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Giving up on moving him, I stared at his frowning face. He was such a remote, troubled, relatively remorseless man who struggled with empathy and seemed largely indifferent to the feelings and sensitivities of others. But he’d punched Jeff for calling me a gold-digger. He’d dragged me away from the skidding car. He’d treated my graze with utter gentleness. He’d come to me when I had a nightmare. And he’d stayed with me the rest of the night, even though he allegedly didn’t like sleeping in the same room as others.
Fuck, how was I supposed to keep an emotional distance from him when he was chiseling at my defenses?
Desperate to remain on solid ground, I reminded myself that none of it actually meant anything. I mean, he’d had to punch Jeff—it would have looked weird if he hadn’t defended me. People all over the world had pulled perfect strangers out of the way of cars; put in that light, his behavior wasn’t such a huge deal. He wouldn’t have treated my graze if my hands hadn’t been trembling too much for me to do it myself. And of course he’d wake me when I was having a nightmare—who wanted to listen to someone make all kinds of noise in their sleep? It also had made sense for him to stay with me, since it would have made it easy for him to snap me out of any further nightmares.
Yep, everything he’d done had been motivated by pure common sense, nothing more.
I flexed my sore hand. Damn, my palm stung. At least I’d have the weekend to help it heal before going back to work.
Maybe it made me a little shameless, but I was truly considering flipping back the covers so I could get a better look at his bare chest. What I could see of it was certainly impressive—he looked deliciously toned. Downright lick-able, in fact.
My nose tingled and twitched as a sneeze built up out of nowhere. I covered my nose and mouth as the sneeze burst out of me. His eyes flipped open. I seriously had no idea how anyone could snap awake so easily. It concerned me, really. It made me wonder if there’d once been a time when he’d needed to be on his guard during the night; if he’d needed to wake at the slightest sound in order to protect himself. The very thought made my chest tighten.
His head turned toward me, and those lazy, slumberous eyes met mine. Just like that, my stomach clenched.
“Morning,” I said.
His eyes flitted over my face, searching. “You okay?”
I nodded. “I slept pretty well, all things considered. You?”
“Not so bad,” he replied, smoothly and casually sliding his hand from my ass to my hip. “Don’t know what it is about this bed, but I always sleep longer when I’m in it.”
A faint smile tugged at my mouth. “It’s an awesome bed.” And it was a lot more pleasant to lie in when I had Dane bare-chested beside me, but I kept that little nugget to myself. “Thank you for staying with me. Again.”
He shrugged, releasing my hip and letting his arm flop to the mattress. “You don’t snore, wriggle around, hog the covers, or take up too much space.”
I almost barked a short laugh. If he’d woken a little earlier, he wouldn’t have said the latter.
Since I desperately needed to pee, I edged out of bed. “Nature calls.” I padded to the bathroom, hearing him rise behind me. It took all of my self-control not to glance over my shoulder and get a better look at that chest. In the bathroom, I gave myself a mental pat on the back in reward and then went about my business.
Dane leaned against the counter while I poured coffee into two mugs. “I want to know who else at o-Verve thinks like Jeff.”
I sighed. I should have known he’d circle back to that eventually. “Dane, can’t you just let it go?”
“You know me better than that.” He picked up his cup. “Was it confined to last night, or have things also been going on at the company?”
I set down the coffee canter. “Nothing’s been going on … per se.”
“Elaborate on ‘per se.’”
I explained how people had changed toward me, though I downplayed it slightly. “It was nothing, really.”
“It wasn’t ‘nothing.’ And don’t think I’m not aware you’re downplaying it.”
See, total warlock. “I knew there’d be people who’d accuse me of marrying the boss to get my hands on his money. No one actually said anything to my face until last night. And that was mostly just Jeff.”
“Mostly,” Dane echoed. “Who else?”
Knowing the graze on my palm would burn like a bitch if I grabbed my cup, I carefully lifted it by the handle and then sipped my coffee. “It’s not worth the bother.”
