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We loaded the dishwasher together and I watched him wipe every crumb from the counters. As he always did. Then he had a rare cigarette, lounging in the front doorway. He didn’t look cold even though he was shirtless and surrounded by a pine forest covered in snow.
He just looked perfect.
Cobalt blue eyes, dark, dark hair, freckled shoulders.
Snow melting on his chest.
“Can I try it?” I asked, joining him.
He held the cigarette out, between his finger and thumb. I took a quick puff and started coughing. His grin flashed and he pulled me against him.
“Never change, Clara,” he murmured.
He kissed me and it ruined me like usual. But what did it matter when I was ruined for him already? One day in and my hair was permanently tangled in his fingers. My mouth burned constantly from his kisses. My hips ached for him.
I was well and truly fucked.
Literally and figuratively.
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
CLARA
It was almost three in the morning when I woke abruptly. The bed was shaking and I could hear heavy breathing.
Panicked, I rolled over and clicked the light. The pale lamp bathed the bed in a golden glow and I could just make out Merrick. On his back, body shivering, eyes half open and rolling back and forth.
“Merrick,” I gasped, scrambling upright.
He jolted, flipping over and rolling on his knees in a fluid, practiced movement. His hand shot behind him and pulled a gun from beneath the bed.
My whole body went ice cold. Our eyes met.
“Clara,” he breathed.
“You were dreaming,” I whispered, eyes filling with tears. “But it looked scary and you were panting in your sleep.”
His shoulders sagged and his eyes shut for a second. Then he laid the gun in the bedside table drawer and held out his arm.
I hesitated, still shivering.
“I didn’t know you had that there,” I said.
“It’s my job to protect you,” he said. “I’m always armed when you’re around.”
I nodded, swallowing past my thumping heart. I understood, but I just didn’t like it.
“Come here, cariad,” he said, gathering me around the waist and pulling us both back down beneath the covers. “Hush now, you’re shaking.”
“You scared me,” I admitted.
I felt him swallow. “It was only a nightmare.”
“Do you get those a lot?”
“Not that I can remember,” he said slowly, stroking my hair. “But I haven’t slept with anyone in a long time, so I don’t know.”
I pushed my face into his warm chest and listened to his heartbeat. It was steady now, thumping comfortingly in my ear.
