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him. “You
mean besides the fact that you’re a gargantuan, tougher-than-nails fighter who
could crush me without a second thought?”
    There went that killer smile of his again. “You know I won’t
hurt you, so yeah, aside from that.”
    Really? He wouldn’t hurt her? She knew that? As much as she
wanted to believe that, she had her doubts, though she kept them to herself.
“Like I said, I’ve just had some bad experiences. The last few people I let get
close to me really did a number on me, you could say. I thought they had my
best interests at heart but it turned out that not one of them even had a heart
to speak of. One of the people in question was a childhood friend I’d had up
until we went to college. I had assumed, incorrectly, that I could trust her
and that she cared about me as much as I did her. That somehow we were equals.”
At that, she couldn’t contain her sneer of disdain. Daisy had been many things
over the years but a true friend was not among them.
    Throughout their lives, Daisy had done nothing but string
her along. She’d lured her in with the promise of true friendship and the
sister-like love she’d never had. What a lie that had been.
    “In hindsight, I guess all the signs were there. Daisy,
that’s my former friend,” she added for his clarification, “was nothing but a
cold, manipulative bitch who moved me around to suit her purposes. Actually, I
think she might have been a kind of sociopath. She had no feelings whatsoever,
except for maybe selfishness.”
    Risking a glance up at Tyler, she found him watching her
intently, with a frown marring his handsome face. “I don’t exactly want to get
into the gritty details but all of her misdeeds eventually came to a head a few
years ago in an extremely unpleasant way. Ever since then, I’ve found it hard
to trust people or let them in.”
    The frown got deeper. “So you lock out the rest of the world
out because of some bitch who took advantage of you while you were growing up?”
    Immediately her hackles began to rise. She’d taken a chance
and semi-opened up to him and he was going to trivialize an experience that had
been traumatic for her. And he didn’t even know the full extent of what had happened.
    “Of course, it was more complicated than that. And she
wasn’t the only person involved. In fact, she was more or less the catalyst.” She
exhaled heavily as she looked over at him. “I really don’t even know why I’m
telling you this. And you also have to understand that I’ve never been what you
call outgoing to begin with. I’ve always felt out of place, so mix my low
self-esteem into my natural aversion to social situations and you can
understand why it is that I’m so confused someone like you even noticed me. Let
alone wants to know all the gory details of my life.”
    Raising his eyebrows, he lifted his hands in a placating
gesture. “Hey, no judgments, remember? I know exactly how you feel, so I can
understand why you reacted the way you did. I know how tempting it can be to
just say ‘fuck the world’ and then crawl into a hole inside yourself.”
    She scoffed in disbelief. “You know what this is like? Have
you ever felt unworthy or unwanted a day in your life?”
    “Hell yeah, I have. Mina, what do you think it was like to
grow up with three older brothers? And something you need to know and
understand is that I wasn’t always this gargantuan size, as you called it, and
intimidating.”
    Actually, in her opinion it wasn’t even his size that was so
threatening. He was taller than most, around six foot three she was guessing,
and had to weigh close to two hundred pounds, all of it solid muscle. He wasn’t
bulky or hulked out. Lean, sinewy, sexy muscle was what covered his body. But
it was the way he carried himself, his outthrust of confidence and intensity
that was the intimidating part. And now that she knew him a little better, his
shrewd intelligence and quick wit made him all the more