“You son of a bitch,” I said, and he caught my wrist as I went to shove him, tucking it under his arm so he could pull the blanket closer over my shoulder. “Leave off!”

“A body is just trying to get warm!” he said, irritated. “Hold still.”

He moved to block another smack—and both my hands were caught. “You’ve been giving your trust to the wrong people. Nohow can you fix it,” Pierce said, and I quit, surprised. “What do I have to do to win your trust? Damnation, woman, I just saved you three times, and the sun isn’t even up yet.”

Panting, I stared at him through my lank strands of hair. “I trust Jenks and Ivy.”

His eyes were inches from mine. “You trust on the surface, but no deeper. You don’t know how. For a clever woman, you took the short end of the stick when it comes to men.”

I shoved my shoulder into him, seeing as he had my wrists in one of his hands. “Get off! I don’t want to play this game, Pierce.”

I tapped a line—ready to risk Trent’s feeling it—and Pierce’s grip on my wrists tightened. “Game,” he said, voice angry. “It’s an all-fired serious game, and we’re going to settle it off the reel. I don’t set much store by the lies you tell yourself to protect your heart. Tell me a truth, and I’ll let go of you. Use that line upon me instead, and I’ll smack your head into the wall.”

Yeah, he probably would. “This is stupid, Pierce,” I said, heart pounding. “Let me go.”

“Aye, stupid,” he muttered. “Tell me a truth, and I’ll let go.” I wiggled, and his grip tightened. “You can’t think of one dash-it-all truth?”

“You scare me,” I blurted out, and he exhaled. The furrow over his brow eased, and he loosened his grip on my wrist.

“Why?” he said, but he didn’t sound surprised as he gazed at me, a new stubble on his face and his expression unforgiving.

I thought of his sorry state, stinking of river water and prickly, then the time I’d seen him standing in my church, clean and dressed impeccably, with a hat. Who wears a hat anymore? “Because I’m attracted to you,” I whispered. “And every man—or woman, for that matter—I’m attracted to is dangerous. They betray me or end up dead or … hurt me somehow.”

My heart pounded as he thought about that. “That’s half a truth,” he said, and let go of one of my wrists.

I rubbed my wrist, trying to erase his touch. “I’m afraid that anyone who can look past my shunning and smut is a bad person and not to be trusted. Like you.”