Page 35 of Secrets in the Deep

At least her mother wasn’t here. Melanie Prior talked a big game, but if the clock passed midnight, she was out.

Lucky her.

For a second, she closed her eyes. Just a second.

Mistake. Big mistake. She swayed. Heck, she might have fallen right off the log she was sitting on, but a shoulder was suddenly beside her, propping her up.

Without opening her eyes, she knew it wasn’t Preston. Because she knew that shoulder. That scent.

“Are you okay?” Ryan asked gently. Too gently. His voice almost drew her back in time. To when he was hers and she was his.

She looked at him, not quite sure her eyes were fully open. “Tired.”

“We’re not going to get it tonight,” Roscoe shouted. “We’ll go again tomorrow night.”

Great. And by tomorrow night, he meanttonight, because what was it? Four in the morning? Five?

She stood. “I’m going to the inn to sleep and hopefully not wake for a very long time.”

“I’ll drive you.”

She almost laughed, because a car trip alone with Ryan? No thank you. “I’ve got my car.”

“You’re exhausted.”

“So are you.”

“I’m used to getting no sleep.”

Uh, yes, because he was a big bad former SEAL. “I’ll get a ride with someone else.” She started moving through the trees, for some reason feeling irrationally annoyed when he matched her step for step. “You don’t need to follow me.”

“You’re going the wrong way. I need to make sure you get back okay.”

Was she? Dammit. “I didn’t ask you to do that.”

“You didn’t have to.”

Maybe it was because of the long night of shooting, maybe because she was exhausted, but she suddenly got the uncontrollable urge to rage at the man.

She spun. “Stop it.”

“Stop what?”

“This! All of it. We’re not together, so you don’t need to protect me or watch over me.”

“I willalwayswant to protect you.”

“You didn’t that night.”

He flinched. And shit. She didn’t mean the crash. She’d meant the breakup. Her heart.

She swallowed, thanking every star that there was no one close by as she said the next part. “I need you to leave me alone. You stopped loving me and?—”

“You think I stopped loving you?”

“Maybe not completely. But if you’d lovedmelike I lovedyou, you never would have done what you did.”

Emotions flickered across his face. Pain. Anger. And maybe even a bit of agony. “I loved you, Emi. Fuck, I loved you with my whole heart. But you were going to give it all up for me. I couldn’t let you do that. So I made a choice. I put you first.”