He put a hand on hers. “We’re not smart. Men, I mean. We get a couple of scars on us and decide it makes more sense to shut down the softer part of our natures. We go into a relationship because we want sex and companionship and we’re happy when we have it. We don’t think to ask for more. You have to show him how to love you. That’s what he means when he asks you not to give up on him. He doesn’t know how to say he loves you, but he wants to.”

“He’s not you, Will.” For a moment she’d thought she’d found someone as awesome as her brother, but that was gone now.

“Oh, but sweetie, at heart we’re all the same. I promise to bring you back as soon as I can, but I think you should take this time with him to figure out if he’s what you want. He offered to pay the money back.”

But she knew how much he needed it. “Oh, no. I won’t go unless he’s getting paid and every single penny you promised him.”

“Going to use that as a shield, huh?” Will looked a bit disappointed, but she wasn’t backing down. “Just know that if you decide to give him a shot, Bridget and I would rather make it a wedding gift.”

“There’s not going to be a wedding. I promise I’ll be a good girl and behave, but I’m not touching that man again.” Because if she touched him, she would melt and she knew it. If she let him in again, she would become one of those doormat women who accepted less than she should. No. She’d been burned by that man twice.

He wasn’t getting a third chance.

Chapter Nine

Remy drove, his eyes on the road in front of him, but his brain was working overtime trying to figure out how to reach the woman next to him. Lisa was sitting not two feet away from him but she couldn’t be further away.

They were nine hours and forty-five minutes into a ten-hour drive. He’d tried to convince her to stop at a motel somewhere, but she’d put a quick kibosh on that. She wanted to get to Papillon, and then he had the feeling she was planning on going into her room and locking the rest of them out.

He’d tried everything he could think of to get her to talk, to find anything of the always-curious, lively Lisa he’d grown to love. The problem was he couldn’t figure out if it had been the kidnapping or he himself who’d sent her into the tailspin.

“We’re only two hours from New Orleans,” he said quietly.