Sea Haven 02 - Spirit Bound

himself she knew he had never told another human being.
    She tangled her fingers with his and gave a little tug, leading him toward the door. Her heart ached for him. She had been raised in Japan by a loving mother and father as a child. When her father had wanted to return to the United States, her mother hadn’t hesitated, moving with her father and making the trip fun and adventurous. Her mother had turned their home into a place of love and peace, surrounding them with her serenity and love of gardening. Her older brother had been loving and protective. She’d had a wonderful childhood. Even after her parents had been killed in an accident when she was in her teens, she still had Paul. He had stepped into the role of parent, watching over her and making her life stay as stable as possible.
    What had Thomas’s life been like as a child? She’d seen her brother tortured and killed, and she’d been a grown woman. What would it be like to be a child and see both parents murdered and your brothers taken from you? Her heart stuttered a little and squeezed down tight, aching for that little boy. Looking at Thomas, she couldn’t imagine him as a child. Those violent brutal men “training” him had stamped the boy out quickly.
    Stefan followed Judith down the hall into her kitchen. She hadn’t turned on the lights, but with all the windows, the stars and moon provided faint light to illuminate the room. Her long hair skimmed the center of her bottom, drawing his eye to the sway of her hips and the length of her slender legs.
    He could barely stand the flash of pain in her eyes when he shared some of his memories with her. She was too compassionate, and he wasn’t compassionate enough without her. He shouldn’t need her so much. It was too much to put on one person, but he knew he could be good at this—at being with her.
    “Judith.” His voice ached with the need to convince her. “I’m not going to pretend I’ve ever been a good man. Hell, I can’t claim to have been a man. I’m a tool and I’m a damned good one. I don’t know any other way of life, but I want to live differently. I know I could be good at being with you. I don’t see anyone else. I’d know when you needed something, when you were sad or happy. And I can shield you from other people’s emotions, make it easier when you’re out in public. More than that, I’m capable of shielding others from your emotions. That alone is sheer freedom for you.”
    He felt like an attorney trying, at the last hour, to save a man’s life.
    Judith glanced at him over her shoulder, a completely natural look he found sexy. His body stirred in spite of his rigid control. He wasn’t going to bring sex into this. She needed to want him because they fit, not just because their chemistry together was explosive—although . . .
    “Don’t,” she warned him softly, but without much conviction.
    He filed that information away to pull out later if he was losing the battle. She was more than susceptible to seduction and that was one thing he was damned good at. He gave her a wan smile. “I’m fighting for us, Judith. You have to give me something.”
    She filled her teakettle with water and set it on the burner. “Your life has been so different, Thomas. I can’t even imagine the places you’ve been and the situations you’ve been in. I live quietly here. This is a small town; a village really. We’re a strange little collection of people, very tolerant of one another, but quirky. It’s peaceful here. Not much in the way of action. We don’t even have a police force, just the sheriff if anyone’s in trouble. Death here is from old age or the sea. Abalone divers, that sort of thing. How would a man like you find anything interesting here?”
    He took his time, instinctively knowing she wanted him to be thoughtful. He didn’t need to be. “I’ve never had a life, not a real life with a family and truthfully, I can’t be around people for long periods of time. I’ve lived outside civilization. I don’t know the rules and I’m not polite. I can fit in when I need to, but I’m never me, I’m someone else, playing a role, anything to achieve my goal. I need peace, I need a place where I can live out my days in freedom, and Sea Haven seems perfect. Thomas Vincent would love to have an art gallery and a wife who paints and makes amazing kaleidoscopes.”
    Judith kept her back to him, busying her hands by filling the teapot’s little screened