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She felt his warm body move up behind her, curving around her. “Lift your head,” he said gently. And she did so. Making her wonder if she followed so many of his demands purely because he used that gentle tone. If anyone else told her what to do, she gave them hell, she definitely didn’t comply.
He slid an arm under her head for her to rest on, and then wrapped his other arm tight around her waist. “This is beginner snuggling. I’ll teach you the more advanced versions another time.”
“What makes you think there will be another time?”
“A man can hope.”
They lay there in silence as Rachel relaxed into his hold. It was familiar to her from dancing together. As her weight sank deeper into the bed, she wondered if she’d ever get his ocean scent out of her sheets. Or her room. It had been the only place in her home that didn’t remind her of Harvard. Now that had changed too.
Inch by inch, the man was slowly inserting himself into her life, and she wasn’t sure what she thought or felt about it. Because he did it so sweetly, in such an unthreatening manner, that she’d barely noticed it happening.
The heat of his body along her back made her muscles turn limp in a way that no massage had ever achieved. With his arm around her and his bulk protecting her, she felt as though she were cradled inside a cocoon.
She felt safe.
And as her mind drifted, she found thoughts escaping from her lips that she normally wouldn’t allow free. “Years back,” she said quietly, “before you joined Benson Security, we had a case that involved a sex trafficker.”
He said nothing, but his thumb stroked lazily against her stomach.
“I used my connections with TayFor to acquire a drug to disable the man so that one of our team could get the information we needed to shut his operation down.” She paused, remembering that time and the complete lack of remorse she’d felt at her actions. “It was the same drug they used on me.”
They remained silent for a long time before Harvard spoke. “And you think that makes you the same as the guys who attacked you?”
“Not the same, but it did allow Megan to assault the man in a way that meant he wouldn’t rape anyone else. It’s a fine line, isn’t it? Between what I did and what was done to me.”
She liked that he took his time to consider his answer before giving it.
“What I think,” he said at last, “is that it sounds like poetic justice. There are people in this world who don’t play by the rules, but they expect everyone else to, and they use that against them. There has to be someone willing to cross the line and deal with those people.” He nuzzled her temple.
“I don’t feel bad about what I did,” she whispered, confessing the part that made her worry about herself the most.
“I’ve done a lot of things that I don’t feel bad about. Things other people would say I should regret.”
“None of which you can talk about, or you’d have to kill me.”
“Exactly.” She heard the grin in his reply. “But sometimes, the things I had to do come back to haunt me in my dreams. I feel like I deserve that.”
Rachel placed her hand over his and wriggled closer. “Thank you,” she whispered before falling asleep.
Deep in the night, once Rachel was sound asleep, Harvard slipped out of bed and crept to the guest room to place a call.
“Who the hell is this?” the sleep-roughened voice demanded.
“This is Harvard,” he said, keeping his voice low so that it didn’t carry back to Rachel and wake her. “From the London office. You just wrote a program for my operation. We need to talk, but not about the TayFor case, about Rachel.”
“Crap,” Harry Boyle said in his deep highland brogue. “Gimme a minute to get out of the bedroom.”
There was the sound of muffled conversation and a drowsy female voice asking what was going on, and then Harvard heard a door shut.
A minute later, Harry came back on the line. “What about Rachel?” he said, sounding wary.
“She told me about the rape.”
A long stream of cursing battered Harvard’s ear before Harry let out a heavy sigh. “Does she know you’re talking to me?”
“It’s three in the morning, what do you think?” For a genius, Harry wasn’t impressing Harvard too much. But then, to give him his due, it was the middle of the night, and not everyone woke up battle-ready like a former spy.
“Okay, okay,” Harry said. “Let me start some coffee while we talk. What do you know? Bring me up to speed on what she’s said.”
