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And then I was asleep.
I woke up curled against Jack’s side. My head was pillowed on his broad shoulder, and my hand rested on his muscular thigh, my fingertips just grazing his enormous, hard?—
I jolted away. But he kept sleeping. His face was handsome in profile, his eyelashes resting above those hard-angled cheekbones, his lips soft and kissable and faintly parted in sleep. I dared another look at the anaconda tenting his gray sweatpants; that part of him did not seem to be asleep.
Despite myself, a surge of desire ran through me, and my heart was pounding as I laid back down with a little space between us—though he took up so much of the bed that his broad, tattooed bicep was still against mine. I laid with my head on the cool pillow and stared up at the ceiling.
My head still thrummed with pain.
Pieces of my memory had come back to me. As I stared at Jack, his face was in my memory too. I remembered lying next to him, the wind whispering through my hair. He’d been staring up at the stars, but I hadn’t been able to take my eyes off his handsome face. I’d been so nervous he would kiss me, and so nervous that he wouldn’t.
Where had we been that night? I tried to remember the details, but all I could remember was how focused I’d been on him.
Then I remembered—we were lying on the trampoline behind his house. His big, fancy house had been in the distance, smoke still rising from the fire pit and dancing off into the night. I’d always felt like I didn’t quite belong when I was at hisbeautiful house with his family that adored him and tolerated me.
Maybe that’s why I couldn’t quite help feeling that way in this glamorous condo, too.
I felt the moment he woke, as if his presence expanded. He turned onto his elbow, and his hand skimmed across my stomach through the blanket, as if he had to keep touching me. “Are you alright?”
“Yeah.” My voice came out soft. Too soft, as I remembered everything they’d done to me, from hiding my identity, to burning down my house. “Despite all your bullshit.”
I sat up. The world reeled around me dizzyingly. Jack scrambled to sit up too, and he had the most horrified look on his face. I thought it was because he was offended until I tried to stand up and swayed. Then he was sweeping me up into his arms.
“I don’t need you to carry me.”
“Please, Kennedy.” His always sexy, low voice had a broken edge. “I almost lost you again. Don’t push me away.”
His forehead rested gently against mine for a second. I squeezed my eyes shut, trying to resist him, but then I sighed.
Jack was hard to resist.
“Are Greyson and Carter back?”
“Yeah,” he said, looking incredibly unenthused. “Greyson wants to see you, but he didn’t want to wake you up.”
“And Carter…”
“Carter came and slept on the other side of you for a while.” He looked at me as if he wanted to kiss me, but thought better of it.
Sebastian must have realized he had better stay away.
“Where is he now?”
“Once Greyson got here, he…” Jack trailed off.
Right. These four couldn’t stop fighting. Carter was watching over Greyson, because he didn’t trust him, but I was sure Greyson wouldn’t leave me. Not after what happened last night.
“Carry me into the living room?” I asked. “Since you don’t trust me to walk?”
“Is being ferried around like a princess by an NHL star really so terrible?” he said, a hint of Jack’s usual light-hearted mischief peeking through.
“It is when the NHL star is a?—”
He kissed me.
His lips on mine were soft, but his mouth was firm. He kissed me hard, and I gave in and kissed him back, my arm twining around his neck. I was barely breathing when he pulled away, a mischievous twinkle in his gaze.
“You’re always so sweet,” he told me. “I figured you didn’t really want to finish that sentence any more than I wanted to hear you call me names.”
