Page 69 of Her Faithful Protector

He looked over his shoulder at the photo over the couch and smiled. “Yeah. We took a couple of family vacations to Yosemite, and I loved it out there. When I saw his photo of Half Dome, I was hooked. I knew I wanted some of his prints in my home.”

“So you decorated this place?” she asked tentatively.

He laughed. “What, you thought I had mom do this?”

“Not really, I was thinking a girlfriend,” she admitted.

He scooched over on the couch, took the bottle of water out of her hand, and set it down on the coffee table. “There’s never been a girlfriend. Don’t get me wrong; there have been women, but there’s never been a girlfriend.”

“Never? Is it because you’re gone so much, on those kinds of missions and stuff?”

He gave her a crooked smile. “You met A.J. today. Kane’s one of my teammates, she’s his wife. So relationships are definitely doable. It just hasn’t happened for me. How about you, since I know that you were never engaged to Harris. Anyone serious?”

“There was someone in graduate school,” she admitted slowly. “But we both knew it wasn’t going to go anywhere.”

He frowned. “Why not? Hell, Cami, was he stupid?”

A sense of warmth unfurled in her chest at his words. “He was the furthest thing from stupid as possible. He was going to go teach at Cambridge. He had his path set in stone. His plan was to have a wife who would further his career by hosting dinner parties and making small talk.”

“What in the hell did you see in a guy like him?”

She bit her lip. This time it didn’t hurt quite as much, but he still noticed. He reached out and slowly touched her face, his thumb gently tugging her lip away from her teeth. “Tell me.”

“I guess I was lonely.”

“I get that,” he said softly. “I’ve been lonely too.”

“Even with…” she waved her hand. “Even with the women?”

He sighed. “Yeah, even with the women. There was never any real connection.”

“I’m sorry.” And she was.

He took the bottle out of her hand and put it on the coffee table, took her hand and laced their fingers together. “I’m not. I’m not going to lie and say I’ve been waiting for you, because I haven’t. After I thought you rejected me years ago, I worked hard to put you behind me. But as soon as I heard your name two weeks ago? Hell, Cami, you were all I could think about. The past came flooding back. I realized why my life had been in stasis. I had to get to you.”

“I tried to put you behind me too,” she admitted. “After all, we were in high school, that kind of relationship never matters, right?”

He gently cupped her cheek. “Wrong. So, so wrong. Looking back, you were the most important person in my life, ever.”

Those words hit her right in her heart.

“I’m glad I’m here,” she whispered.

“So am I, baby. So am I.”

21

Three days later, Nic looked over at Cami sitting on the little patio off the side of his living room. The bruises on her face were clearing up, but that was about all that was getting better. As a matter of fact, things were getting worse.

The first night she’d slept through just fine, but the last two nights she’d had terrible nightmares. Something needed to be done because she was talking less and less. She was closing in on herself. He needed to help her, but he didn’t know how.

He went into the kitchen, far enough away that he was positive she wouldn’t be able to hear him but close enough that he would still be able to watch her. He called Raiden—he figured as the team medic he could give him some advice.

“Yeah?”

That didn’t sound good.

“Hey, Raiden, how are you doing?”