Page 71 of Ash Storm

Ash

Ash watched Reka sleep.

He’d lain in bed beside her—fully clothed, because she seemed to trust him, but he didn’t trust himself that much—until her breathing evened out and her body relaxed under the covers.

Then he’d moved over to the armchair. It was comfortable enough. He should have been able to sleep just fine, except he couldn’t seem to stop looking at her.

It’s hard to sleep with your eyes open, you fool.

But worth it.

So worth it.

Soft moonlight bathed the room through the cracks in the blinds. He’d noticed she didn’t put the blinds down the whole way, and he hadn’t wanted to press her. He didn’t know if this was normal for her, but he imagined there would be a lot of things in her near future that she’d have to work through.

At least the faint light meant he could see her features clearly. He traced her high cheekbones with his gaze, then followed the slim lines all the way past her full lips and down to her slender neck. Her skin shone like bronze against the white sheet. It was no wonder he couldn’t stop looking. Hers was a beauty without artifice. She was beautiful now, and she would be beautiful when she turned eighty.

Her chest rose and fell gently, and every few breaths she let out a soft, delicate snore.

He smiled.

Because he was watching so intently, he knew exactly when her nightmare began. Her smooth brow furrowed, her lips tightening in a pained rictus. Still asleep, she shook her head as if trying to shake the nightmare off. He was already out of the armchair by the time she began whimpering.

He couldn’t take her pain.

He lay down next to her, on the space he’d vacated earlier, and pulled her tight against his body.

“It’s okay, Reka. I’ve got you. You’re safe.”

She froze for a second, and he feared he might be making things worse—was ready to let go immediately if she pulled away from him. But she didn’t. With a little sniffle that seemed to dig right into his heart, she burrowed deeper into his embrace.

“You okay?” he breathed softly.

“I guess … I guess I had a nightmare,” she said, sounding almost surprised.

He couldn’t help but snort. “No shit, honey. The strange thing would be if you weren’t having them.”

“I guess …” she said.

“Sometimes,” he said, very carefully. “Sometimes it helps to talk through things with someone.”

“That’s not what you do,” she said.

“I’m not the one who had a nightmare.”

She looked up at him, her eyes serious. “You’re hiding darkness, too. I can sense it.”

Ash stiffened. How right she was.

“Go back to sleep, Reka. I swear to you I won’t let anything hurt you.”

He was almost certain she was going to argue, but eventually her weight settled more firmly against him and her breathing settled. She was asleep once again.

Ash ground his teeth together. There was no fucking way he was moving away. Julius Caesar with his army couldn’t have dragged him away, not when his touch seemed to quieten her.

Unfortunately, now sleep was really out of the question, with her sweet curves where plastered on him and her smell … well, she smelled faintly of his own deodorant, but there was another smell that he knew didn’t come from any product in his bathroom—a smell that was just her, and that was driving him crazy.

The next time she woke up, it was still dark. It was that time of the night where the deep shadows still hadn’t realized they’d have to lighten, as dawn eventually broke.