“I’ve got you, baby.”
One second, I was braced against the floor trying not to throw up, and the next, Henry was pulling me up with both hands, not giving me enough time to disappear into it.
My legs knocked against his as he sat down hard in the desk chair and dragged me with him, settling me across his lap like he needed me close enough to keep breathing for the both of us.
Somewhere in the movement, his shirt vanished.
I didn’t even see him take it off.
All I registered was the sudden press of warm skin against my face when he pulled me into his chest, one hand spreading wide across my back while the other cradled the base of my skull,holding me there through the shaking breath I couldn’t seem to steady.
“Breathe, baby,” he murmured against my hair.
My fingers curled into him immediately, palms flattening against the heat of his ribs. His heart thumped beneath my touch, even in a way mine refused to be, and he kept rubbing his hand up and down my back like he was trying to coax me back into my body one inch at a time.
“I’m right here,” he said quietly. “I’ve got you.”
Henry’s heartbeat didn’t rush.
It didn’t stumble or spike or spiral out the way mine did.
It just kept going. A steady thump beneath my ear that gave my breathing something to follow.
In.
Out.
Again.
Eventually, I let out a long breath against his skin and muttered, “Okay. Yeah. I get why you didn’t want to tell me now.”
His fingers paused briefly at the nape of my neck. “Oh?”
“I’m clearly a fucking nut job.”
His hand landed sharply against my thigh.
“Call yourself that again,” he said calmly, “and I’ll put you over my knee.”
“I’m way too wound up to get turned on right now,” I informed him, wiping at my face before tipping my head back enough to look at him. “But let’s maybe revisit that later, because I would love for you to bend me over this desk and ruin my life a little.”
Henry barked out a laugh so sudden it almost startled me.
“There you are,” he murmured.
Warmth flickered low in my chest at that.
Then his hand tightened at my waist and he leaned forward, catching the edge of the desk and dragging the chair closer. The laptop waited there, screen still glowing faintly.
The second I looked at it again, the knot in my stomach pulled tight again.
“What if it really is him? What if Otto’s the one who took Abel?”
“I’m about to find out.”
Henry’s fingers moved across the keyboard, opening window after window, files and databases appearing faster than I could track them.
I stared. “Do I even want to know how you have access to a federal database?”
