Page 32 of Hidden With You

ChapterTen

I’m in bed, half asleep with a book on my chest when I hear the light tap at the door. The sound jerks me fully awake. At first because I’m startled—after all, usually there’s no one else in this cottage with me—but also because as soon as the strangeness of the sound fades, I realize who must be doing the knocking.

“It’s open.”

As the door pushes inward, I slide up to a sitting position, my back against the padded headboard. I’m wearing nothing but a tank top and underwear, and I keep the sheet pulled up to my waist.

He stands there, silhouetted by the light from the living room. In contrast, my room is dark, the only illumination coming from the small clip-on light I was using to read in bed.

He’s large, filling the doorway, and he looks casual, having changed into pajama bottoms and a plain gray T-shirt. For a moment, he just stands there and looks at me, the inspection taking so long that I actually pull the sheet up higher, strangely uncomfortable.

I tug it over my breasts, then hold it in place under my arms. Not that I was revealing anything, but I’m suddenly feeling strangely exposed. Ironic considering how hard I’ve been trying to get him in bed since the moment I met him. He steps all the way into the room, and I realize that one of his hands is in his pocket. He’s holding something, his clutched hand making a bulge in the pajama pocket.

I see his throat move as he swallows, then his head tilts to the side, and he says, so softly that I can barely hear him, “I’m sorry.”

For a moment, cold fear rushes through me. As if he is the one who was the danger to me all along. “Jasper, what—”

He tugs his hand free, and I see that it’s balled into a fist. His pocket is still weighted down, but whatever is in there, he doesn’t seem to be keen on showing me. My heart pounds in my chest, and I curse my overactive imagination. Jasper is here to protect me. Not hurt me.

But right now, everything seems so very, very wrong.

He shakes his head, as if shaking off a chill, and I hear a strange buzzing noise. It stops, then repeats. When it starts up again, I burst out laughing, the hysterical laughter of pure relief.

It’s his phone.

When he pulls it from his pocket, it’s still buzzing.

“Sorry. Just a sec.” He taps out a response to the text, then slides the phone back into his pocket, hiding it away. Then he offers me a watery smile. “Ryan. Sorry for the interruption.”

“Why are you here?” I can’t put my finger on it, but something still seems off.

“I just wanted to tell you that everything was calm today. No indications of any threat.”

“Seriously? You came in to debrief me on nothing?”

“Yes. No.” He pinches the bridge of his nose. “Honestly, I don’t know.”

“Maybe you came in to give me the chance to apologize.” I’d been looking at him, but now I glance down as I twist my fingers in the sheet. “I’ve been a brat, and I’m sorry. It’s just that I like you. But you’re here on a job, and the fact that we almost hooked up doesn’t mean you owe me anything. Not your secrets or your story. And definitely not sex, although I wouldn’t turn it down.” I lift my eyes as I say the last part. “Sorry. I’m trying to be polite and adult. I mean it. Really. Not trying to be flip.”

For a moment, he doesn’t say a word. Then he takes a step forward. “You’re right. I don’t owe you. But if it makes you feel any better, I want it, too.”

I bite my lip, feeling like I’m all of sixteen. “Yeah?”

“Don’t be coy. You know that I do.”

“But you’re not going there.”

“No,” he says. “And yet you keep pushing. Why?”

“I’m not pushing,” I say. “That’s the point of this speech.”

He laughs, sounding genuinely amused. I raise a brow, irritated.

“Sorry,” he says. “I mean before. You pushed. And hard.”

“Thus the apology. As for why…?” I trail off with a shrug. After a few moments, my chest feels tight.

“What?”