“Why?”
She sighed. “I brought this problem to your door and now you’re having to deal with it.”
“It’s my job.”
She shook her head. “I can handle things like this. I was trained for it.”
He knew that she was trying to convince herself, but it still angered him. Not particularly at her. Anger at the situation and her upbringing. Kap kept thinking about what Ian had said. Being raised like she had, she’d probably always felt she needed to control every situation. There was a fair amount of his heart breaking for the woman…the young girl she had been. He heard the recrimination in her voice, and it was directed solely at herself. Eden thought she had failed in some way.
“Eden.”
“I don’t want to be a bother.”
“Woman, you are going to bother me until the day I die.”
Her head snapped up before she tried to twist away from him. Her cheeks had flushed with anger. Good. That was better than her looking like she was on her deathbed.
“Well, rest assured, I will be out of your life as soon as we find this bastard. Also, I can get another bodyguard. I’m sure there is someone at TFH or Dillon who can protect me.”
“No fucking way.”
She blinked. He didn’t cuss much, but he couldn’t stop the anger that whipped through him at the thought of someone else taking care of her needs. He knew that it was probably a better idea because his heart was involved. Still, even if someone took over her protection, he wasn’t leaving.
He pulled her closer. “You seem to think that bothering me is a bad thing, but I’ll let you in on a little secret. I will want you until the day I die. I have wanted you every day since the day I walked away like an asshole.”
Her mouth opened, then closed. Kap liked that. For once, she was starting to understand what she meant to him—even if he was just beginning to understand it himself.
“Do you know that there has not been another woman since you?”
She shook her head. “You slept with Amy Miller.”
Of course, she knew that. The woman was a spy. He should have known that she would have kept tabs on him.
“I was very drunk, and I was hurting.”
“Sure.”
Her tone told him that she didn’t believe him. “One night. One freaking night that I was missing you, thinking about you, wishing things had been different. But I was angry and, being a typical man. I couldn’t admit I had been wrong. I knew you couldn’t tell me you were an operative. My brain knew that, at least.”
“Then why did you say those things? Why did you leave me?”
Her eyes shimmered with tears, and that broke his heart. She had always presented herself as this strong woman who could handle anything, and she could. Kap had no doubt about that. Eden was ten times stronger than he would ever be. But…she was human, and he had broken something between them.
“Ego.”
She rolled her eyes, then brushed away the tears with her free hand.
“Eden, you have to understand. I knew that we had something special, but…” He hesitated for only a second, but it was enough for her doubts to take hold.
“Never mind, Kap. When this is all over, we’ll avoid each other again. It’s a small island, but I’m sure we can figure out a way.”
Again, she tried to twist away and step around him, but he stopped her.
“I was fucking scared.”
She stopped moving.
He didn’t take his gaze from hers. “I was a coward. I knew I was falling in love with you, so that fear made me lash out at you. I was a dumbass.”
