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“Kelly? Shit!” Before I could do more than set my foot back on the floor, Lee had scrambled off the bed and grabbed me by the shoulders. “Are you okay?”
He didn’t wait for me to answer, only pulled me into his chest, holding my head against him and forcing me to breathe in his intoxicating scent.
“Did you have another nightmare?” he asked, voice booming even though it was just above a whisper. His hand smoothed over my back, and it did nothing to slow my racing heart.
When I nodded against him, he froze, but only for a second. Then he was scooping me into his arms and carrying me back to my bed. He sat down on the mattress with me in his lap and talked to me the way he always did.
“I gotcha. You’re safe with me.”
Except this time, as he spoke, his hands smoothed across my skin, leaving flames I wasn’t so sure I wanted him to extinguish. Up my thigh, across my hip, over my back before trailing to where he started and doing it all over again. And his lips, pressed to my forehead as he spoke, paused between his words, dropping lower. Lower. Until each whisper was almost a kiss against my jaw or throat.
I was burning. In embarrassment and desire and in the fucking flames of hell, because I shouldn’t want this. I shouldn’t want this man—this man who killed the guy that was raping me, who covered my half-naked self with my skirt and lifted me into his arms like he was a white knight and I was some sort of fucking princess who should be saved… I shouldn’t want him to want me.
But I did.
Dammit, I did.
And yet, I didn’t.
Lee’s thumb slid along the side of my breast before he cupped my face, and my body seized as his hooded emerald eyes locked on my lips. I grabbed his wrist, wanting this. Wanting, wanting, wanting.
But not.
Terrified of what might happen, I searched for anything to distract him. Anything that didn’t require me to lose the comfort I’d gone to his bed searching for in the first place.
“Stay with me?” I couldn’t be embarrassed by the plea in my voice because I needed him with the kind of desperation that would swallow up the world. I needed his warmth and his kindness. I needed his big body holding me, his thick arms wrapped around me.
I needed the promise of him because I was addicted. I was addicted and not having him scared me as much as letting this go on.
Lee leaned in as his body tilted to the side. As his elbow hit the mattress, his lips ghosted against my temple. “Always.” The tiniest little kiss, barely a brush of his lips. And dammit, I wanted more. “Anything for you.”
He shifted his weight, peeling his body away from me one inch at a time. I ached without his touch even though it was his touch that had me shaking in fear. He covered me with my sheet, and I was tempted to grab his T-shirt as he leaned over me to snag the spare pillow from beside me. I wanted to pull him back to me, to feel the feather touch of his lips and see what his mouth tasted like.
He kissed me again, though this time, it was only on my forehead as he took a knee beside the bed and tucked me in nice and snug.
“Sleep well, little hellion,” he whispered. Then he disappeared from my view, collapsing on the floor beside my bed before falling asleep in seconds.
A war raged inside of me, as I wondered if he’d remember the kisses he pressed to my skin, then wondered if I would want him to. I reached for him, tracing a finger across his heavy brow, over the copper stubble that lined his jaw, down his thick chest and muscular arms. I wrapped my fingers around his, only to be surprised as he squeezed, locking me in his grip.
For a split second, I wanted to pull away, to jerk my hand out of his and return to the quiet solitude of my loneliness. But that wanting inside me wouldn’t let me. It demanded I stay right there, basking in my addiction for this man I liked way too much.
With my hand wrapped up in the warmth of his, I fell into a dreamless sleep while listening to the soundtrack of his quiet breathing.
* * *
I awoke as a scream shook the air around me, and this time, it wasn’t mine. My hand was nearly torn off my body and I went flying off the mattress, falling face first to the rug as I landed on top of Lee.
“What is it? What’s wrong?” Lee’s voice was husky with sleep, his eyes half-open as he peered down at me. He bundled me in his arms, pulling me to his chest as he tried to make sure I was okay.
I wasn’t sure I was. From being torn from the depths of sleep, suddenly yanked out of bed, and getting rug burn on my cheek? Worse yet, realizing who that scream belonged to?
“Mom?” I tried to scramble from Lee’s arms, only for him to tighten his hold around me.
“What’s going on?” My dad appeared at the door behind my mom, eyes wide as he searched for whatever it was that had her screaming. But her attention was locked on me, and the man holding me against his giant chest.
Mom clutched her necklace as she took heaving breaths. “You scared me,” she finally said, reaching for Dad’s hand. “I wasn’t expecting…”
Lee stiffened behind me and his grip around me fell away. “It’s not what you think.” He damn near tossed me off his lap as he scrambled to his feet, then yanked me off the carpet by the arm like I was a common criminal.
