DINA DID HER BEST to stare straight at the sun as if that would help dry her eyes. Trevor and whatever fucked up situation this was wasn’t worth her crying any more. She’d known the night she texted him that it was a silly, foolish thing to do. There was nothing good that could come out of her and Trevor getting involved. And tonight went to prove exactly that.

He didn’t care about her. At least not really. With time and distance, he wouldn’t even think of her. While she’d opened up to him, a complete stranger, like she hadn’t to anyone in years. Not even her on-line work friends.

She would have been better off leaving the day they met up in the market like her gut told her to. He was a sign, an indicator that her world was about to crash down around her and she needed to get out fast. When Rudy got back to her, she was going to give him a piece of her mind and this time he’d give her a discount on a new ID. She’d go somewhere new, maybe even leave the country.

But then Dominick won. He got to take her safety away, steal her life, make her run all over again.

Dina didn’t know who she was more pissed off at right now, her brother or Trevor.

Dominick she understood. To him, Dina had betrayed everything they cared about, everyone they loved. She didn’t have to accept his view to understand.

But Trevor? That was the real violation. She’d trusted him. Let herself care about him. And ultimately she’d changed her MO because he was there to help prop her up. All the while she’d been playing into his fantasy.

“Your destination is on the right,” the navigation system announced as they topped a hill and headed down. After a few golden fields, the sudden clustering of trees in the low area was strange.

Dina slowed and turned into a gravel drive. The metal sign over the drive read The Jones Family. A gate barred her way.

“The code is 8319,” Trevor said.

She lowered the window and keyed in the four digits.

What was this place? Who were the Jones?

She eased the SUV down the tree lined drive leading between the two hills. Ahead of her she saw a large farm house with a silver tin roof and two stories. A couple trucks were parked out front and two men in jeans and cowboy hats stood leaned up against a tailgate talking.

“Take the dirt road that goes off to the left up there by the bushes,” Trevor said.

Dina wouldn’t have noticed the path if he hadn’t said anything. The ground was hard packed earth, not much different from the pavement or gravel from what she could tell. They left the farm house in the cluster of trees behind and broke out, driving along a fence line. Trevor didn’t instruct her to stop, so she kept going.

The light faded faster down here between the hills and trees so she turned on the headlights. They wove back through more trees, then broke free only to be stopped by a gate. In the distance, fifty or so yards away, a small pond sat in what looked to be a perfect crater. On the western side a square cabin sat back from the water on the higher ground.

Trevor got out without explanation and opened the gate. She rolled through, leaning forward to catch as much of the landscape as she could before the light totally failed her. Trevor got back in, still not speaking. His silence was a blessing that grated on her nerves. She wanted answers, an explanation for why, some sort of justification or reason that made it all okay. But there wasn’t one. She knew better than to hope for an easy solution.

She pulled the SUV up to the front of the cabin and shifted into park.

“I’ll carry the stuff inside if you want to take a minute,” he said.

That was it.

No further apology or reasoning or anything.

Trevor retrieved her bags and another from the very back, then strode toward the cabin. The headlights shone on his backside, the denim of his jeans hugging his ass in a way that was utterly wrong.

This was her life. This was what she had to deal with.

She’d come through worse. She was strong. One man wouldn’t destroy her.

Dina killed the engine, flipped off the lights and got out. She walked toward the pond and listened to the song of crickets and other unknown things. When she’d first moved out here, the sounds had scared her. For such an empty place there was a lot of noise. But now it was comforting. She wasn’t truly alone even if that was what she pretended she desired.

Trevor hadn’t been back in her life for more than a week and he’d wrecked her. Hell, after their one-night stand she’d been emotionally vulnerable then, too. She should have known better, but she’d been weak. Lonely.

Maybe that was her problem. Despite the risks, being alone only made her more of a risk to herself? So how did she stop this? How did she find that place in life where she could be safe to open up to others?

Stopping Dominick. That was the only universal solution that kept others safe. To do that, she needed the law. It wasn’t something she could do by herself. She wasn’t a vigilante who could take on her brother and whatever power he’d amassed while she was trying to live her small, quiet life.

For now she needed Trevor. She’d take whatever he gave, but when this was over she was out. She didn’t want to be someone’s pet project. She didn’t want to be that girl. She wanted her own life to be and do whatever she felt like doing.

Dina stood there until most of the light had faded, then turned.

The cabin’s windows were lit up. There were no curtains so she could see into the bathroom and what appeared to be the single room of the rest of the space. It was rustic, that was for sure, but it didn’t seem weathered by age either.

Trevor sat at the dining table facing the door, his back to her.

What reasoning would he give her? What would she say?

She couldn’t allow herself to sway under his smile or the impassioned way he spoke. She had to remember who, and what she was to him. A project, that was all.

Dina circled around to the small front porch and opened the door.

“You didn’t step in cow pies, did you?” Trevor asked.

“What is a cow pie?” she asked slowly.

“Oh, good.” His shoulders slumped, and he sighed.

“Do I want to know?”

“Piles of shit.”

Dina’s gaze dropped to her glittery new flip-flops. She lifted one foot and looked at the diamond tread.

“If you’d stepped in one you’d know,” he said.

For safe keeping she checked her other foot. Besides a few blades of grass and some gravel, there was no poop. Cow pies weren’t exactly the conversation she’d been prepared for them to launch into.

“Will you come here?” He held out his hand and pushed away from the table.

Last night and today she’d have gone to him, leaned on those stronger than granite shoulders and accepted his platitudes about her future and their outcome. Now, she couldn’t allow herself that luxury. She had to be strong, for herself and what came next.

“It’s different, Dina. You’ve got to believe me.” He dropped his hand to his thigh.

“It doesn’t sound different. You get that, right?”

“Yeah, but—it’s different.”

“I don’t know what that word means in this context. You have to give me something more.” She shook her head.

“Look, do I know what I do? Am I aware of my habit? Yeah. And that’s why—that’s why I’ve been trying to not do that. That’s why I was really bummed out when you vanished. You were different. You didn’t have a problem. There wasn’t an abusive ex. You weren’t trying to escape something or someone. I asked every leading question I could at the bar and you didn’t take any of the bait. You were normal. And we connected. I know we did. You felt it.”

“But it isn’t really all that different now, is it?” She knew the baggage she hauled from place to place.

“You don’t need me,” he said like it was something profound.

“I don’t?” She laughed a bitter laugh. “How am I supposed to get out of here? How am I supposed to contact anyone? If the FBI swoop in, who is my only outside connection? You. You’re the only thing I’ve got going for me now. I am more dependent on you than I’ve been on anyone in ages. I always have a back-up plan or an exit strategy, but not this time.”

No, she’d let Rudy talk her off that ledge. She’d stayed put when her gut said run, and now everything had changed. She knew what it was like to hold and be held. What it was like to revel in that bliss of new attraction. And she was reminded of what it was like to be powerless to save herself.

“You don’t really need me. Maybe what you need is a helping hand to your next jumping off point, but you don’t need me. I want you to need me, but you don’t. I want to help because...I get you. I get having a past that haunts your future. I told you about my family.” He shook his head. “I don’t think I’ve told anyone that.”

He was right there. With his deep, dark family secrets it wasn’t like he could talk freely about them. Not here in Ransom. But did that really make all the difference? There were thousands of people out there with less than ideal family histories. They weren’t exactly unique. But, if she believed him, she was the only person he’d spoken to about this. And he was the first person she’d opened up to about her past besides law enforcement. Even Rudy didn’t know all of it. He couldn’t and not end up a target.

She stared at Trevor, his face lined with anguish and his eyes pleading with her.

“What do you want to hear from me? That we get each other? That we can fix each other? What?” A crazy part of Dina wanted to sort this out. It had to make sense in a way that would allow her to hold on to this connection a while longer. But to what end?

Everything in her wanted to go to him, crawl into his lap and hold on. But that would send the wrong signal. Instead, she crossed the cabin and sank down onto the other dining chair adjacent him. He twisted to face her, those beacon eyes of his shining right at her, showing her the way back to what they could have.

“I want you to know that whatever Jenna told you, it doesn’t apply to you.” Trevor reached for her hand.

“What about Scarlett? You dated her when her mom died?” She saw him wince.

“We were kids. Most we did was pass notes and go to football games together. She needed someone.”

“How many more women have I run into that you’ve dated? The girl at the antique shop?” Dina’s cheeks heated. She didn’t expect him to have been a monk before her, but had he dated every woman in town?

“Ingrid?” he supplied her name awfully fast.

“Yeah.”

“One date, ages ago. We both agreed it was a bad idea. Dina, Ransom’s a small town. If you’re going to be upset I’ve dated...”

“Was Ingrid another project?”

“No.”

“Jenna?”

“I told you, we never dated.”

“Why?”

“We just didn’t.”

“Why not?”

Trevor stared at the floor. She could feel the tension coming off him like a furnace. Was there history besides a brotherly affection there?

“She says I need to be needed...” he finally said.

“Do you?”

“I don’t know. We never clicked like that. She moved back here the last two years of high school. We became friends. That’s it. I swear.”

“And more recently?”

Trevor shook his head. “If you listen to her, the moment she met Alex, there wasn’t anyone else.”

Dina sifted through what she knew of Jenna and her fiancé, Alex, while staring at the wood grain dining table. Her gaze followed the darker colors winding through the pale, telling a story she couldn’t read. There’d been years from when Jenna got out of the army and moved back to Ransom. And all that time she’d been in love with one man?

If Jenna hadn’t been able to see Alex as her future, what hope did Dina have to discern her own fate?

Whatever happened, happened. She couldn’t wonder about a future filled with love when she had to focus on surviving the next hour, day, week, month, year. Even if they got Phillip and Little Tony, there’d have to be evidence that traced back to Dominick. Without that, he’d just send someone else after her, endangering everyone around her in her brother’s campaign to get even.

Dina did need Trevor. He was wrong on that front. Whatever she might be able to do with the right tools was pointless until she had them. For the time being, he was all she had going for her. It didn’t hurt that he was a capable cop, with the full support of the law behind him.

Then there were the more personal aspects of their entanglement. The memories of being held in his arms as he thrust into her caused a response in her traitorous body. Even knowing what she knew about him, Dina wanted Trevor despite the night’s revelations.

Did any of it really matter?

Whenever things with her brother came to a head, or if Phillip and Little Tony found her, everything would change. She might die. Her brother might go to prison for the rest of his life. Trevor might wake up and realize she wasn’t who he wanted to be with.

It was all uncertain.

One of the things she’d always tried to do was make the best of the cards she’d been dealt. She’d been doing it all her life, ever since she realized that Mom and Dad did scary things. Tonight was no different. Trevor was who he was, and her baggage remained the same. The only thing that was different was that she knew how this might end.

What was she going to do with those facts?

Dina lifted her gaze to Trevor and found him staring at her. Her body went still, and she sucked in a breath.

No man had ever looked at her like that.

There were deep, swirling emotions in the depths of his gaze. Trevor was a man who cared. That was her takeaway from everything tonight. He wasn’t this person because he wanted to play god. He was this way because he cared about people to the point he got wrapped up in their lives.

Dina feared that if he got too close to her, she could be the death of him. But there was no separating them for the time being. She was wholly reliant on him, which was new territory for her.

She’d never had anyone truly supporting her. Not because they believed in her or anything like that. Nothing like what she had with Trevor.

If she were a good person, she’d keep the boundary between them firmly in place. But she wasn’t good. She couldn’t be with her heritage. Which meant she was greedy enough to take what he offered. For now. She couldn’t fall in love with him or anything crazy like that, but she could accept this help knowing full well the pitfalls that came with it. And when everything was said and done, she could leave and take her problem life out of his. He’d probably thank her for it. Once Dominick was finally behind bars she could do one, last start over move and find someone who wouldn’t care about her past or her baggage, someone she could be real with and live out her life. Trevor had taught her that this feeling was worth having.

TREVOR COULD SEE ANY chance he had with Dina slipping away from him.

How did he make her understand that despite their current circumstances, she was different?

He didn’t know how to explain his love life habits. She didn’t fit them. She wasn’t helpless though the situation she was in now might have disarmed her of the tools to take care of herself. It wouldn’t last. Didn’t she see that?

“You know who my last girlfriend was?” He leaned forward and put his elbows on his knees. This wasn’t a story he wanted to relive.

Dina didn’t answer. No woman wanted to know about the one that came before, but it was his last-ditch attempt to make her understand.

“Her name was Megan. She was broke down on the road headed into town. I changed her tire, and she fell apart, crying on my shoulder in the middle of the night. I felt sorry for her, knew there was more than just a busted car going on, so I let her stay in my guest room. She lived there for three months. That woman got me into trouble all over town.” He rolled his eyes and scrubbed a hand over his face. Megan wasn’t malicious she’d just been lost. Broken. Grasping at straws.

“Is that part of it then? Random, crying women landing in your lap?” Dina’s dry tone grated his raw nerves.

“No,” he snapped. “Megan...she was so broken we never did anything.”

“You mean to tell me she lived in your guest room and you took care of her for three months without anything happening between you? And you called her your girlfriend?”

“She told people we were dating, not me.” He knew how it looked. His feelings for Megan were the deciding point. He’d grown to care for her gentle, broken soul to the point that watching her leave him had left a scar.

“I see.” Dina crossed her arms over her chest.

“There at the end I thought I got through to her. I thought she realized she needed to change. Then her ex showed up, busted my lip, packed her up and they drove off together. That was when I said I wasn’t doing that any more. And I’m not. You aren’t like Megan. You’re different.”

“You keep saying that word.”

He was going to make her understand if it was the last thing he did. She would see herself as he saw her.

Trevor reached over, grasped her chair legs and dragged her over until her knees were between his thighs, facing each other. Her posture remained tight. Closed off. She was a fortress he would never get into if she didn’t want to let him in.

“You’re stronger than most women. There aren’t many people who would do what you’ve done.” He placed his hands on her thighs. The soft cotton dress between them teased his fingers. “You’re capable. You know what you’re doing, how to do it—everything. There isn’t anything about you that’s broken. You’re a whole person in a shitty place, and I want to help you out of it. That’s it.”

“And be your damaged woman? No, thanks.”

“Damaged?” Trevor sat back, once more thrown for a loop. That word was farthest from his mind when he looked at her. Deep down, he was in awe of her. “Dina, that’s what I’m trying to say. You aren’t damaged. There’s nothing about you that’s broken. You aren’t injured or hurt or weak. You’re brave.”

A tremble went through her. If he didn’t have his hands on her legs, he wouldn’t have felt it.

Was that it? Was that what she feared? Being hurt again?

His gaze dropped to her shoulder.

The scars.

Jenna had remarked on those. They barely registered to him.

What kind of torture had she endured to get those? And at the hands of her parents?

It was falling into place now. Even his slightly inebriated brain could see the connection between her words, body and past.

He slid to his knees and his arms around her waist, tugging her to the edge of her seat. She slid forward, her arms going around his shoulders.

She knew how to keep going, marching forward, but it was the inner pain and betrayal that continued to hurt her.

He got it.

Deep down, there were parts of him that were still that little boy who wanted his father’s approval.

Trevor bent his head and kissed the place where shoulder and arm met. He hooked his finger in the strap and pulled it aside, dropping kisses along her collar bone.

Was that how she saw herself? Damaged? Broken? Injured?

“When I look at you, you know what I see?” His nose bumped her chin.

The few tears were gone, dried away, but she didn’t have an answer for him.

“I see this beautiful, ballsy woman. I don’t see scars or brokenness.” He paused to kiss her cheek. “I think about the way you laugh, how you smile, your eyes lighting up.”

“You’re just drunk,” she muttered.

“Off two beers? One and a half, really.” He tightened his grip on her. “I don’t think so. The truth is, I like you. I’m attracted to your strength. And yeah, maybe I need to be needed. But don’t you want to be with someone who you can be partners with? I’m not trying to take over and tell you what to do or how to do it. I just want you to be safe. I want to help you out from under all of this.”

And with any luck once the dust settled they’d be able to pick up and see where things went. This was new territory for her. They’d need to go slow, back to basics even. From the night at the bar until now, they’d jumped in deep.

“You have no idea how amazing you are,” he said.

She ducked her face, but there was no hiding the blush turning the tips of her ears red.

Trevor kissed her temple while mentally trying to rein his urges in. A slowdown could be good for them even if it wasn’t what his baser instincts were on board for.

Dina turned her face towards his, lips parted, but she didn’t speak. She cupped his head and pressed her mouth to his. A surge of arousal rushed through him, his erection throbbing.

Down boy.

Her fingers curled into his hair, tugging on the short strands while her tongue teased his. A tightness spread in the pit of his stomach and he leaned against her. He tightened his grip on her hips, aligning their bodies.

If this kept going, he was going to have to go take a swim in the stock pond. There wasn’t anywhere else to go to cool off. He knew what he wanted, but he had to prove himself to her. She had to believe him, to see herself the way he saw her.

Trevor turned his face, breaking the kiss. Dina’s lips slid across his cheek, her grasp on him growing tighter.

“Dina?” Her name came out more like a groan.

She had a leg hooked around his hip, holding her to him.

“Babe, we should—”

“Fuck,” she muttered in his ear.

He shuddered at the word.

“Maybe we shouldn’t,” he said. And given their exchange, maybe they shouldn’t.

“I want to.” Her hands slid lower, holding onto him. “I want to feel...different.”

“I don’t know what that word means.” He chuckled, but it was a strained sound.

“Trevor.”

He was powerless to say no to her. He’d opened a vein showed her his pain, and she’d shown him hers. All he wanted was to give her a respite, help, comfort and even pleasure. Right now they had each other. Tomorrow they might not have that.

Trevor picked her up, her legs wrapping around his hips, and set her down on the sturdy table that had sat between them.

Before her, there’s never been room for him to have a problem. But Dina didn’t need him to fix her or take over. Which left room for him to look back at the last few years and what he’d tried to do with himself and see a future. A future with someone who understood him and accepted that life wasn’t always rainbows over the stock pond.

She slid her hands under his shirt, the feel of her touch undoing his resolve.

Who was he kidding?

They were explosive.

Besides, there was one bed, and he wasn’t sleeping in the SUV. He wasn’t that much of a gentleman.

Dina grasped his shirt and lifted it up and over his head. He tossed it toward the bags, but knew it fell short.

“I’ve had all kinds of ideas about you in this dress.” He flattened his hand on her thigh, the hem of the dress hitting at his wrist. “The minute you put it on I wanted to slide it up.”

“What is it with you and dresses?” She chuckled.

He had vague memories of her red dress bunched around her waist.

“They’re magic.”

“Magic?”

“Yeah.” He pushed his fingers under the lace lined hem, watching her face as his palm coasted up her inner thigh.

Her eyes went wide, and she shuddered, thighs easing apart. He grasped her knee, pulling them apart as he stroked the smooth flesh of her inner thigh. He brushed her bare folds.

“Fuck,” he choked out.

No God damn panties. The whole time? While she was around the other guys?

If he’d have known there was no way he’d have waited this long.

Trevor bunched up her skirt and hoisted it up to her waist. Sure enough, from the waist down she wasn’t wearing anything.

“My underwear showed through,” she said, as if that made sense to him right now.

He dropped to his knees, driven by need and pulled her ass to the very edge of the table. He bit her inner thigh. Her legs clamped tight around his shoulders. He cupped her ass in one hand and used his thumb to stroke the beginning of her slit, seeking the bundle of nerves.

Dina shuddered and leaned back.

There.

That was it.

He bent his head and licked the spot while his fingers went deeper, delving into her body. He let go of her ass and flattened his palm to her stomach, forcing her to lie back farther.

“T-Trevor.” She grabbed a handful of his hair and jerked.

He circled the spot with his tongue, tasting her, feeling the way her body responded to him.

This was special. Good even. She couldn’t deny that. He wouldn’t let her forget that what they had here was good. Everything else could be sorted out.

Dina let out a choked cry and shuddered her release. He almost wished he got to work a little for her orgasm. Then again, he could always encourage an encore performance out of her.

He held onto her, sucking her flesh until her keening wail reached its peak. She fell back on the table, her chest heaving.

How many times had he eaten dinner here?

Yeah, there’d never be a meal out on the stock pond after this when he didn’t recall this moment with Dina spread out like a sensual buffet.

Trevor eased his fingers out of her and kissed her hip.

She reached out a hand. Or, her hand flopped toward him and her fingers wiggled. He took it and pressed a kiss to her palm then pushed to his feet. Her eyes were nearly black, the pupil eating up all the color.

“Condom,” he muttered.

She groaned.

Yeah, that was a lot how he felt right now.

Trevor scooped her off the table and carried her boneless body across the cabin to the bed. He lay her down gently. They might each be raw, but that only meant he had to be extra careful. If they left marks now, they could scar. He didn’t want to add to her collection, and he doubted he was anywhere near as strong as she was.

He grabbed his bag, glad he’d thought to toss some extra items in, which included condoms. He ripped a packet off the strip and tossed it up on the bed.

Dina sat up her messy bun extra messy and her gaze wild. She reached down and wiggled the dress off, leaving her in her bra, the straps wrapped around her torso. He reached forward and hooked his finger in a strap low on her ribs. She arched her back, thrusting her breasts forward.

Now this had potential.

He grinned and lowered his head to kiss her mouth.

Her hands fumbled with his belt.

He dipped his free fingers into the cup of her bra, finding her nipples stiff. She panted and for a moment she froze.

Trevor grasped the whole bra contraption and pulled her up to her knees, deepening the kiss. She got the catch of his belt free and yanked at the button. Her hand wiggled past his underwear. He groaned as her fingers brushed his erection.

He pulled away and eased his zipper down. It felt as though there were marks on his stiff flesh.

Dina grabbed the condom from where he’d tossed it and ripped it open. He wasn’t the only one eager for sex. He held his cock, and she rolled it on, her cheeks turning pink.

He pitched forward, forcing her to her back as he covered her body. They kissed, her hands slid over him and her legs fastened around his hips. His cock slid along her pussy, the warmth of her heating him further.

Trevor levered up and looked down at her. Dina lay on her back, cheeks flushed, reaching for him. She was so damn beautiful.

He thrust into her and she groaned.

He grasped the bra and thrust, her back arching. Her breasts slid from the cups as he worked deeper, using the band around her ribs for leverage. Her heels drove him deep and her hips worked in time with his.

Dina’s eyes rolled up, and she tipped her chin back.

There.

He thrust again and slid his thumb over her clit.

“Dear—Trevor!”

He felt her come apart around him, squeezing his cock. The blood roared past his ears and the base of his spine prickled moments before his release unfurled in him.

He collapsed forward, wrapping himself around her and rolling until they were somewhat on the bed properly. He flicked the blanket over them and closed his eyes, breathing her in, the rightness of it all settling inside of him.

There was a reason their brief night together had stuck with him. He hadn’t been able to give up looking for her, figuring out why she’d run, until he knew all there was to know about her. And even then it had left more questions. Still, he’d known in his gut he couldn’t move on yet.

Maybe this was why.

He bent his head and kissed her hair while stroking her arms. The scars created a different kind of sensation, a texture. Smoother and yet the ripples permanently burned into her told a story in a language he didn’t understand. He wanted to, but now wasn’t the time.

“Does everyone know we’re out here?” she asked.

“No.”

“Is it strange that everyone around you knows every move you make?”

“The people here can be nosey, but they aren’t that bad.”

“Really?” She arched a brow and looked up at him.

“Really.” He leaned his head back. “I went away for college, determined I didn’t want to be here. I spent four years lost in the crowd at A&M down in College Station. I couldn’t wait to get home. It was lonely.”

“I see.”

Trevor was willing to bet she knew a few things about being lonely.

She studied his face, her thoughts hidden from him.

“When did you get that scar? On your forehead?” she asked.

“Christ.” He groaned. “There was a guy one morning about six months back. He got drunk and was carrying on in the park, wearing nothing but his underwear. I went to get him off the tire swing, it came up, hit me here and cut me to there.”

Dina stifled a laugh. He didn’t blame her. It was a funny story.

She reached up and smoothed her thumb over the line.

“It will fade,” she said.

“Does it make me look dashing? Dangerous?”

“It helps.”

He wanted to ask her about her scars, how they’d happened, but he didn’t dare. She’d told him the bare bones about what her mother and father had done to her. He could fill in the blanks with the rest. She didn’t need to relive those memories. She’d had enough pain for a lifetime. He wanted to give her something better, something nicer.