” Don responded, collecting some of the floating devices they’d used for stretching exercises.
Julie squirmed. “You can put me down if you like.”
“And if I don’t?”
She narrowed her gaze on his lips and he noticed the way her tongue ran over the texture of her moist mouth. He wanted to steal away with the moment and kiss away her pain, the evidence of hurt and heartache lingering in her beautiful brown eyes.
His mouth skimmed past hers and she immediately pulled away. “Just what do you think you’re doing?”
Hank carried her to a nearby lounger and lowered her to the chair. Dragging another one across the patio, he debated on how much he could push Julie. Without pondering too long, he sat across from her.
“I wanted to kiss you.”
“There won’t be any of that,” she told him, using the end of the towel to pat her face.
“We’ll see.”
“Yes, we will,” she said, giving him a dare he’d certainly take.
“Have you had the opportunity to talk to Duke about our plans for you?”
“Your plans?”
“Yes.”
“No, I haven’t.”
“That’s too bad,” Hank said, brushing long, soft bangs away from her wrinkled brow. “Even when you frown, you still look sensational.”
