Page 27 of Grim

He leaned back, letting his body sink into the warmth. The house hummed quietly around him, the fridge, the AC, the faint click of her bedroom light turning off.

And her scent lingered in the air.

Vanilla. Sweet. Clean. Something that wrapped around him and settled under his skin like it belonged there.

He shouldn’t notice that. He shouldn’t want to breathe it in. He shouldn’t want to know what she smelled like up close, or what her hair would feel like if he touched it, or why the sound of her voice had hit him harder than a bullet.

He shouldn’t want anything from her.

But he did.

Too much.

He closed his eyes, jaw tight, trying to force the thoughts away. They didn’t go. They never did, not when something got under his skin. And she had, fast and quiet, without even trying.

He hadn’t meant to stay inside. He hadn’t meant to get comfortable. He sure as hell hadn’t meant to eat her food or breathe in her scent like it was oxygen.

But he was here.

And for the first time in a long time, he didn’t feel like he needed to be anywhere else.

His eyes drifted shut, heavy with exhaustion he’d been ignoring for years.

The last thoughts that slipped through his mind before sleep took him were simple and dangerous.

She’d trusted him.

Just trusted him.

Opened her door, fed him, gave him a place to sleep. He didn’t know what to do with that kind of faith. Didn’t know how to hold something that fragile without breaking it.

And she was beautiful. Too beautiful.

A woman who’d never look twice at a man like him.

But God help him, he already couldn’t stop looking at her.

Chapter 8

Sophia

Sophia woke to the soft hum of her box fan and a low, muffled sound she couldn’t place.

A man’s voice.

Her eyes snapped open.

Maddox.

She sat up too fast, the room tilting before it settled. She rubbed her face, trying to shake off the fog of sleep. Her nightshirt had twisted in her sleep, the neckline sliding off one shoulder, cool air brushing her skin. She padded to the door, cracked it open, and listened.

She’d let him sleep here. In her home.

She’d spent her whole life being the steady one, the careful one, the one who didn’t take risks with her safety. Letting him stay should’ve terrified her, but it didn’t.

A man she barely knew, a man built of sharp edges and danger and something she didn’t have a name for. She should’ve been terrified. Instead, all she felt was a strange, steady certainty that he wouldn’t hurt her.

There it was again.