Drake Sisters 04 - Dangerous Tides

where children can't go to school and be educated. It's difficult to see and feel so many children, so many people just thrown away as if they don't matter."

    He framed her face with his hands, bending down slightly until his head was nearly touching hers. "It won't help them to hurt yourself, Libby. You're a doctor and in that capacity alone you can do tremendous good. And you don't have to apologize for the way you are or explain it to me. I just know I'm supposed to be with you. I know I can make your life better in so many ways." It seemed so much easier to talk to her there in the dark, with the ocean booming below and the night sky scattered with stars. She was restful and yet exciting. She was also a mixture of compassion and steel that intrigued him.

    "I know what Harry and Sam said upset you, Ty," Libby said. "I have no interest in your money."

    "That doesn't make me as happy as you think it would. If you were interested in money, I'd have something to offer you."

    He was like a small boy offering her his treasures, one by one, in an attempt to entice her to stay with him. She wanted to wrap her arms around him and hold him safe forever. "I thought you said I needed you."

    "You do, but you probably aren't ready to admit that yet."

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    She shrugged. "I don't know. Thinking about needing someone in my life other than my family makes me feel more vulnerable than I've ever felt before. We have a prophecy in our family about a gate and finding our true love." She laughed softly. "My sisters and I padlocked the gate just to make certain we were safe."

    He touched her face, his gloved finger tracing a path over her cheekbone. "You locked out your true loves? You're dashing all my illusions. Aren't women born wanting marriage?"

    Libby burst out laughing. "I think men want to believe that, but no, surprisingly enough, many of us like our independence and view marriage as a male institution."

    He threw both hands into the air. "Now you're really shaking me. How is marriage a male's institution?"

    "All the advantages are on his side. We women earn money and run our own lives now. If we take on a male, we have to still do all the other wifely chores as well as earn the money." She grinned at him. "How is that appealing?"

    "Fine, I'll learn to cook."

    "You'll never learn to cook, Ty, so don't even go there."

    "Can't you wiggle your nose or something and have dinner on the table?"

    "You sound so hopeful. I think Hannah can do that. Maybe you're going for the wrong sister." The smile faded from her face. "I thought about you so often, but you seemed to disapprove of me. I had no idea you looked at me."

    "How could I not look at you? Come on, Libby, you're beautiful and intelligent and sexy as hell. Any man in his right mind would be looking at you. I just didn't think in terms of permanency."

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    "You mean you thought my entire family was a group of charlatans."

    "Well, yes. How in the world did you ever come to accept that you could manipulate energy in some way without trying to find a scientific explanation for it? I would have been conducting experiments every day until I figured it out."

    "Not if you grew up with it as commonplace. The talents have been in my family for generations. No one thinks about how we do it, just that we do and we have to learn to control and accept the gifts from the time we're children. It isn't all that easy, so the wonder of our talent sometimes gets lost in the wielding of it."

    "You should feel special, gifted."

    Libby turned in his arms, sinking back against him to look out over the ocean. "Not most of the time.
    Most of the time what we do is taken for granted, just a part of our lives we don't think about. When we were children, we felt different, apart." She glanced up at him. "Probably the way you felt when you realized you thought and learned on an entirely different level than most people."

    He rubbed his chin on the top of her head. "Superior maybe. I was pretty full of myself growing up. I think I had a chip on my shoulder."

    "You're bossy and a bit on the arrogant side."

    "I'm right. And you need me to help shield you a little bit from all the demands you place on yourself."

    "I do?" She laughed softly. "That's the arrogance talking."

    "No, it isn't. Don't you want a family? Children? Do you see