Page 60 of Secrets in the Deep

She’d driven it off a bridge,that’swhat she’d done with it.

He cleared his throat, running a hand over his face. “How’s the knee?”

“It’s okay.”

“May I?”

Before she could respond, he slipped her leg out from beneath her and studied the scarring. A low growl rippled from his chest. “I hate that you were hurt because of me.”

“Not because of you. I’ve said that already.”

He ran his finger over the scars, causing a shiver to run up her thigh.

As he studied her knee, she studied his hand. The thickness of his knuckles. The veins that ran beneath his skin.

Her lower belly quivered. “Ryan?—”

She wasn’t even sure what she’d been about to say when he began to massage her thigh above her knee.

Holy Jesus, that felt good. Her eyes rolled back before she closed them entirely. Then her head tilted to the side of the sofa, and she just let herself sit in the moment. With his hands on her. His evergreen scent filling the air.

“Do you want me to take you back to the inn?”

“No.” She didn’t even open her eyes as she answered.

A second passed. Then another. Eventually, she looked at him to see that deep, familiar frown between his brows again.

Would he send her away? She hoped not. In this moment, she couldn’t imagine being anywhere other than here.

Slowly, he set her leg down on the floor before standing and holding out his hand. “Come on.”

With blind trust she absolutely shouldn’t have, she set her palm in his and let him lead her up the stairs. It was only when they stepped into his bedroom that she stopped. “You’re giving me your bed?”

“I haven’t made up the spare.”

“No.” She stepped back. “I can’t?—”

“You can.”

The doorbell downstairs rang.

Ryan’s brow hitched. “Expecting anyone?”

Oh no…“I think I know who it is.”

She turned and marched down the stairs, Ryan’s footsteps thumping behind her. She was just reaching for the door when he gripped her wrist. “I’ll open it.”

He looked through the peephole…and frowned.

“It’s her, isn’t it?” Emily groaned. “It’s my mother, here to rain hell down on both of us.” That was it. Emily was going to give her a huge piece of her mind. She was going to tell her mother exactly where she could go and?—

“No.”

“No?”

“No one’s there.”

“What?”