He pulled her closer. “Maybe you need more practice.”

“Maybe I’m not prepared to incur the bruises that come with that.”

“I have an idea about how I could cushion your fall.” With a wicked smile, he rolled onto his back, taking her with him. “If a wolf comes into the cabin now, we’ll switch places. I promise.”

She stared down at him, exasperated. Nervous. “You’re dismissing the way I feel, but trust me, all the evidence supports the fact I am utterly crap at relationships. And you should be more risk-averse.”

“There is an element of risk involved in everything worth having.” He drew her head down to his. “Is this really something you want to walk away from?” He kissed her, and excitement licked its way along her veins, but as well as the excitement there was something else. Something far more dangerous.

Feelings. She felt something for him.

Panicked, remembering what had happened with Christy, she dragged her mouth from his. “Yes. This is totally something I’d walk away from. I’d be kicking you out now if there was somewhere you could go.”

He sighed and sat up. “Alix, you’re not bad at relationships. Don’t use that as a reason not to get involved.”

She rolled away from him onto her back. “There hasn’t been a single relationship in my life I haven’t messed up, Zac.”

“I hope you’re not talking about your parents.”

“Not only my parents, but let’s start with them. At some point you’ve got to face facts. If I was adorable, they would have wanted to spend time with me. If I’d made them proud, they would have wanted to spend time with me, not simply include me in a group message.”

“Not true. You’ve said yourself, they shouldn’t have had children. They didn’t want to be parents, and from the way you’ve described it, they made no effort to learn. That’s on them, sweetheart, not you.”

The term of endearment shook her. It implied caring. Closeness. Slowly, surely, he was reeling her in.

“Maybe they’re not the best example of my deficiencies in emotional bonding. But there are others.”

“Tell me about the others.”

“Oh for—” She glanced at him, exasperated. “You want a list?”

“I don’t know, do I? How long would this list be? You’ve left a trail of broken hearts wherever you go?”

“I doubt it. I don’t usually get close enough to break anything.”

“Ah, yes. Maximum of one date. Apart from emergency sweater-retrieval. I need to understand what evidence you’re basing your assumptions on.” He ran his fingers over her shoulder and then lowered his head and kissed her neck and then her cheek.

She closed her eyes. “It’s quicker to tell you the relationships in my life that have worked out. And it turns out there aren’t any. I thought there was one, but I was wrong about that.”

He went still. “You’re talking about Christy.”

“Yes. Love doesn’t have to be romance, Zac. Christy’s been the closest thing to family for me since I was eight years old. I would have died for her. Killed for her. But in the end, all I killed was our friendship.” She lay in his arms, raw and emotionally wrecked, every one of her feelings exposed to his scrutiny and judgment. “And it happened so slowly that I didn’t even notice. On the surface we’re still friends, of course, but now she doesn’t tell me anything. She doesn’t...trust me. And also she doesn’t see things from my point of view. And she used to. We used to know everything about each other—” she felt a rush of sadness “—but not anymore.”