“Hello, princess.”
I suck in a deep breath, my fingernails gripping the skin on my chest, trying to claw the non-existent hands off me. My lungs are scorched, my breathing uncontrollable...
“Fuck, Katie!” a deep voice shouts before hands grip my arm.
I try to pull away, try to withdraw until I’m scrambling, falling with a thud onto the floor. Myshoulder floods with pain as I try to roll. Where the hell am I? Shadows I don’t recognize creep up the walls. The smell is wrong; it’s not my room...I’m not where I should be, and a sense of doom embeds itself into my gut, squeezing my organs until I can barely breathe.
A light turns on, and I’m blinded for a moment, my eyes squinting as I shield them from the light.
“Katie, it’s Jonesy.” I look at him; he’s kneeling on the floor next to me. How did he get here? His bare chest is exposed, he’s only wearing a pair of boxers. Jonesy and I are in the same bed together again?
“We’re in a hotel in Ohio on a case. There was only one room, remember? We had to share.” The line between his eyebrows deepens until I want to rub my thumb along it to smooth it out. I need him to be smirking, testing my patience. I don’t want him looking at me like this...like there’s something wrong with me. He tentatively reaches out to take my hand, and I let him.
“I remember. Sorry . . . I was having a . . .” I swallow hard, not knowing what to call it.
“You were having a nightmare. Are you okay? You’re safe here with me. I’m not going to let anything happen to you, okay, princess?”
Princess.
It had to beprincessthat the masked man whispered in my ear.
I pull myself up, checking my phone for thetime—3 a.m.
I head to the bathroom and splash some cold water on my face. In every other dream I’d had, it’s some version of the same thing. Chased by a masked man in the dark. This isn’t the first time I got caught; this isn’t the first time I felt his hands on my body, but it’s the first time he called me princess.
Princess.
I slip back under the covers, shivering slightly, and Jonesy pulls me back against his chest.
Jesus.
His hand splays against my stomach, his thumb stroking the sensitive skin just underneath the soft swell of my breast. It’s too familiar. Too much like the dream, even the hard broadness of his chest feels the same. His hot breath on my ear.
I shake my head, pulling away from him.
“No,” he whispers.
“I can’t.”
“Because of Detective Williams?”
I frown then, twisting my body until I’m facing him. His palm is on my back now, and he shows no signs of moving it. His tongue runs along his bottom lip, his nose almost grazing mine. We're so close. I rest my hand on his chest, and his lips part slightly, a small frown forming between his eyes. I can feel the strength of his chest beneath my fingertips. I can see the hardswallow in his throat as he waits for me to reply.
“I’m not seeing Detective Williams,” I admit out loud. And almost as quickly as my confession leaves my lips, I feel relief. My feelings for Anthony are confusing. I like him. I find him attractive, of course; he’s gorgeous. He’s dedicated and never ceases to make time for me. But despite his patience, there’s an undercurrent of himwaitingand putting his love life on hold for me.
“Do you want to?” he whispers.
“You’ve already asked me this.”
“You gave me an evasive answer last time, princess. I’m many things, but I’m not going to lie in bed with another man’s woman.”
“Is that all I am to you? Another man’s woman?” I tsk, rolling my eyes.
“Princess...” His strong fingers thread through the loose strands of my hair, pushing them back away from my face. It feels good, too good. I don’t trust him enough that he won’t take it all away from me just as I start to feel anything other than annoyance toward him.
“Please don’t...” I close my eyes for a moment, repeating the word in my head over and over. “Don’t call me that.”
The hand on my back shifts, his fingertips trailing along my side, up past my breast until he winds a tendril of hair around his finger. Wrapping and unwrapping.
