Impossibly, because he hadn’t believed he could hunger for her more than he already did.
Impossibly, because she was hurt, bruised, and no doubt the last thing on her mind was sex. She was definitely exhausted. She’d slept the whole of the flight, waking only as the plane taxied to the private hangar DHS leased.
“Why won’t he wait until we need him, Jed?” she questioned with hurt anger. “Why can’t he just let us live a little bit?”
“Because he’s seen the monsters.” Jed knew exactly why. “He knows what’s out there, Piper, and the nightmares haunt him now—the fear of not protecting the four of you, of being off guard and missing a threat, gives him nightmares. That’s why he’s driving himself to a stroke. That’s why he has trouble letting you live your life. Because he knows that in that one moment that you relax your guard, that’s when the monsters strike and attempt to steal everything you love in life.”
“Did they steal something you love?” she asked.
How had she guessed there was more to his life than he’d allowed her to see so far?
“Not quite.” Glancing at her, he saw the need in her eyes—not a sexual need or a physical hunger.
She needed to see more of him than he’d allowed so far.
Intimacy. That connection that had the ability to bind two people together or tear them apart.
“No one knows I have a sister.” He had to force himself to share with her something that even Timothy Cranston was unaware of.
“You hide your family.” She nodded as though it made sense.
“Well, my mother hid me from them first,” he admitted with a flicker of amused remembrance. “She didn’t want my father to know about me, didn’t want me to be threatened by his career in covert intelligence or his enemies. Father knew about me, though. When I was old enough, he found me, and drew me in like he does so many others and gave me one task: Protect my sister.”
He could laugh about it now; at the time, it hadn’t been nearly so funny.
“You say that as though it were an impossible task,” she observed curiously.
“You would have to know Mary Elizabeth to be amused,” he said with a grunt. “She taught me a long time ago that you can’t surround those you love in bubble wrap and expect it to work. First they burst the bubbles; then they find an escape route. Once they escape, they don’t tell you where they’re going or why.”
Piper watched as that crooked little smile she loved touched his hard lips and gleamed in his dark blue eyes.
“You tried to surround her in bubble wrap then?” she asked. “Guess you learned the hard way, huh? I wish you could teach Dawg and my cousins the fact that it simply isn’t possible to lock us away until it’s time to bury us.”
“That’s your job, sweetheart.” He sighed as she watched him, her gaze meeting his for the second he glanced at her, yet feeling the effects of the amused heat in his eyes for that tiny moment in time.
“How is that my job?” She couldn’t imagine teaching Dawg anything. The man gave stubborn a bad name.
“Most sisters start when they’re babies,” he admitted. “But you’re on the right track. Live, laugh, have fun, and go head-to-head with him whenever you have to. But don’t disappear on him again, Piper. Do it again, and next time I promise I’ll help him find you.”
“And what makes you think you can find me if Dawg can’t?”
“Because Dawg doesn’t want to admit you would actually leave the state without telling him,” he pointed out as guilt flayed her once again. “I don’t have that problem. I saw you leave the inn when you snuck out. I heard the car stopping just dow
n the road. I knew why you were doing it, though. I didn’t follow; I didn’t run a check on the car. I went back into my room and stared up at the ceiling the rest of the night, wondering who was the man you left with.”
The man?
Piper almost smiled. She could hear the probing question he was doing nothing to hide.
“It wasn’t a man,” she admitted. “It was the sister of a friend giving me a ride to the Louisville train station. I tried to cover my tracks so Dawg wouldn’t follow me.”
He nodded once.
“It didn’t work out so well.” She sighed, completing the thought.
“No, but I’m going to assume the circumstances were unusual,” he stated.
“How the hell do I know?” She still didn’t understand why, who, or what. “One minute I’m waiting on a bellhop and a ride to the train station, and the next second I’m being pounded on, then waking in a hospital with a concussion and so many bruises that breathing hurts.”