AllFreeNovel
Share Us
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
REED LAY PROPPED up on one elbow, staring down at Sierra. Soft, dawn light seeped into the room between the curtains. He needed to get up, he was already running late. The Sarge had requested he be at the station by 6 A.M. sharp. But he couldn’t stop staring at her beautiful face.
There were tiny lines around her mouth and fanning out from the corners of her eyes, but otherwise her complexion was smooth and creamy. Which was quite amazing considering she’d told him she was thirty-eight last night. Perhaps it was her Middle-Eastern heritage that kept her looking so young and sexy. He liked the feel of her in his bed last night. The heat of her back against his chest as he pulled her into his body after they made love. Liked the feel of her soft curves as he lay a protective hand on her hip.
They had talked last night, while they lay together, satiated. She’d asked him about Penny and the baby, and he’d told her everything. How devastated he’d been, but how he tried to hide it for Penny’s sake. How Penny couldn’t cope, had blamed herself for their loss. It was the first time he’d really opened up to anyone about those years of his life and afterwards, he’d slept like a baby in her arms.
His eyes traced the curve of her cheek then up to her temple, where the small scar split her eyebrow. Wincing as he took in the dark purple bruising around her forehead, he had to stop his finger coming up to trace the injuries. The old scar that ran along her hairline was exposed this morning, with her hair falling back onto the pillow. Where had it come from? He wanted to know more about this woman, wanted to know what made her happy, and what made her sad. They’d talked a lot about his past, but not about hers. He wanted to understand her history, so he could understand her present.
Sierra stirred and her eyes flickered open. Then her lips curved upwards in that delicious, lop-sided smile.
“Morning, sleepyhead.”
“Morning,” she replied, voice husky with sleep.
“You’re so beautiful.”
She lifted a wry eyebrow at that, as if she didn’t believe her sleep-ruffled self to be at all attractive first thing in the morning.
He let his head drop and met her lips with his, kissing her gently. His heart stuttered in his chest, and it took him a moment to realize what the emotion flooding through him was. This felt so right, kissing her as she awoke. He wanted to keep doing it. Wanted to do it forever. This is where she belonged. In his bed. And in his life.
At last he lifted his head, but continued to stare down at her. “What is this scar?” He used his index finger to lightly trace along the jagged line on her forehead.
Her eyes shuttered for a second, her lips pursing, and he thought perhaps he’d crossed the line. But after what they’d shared last night, what they’d done together, he wanted to know it all. They shouldn’t have any secrets.
“It’s a reminder,” she said at last.
“Of what?”
“Of what I lost.”
Okay, so she was being cryptic. But he knew about loss. And he knew what it did to a relationship. After all, he and Penny hadn’t been able to survive her miscarriage. He was still stung by grief every time he thought about her. And the baby.
“Are you sure you really want to know? It was a long time ago, but it had a huge impact. It changed me as a person forever. It’s the reason I left Adelaide and moved to KI.”
Wow. It was early in the morning, and perhaps the wrong time to be diving so deep into Sierra’s past, but he couldn’t stop now. He needed to know.
“Yes,” he said, careful to keep his voice low and compassionate. “It obviously forms a big part of your life. It matters to me.” He wanted to say you matter to me, but stopped himself just in time.
Sierra averted her gaze, let it rest on the ceiling above instead.
“Not many people on KI knows about this.” She drew in a shuddering breath. “I don’t tend to talk about it. I’ve only told Sam and Debbie, and that was only the most basic details. Even Kylie and Rhianna don’t know.”
He already knew she was an intensely private person, so it made a certain kind of sense she would keep it to herself. Much like she’d kept the story of her stalker to herself.
“I was involved in a car accident, ten years ago. I hit my head. I was in a coma for two weeks afterward.” She was trying to keep her face devoid of emotion, but a small twist in her mouth gave her away.
“Jesus,” he whispered. He took hold of her hand, calming her fingers that’d been nervously picking at the edge of the sheet. He hoped she might feel some of the empathy he wanted to pour over her like a balm coming through his touch. He hated to see her in such emotional turmoil. Wanted to help heal it.
Images of the crash he’d been involved in morphed into his head. It’d been bad. He’d been chasing a felon who’d staged an armed robbery and then stolen a car. The accident hadn’t been his fault—not really—but he didn’t particularly want to relive it, either, so he understood her reticence. He remembered the woman in the other car, screaming and screaming. A purely animal sound that sometimes still plagued his dreams. Funny, but his accident had been around ten years ago as well. The world was full of coincidences.
“But that’s not the part that truly haunts me…” She hesitated and her eyes flicked quickly to his and then back to the ceiling. But it was enough to show him a glimpse of the terrible pain she carried inside. He held his breath, not sure he wanted to know anymore. “My daughter was killed in the accident. She was only nine months old. They said I was in the wrong, that I should’ve heard it. But I didn’t, I swear I didn’t. They said it was an unmarked cop car, but it had its lights and sirens blaring. Everyone else stopped. They all heard it. Why didn’t I?”
Reed’s blood stilled in his veins, frozen to ice. He stopped breathing. Sierra wriggled her hand in his as his grip became vise-like, and he released her with a start.
But she didn’t seem to notice his distress, still lost in her own memories as she kept talking. “I didn’t even get to go to Grace’s funeral. Jake said they weren’t sure when I would wake up, or even if I would wake up, and they couldn’t wait forever.” Her eyes had glazed over as she continued to look at the ceiling.
He stared at her, watching her lips move, yet paralyzed, unable to move or talk.
