Page 35 of Lucian

She released her grip immediately.

“It’s nothing.”

“It’s hard, you know.”

“Huh?”

Lucian shrugged in the darkness. “Listening to you whimper and thrash around in here. I don’t know if you want me to wake you up, or what you need. I feel like I have to stay awake just to make sure at some point you’re sleeping without the dreams.”

Oh, God.

“You’ve been having them a lot,” he stated matter-of-fact.

“Yeah, but I’m fine, Lucian.”

“I don’t believe that for a second, and since my heart is in my throat right now, I really need to make sure you’re fine, sweetheart. Otherwise, I won’t sleep for another month.”

Jordyn didn’t know how to respond, not that Lucian gave her the chance to. Wordlessly, he crossed the room and sat on the bed before untangling the fabric around her legs. Then, he was lifting the soft sheets and lying under them with her. Lucian propped his head in his palm while he was situated on his side, watching Jordyn with that piercing stare of his.

Lucian, while clear in his interest of her, had been very proper in all aspects. He never crossed any boundaries, was always polite when she needed help changing her bandages, and didn’t give even the slightest hint he expected something from Jordyn unless she was willing to give it. He also respected her choices on other things, which helped for her to trust him. Like stopping the dose of morphine the very next day after she woke up, even after Paulie suggested she keep taking it for another day or so to help her sleep.

Morphine was a narcotic—addiction ran rampant in her family history. Besides that, Jordyn wanted her mind to be clear around these people, especially Lucian. She trusted him without even knowing him. What she didn’t trust, however, was her thoughts and choices when she was too high to think everything through properly. Her pain was severe for the first couple of days, but she gritted her teeth and handled it with over the counter pain meds that didn’t make her feel like she was swimming through clouds.

“Will this help?” Jordyn asked, waving between them.

“It might,” Lucian answered with a grin. “I’m here, so now you can sleep without fears ruining those dreams of yours.”

The faintest smile crossed Jordyn’s lips. It was almost funny how his words didn’t seem like an excuse to get into bed with her. The previous panic had all but ebbed away, and Jordyn couldn’t help but feel the exhaustion creeping back in. She rested back into the bed on her side, still facing Lucian. Comfort seeped into her veins.

The gentlest touch of a hot palm pressing to her naked hip and fingers curling tightly to hold her had Jordyn’s eyes flying wide.

“Shhh,” Lucian soothed. “Sleep.”

Jordyn almost laughed. Sleep would be impossible with his hand on her body. Every nerve had suddenly sizzled to life and zoned in on that one place. She was far too aware of her reactions to this man and the bubbling waves of desire pooling in her middle.

“That’s not going to be possible,” Jordyn replied faintly.

Lucian rubbed his hand back and forth on her hip, up the line of the cotton briefs she wore and then almost down to her knee before going back up again. “Better?”

Sure. Now, the heat was traveling all over her damn legs and straight between her thighs instead of just staying in one spot. That didn’t mean she didn’t like it because she sure as shit did.

“Jordyn?” Lucian prodded.

“It’s … good,” she managed to say.

Lucian’s hand wandered higher, edging under the hem of the too big T-shirt of his she wore. His touch was soft, but insistent, his fingers barely grazing while his palm was flat down. “Can I?”

“Do what, exactly?”

“Touch you,” he replied in that same frank way. “Nothing more, I promise.”

She trusted his words, as far as that went. He was always so careful with her when helping her take care of her injuries and getting her comfortable if she was particularly sore. Most of the bandages and gauze were gone, though a few on the bad spots remained. Still, Jordyn was curious. “Tell me why.”

“I want to explore you. The expanse of your skin All of the curves and dips. The places where you’re the softest, or the most sensitive. What will make your heart race, your toes curl, or your body tremble. What you’ll do when I touch you here,” Lucian said huskily, a finger slipping under the hem of her shirt to sweep her stomach with a teasing graze. “Or the sounds you’ll make when I kiss you while I learn you. Will they be loud and shaking, or mewled and quiet?”

Jordyn’s breath audibly hitched. “Lucian …”

“Like that right there,” he murmured. “My name in your mouth. Sweet and low with a little bit of air behind it. Wanting me. As if I’m the only man you need. I want to learn those sounds and what makes them … all of them.”