Page 46 of Chilled
Great, now all he needed was for her to wake up and find him taking advantage of her in her sleep. Nick tugged at his hand, easing it from beneath her velvety soft cheek. As he slipped it past her mouth, she pressed a kiss against his fingers.
That tender touch to the sensitive tips of his fingers shot a bolt of lightning through his body, and he stood shaken in the shadows. This woman, without even being aware of it, had taken him from numb feelings to full-blown sensations in just two nights. The thought of her being a target of a psychopathic killer made Nick’s gut clench.
Dare he go back to his room and sleep with the very slim chance of a killer sneaking into her room and doing to her what the bastard had done to Dr. Drummond?
As if she were clued into his internal dilemma, Brenna rolled to her back again, her head tossing from side to side. A low moan escaped her lips, and her fingers clenched the blanket’s edge. Was she having a nightmare about the killer?
Torn between leaving her to sleep it off and the desire to soothe her fears away, Nick stood in the shadows and waited for the dream to end. But the longer Nick waited, the more agitated Brenna grew. Her forehead creased in a deep frown, and her mouth formed soundless words.
Nick almost left the room, guilt nudging him toward the door. He had no right to watch her while she slept. Then he reminded himself he had a responsibility to protect her, and he stopped.
About that time, Brenna sat up straight in bed and sobbed in ragged, strangled breaths. “Fire...can’t get...out.” She coughed as if smoke filled her lungs. “Help me. Please, help me.”
No longer able to stand by and watch her, Nick lunged for the bed and pulled her into his arms. “It’s okay, Brenna.” He stroked the back of her head, pressing her face into his shoulder, holding her close and safe in his arms.
“Too much smoke... Can’t see...” she muttered against his skin, her fingers curling into his chest hairs.
Nick wasn’t surprised that Brenna was dreaming about the barn fire. With Dr. Drummond’s office fire the previous evening and the strain of a killer stalking her, it was only a matter of time before her sleep was impacted.
Her shoulders shook, and tears dampened Nick’s chest. The face of her fear, the screaming and terror were one thing, but the quiet tears broke his heart, and Nick couldn’t take it anymore. “Wake up, Brenna. It’s a dream.”
CHAPTER 11
Flames licked at her clothing,smoke obscured the light creeping through the cracks in the old boards and seared the inner lining of her lungs. Brenna coughed and dropped to her knees, crawling across the dirt toward the door.
“Help! Please, help!” she cried, her lungs filling with suffocating smoke with each breath. She pulled her shirt up over her mouth as she dragged herself farther, fear clutching her heart. Smoke stung her eyes, and she clenched them tightly together, feeling her way across the barn.
She bumped headfirst into a wall and scrambled for the doorway, her fingers feeling their way upward to the handle. At last, freedom from smoke and the fire moving swiftly through the hay bales, lighting them like giant torches.
As she shoved hard on the door lever, fire leaped onto her back and ate hungrily through the thin fabric of her blouse, to her skin.
Pain blinded her, and she screamed, slapping at the angry fire, unable to extinguish the blaze. She had to get out. Had to get help. Then she realized the lever wouldn’t lower like it had the twenty or more times they’d been through the door that day playing hide-and-seek. Excruciating pain raced across her shoulder blades and down her backside. Fire surrounded her, overwhelming her and consuming the skin on her back and legs. She fought against waves of dizziness and screamed as loud as her tortured lungs could manage. She couldn’t die like this. She wouldn’t. But no one came. No one heard.
“Brenna, wake up!”
Hands gripped her arms. Someone shook her.
“Have to get out. Have to breathe.” She struggled against the arms holding her in the hellish place of dark and smoke, fighting to reach the light and clean, fresh air. “Let me out!” She pummeled the door, sobs wracking her body. “Let me out! Oh, please.”
Lips descended on hers, briefly stemming her pleas for help. Then gentle words were spoken against her cheek. “Please, Brenna, wake up. Everything will be okay. Just wake up.”
Clawing her way out of the smoke and fire, Brenna opened her eyes and stared around a completely smoke-free room. She gulped in air, tears streaming from her eyes.
“It was only a dream,” someone murmured against her ear. Those strong arms now held her in a warm embrace. Not warm like the scorching heat of a fire, but warm like a blanket on a cold day.
A gentle hand curved around her jaw and turned her face to look into the intense green eyes of Nick Tarver.
“What happened?” Still unable to comprehend her surroundings, Brenna clung to him, her savior from burning to death. “Where am I?”
He fingered aside a hair plastered in the tears on her face. “You had a really bad dream.”
She released a heavy sigh and sagged against him. “Thank God.” Her arms circled his waist, and she pressed her face into his chest, reveling in the hairs tickling her nose. “It was only a dream.” Images of fire climbing the inside walls of the barn flickered across her memory, and she shuddered. “It seemed so real.”
“But it was only a dream. You’re here with me. There’s no fire, no smoke. Just me.” His arms tightened around her, and he rested the side of his face against her hair, his hands stroking her back.
How long she sheltered in his arms, she didn’t know, but his tender, soothing fingers eased the tension from her shoulders and massaged the length of her spine. Nestling deeper into his arms, she inhaled the woodsy scent of his aftershave and the clean smell of freshly washed hair. With her cheek pressed against his nipple, her hands skimmed across his back, the feel of skin against skin at once grounding her from her dream and spinning her in a different direction altogether. Forcing her body not to react, she allowed her fingers to test the firmness of his muscles. They climbed up his ribs to the skin that felt warmer around his heart.
Nick’s hands stopped moving, and his body tensed. “Brenna, are you awake?”
