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She had tried to get him to leave. But deep down she hadn’t wanted him to go anywhere. She licked her lips.
Terrifying barely scratched the surface of her fear.
Then she looked at him again, and he looked so, so beautiful in sleep. She got up and, with wicked intent, pulled the sheet off him just to look at him.
Being near him calmed that stupid doubt and most of the fear. She scoffed softly. She didn’t want to get too far ahead of herself.
The way he had looked at her, raking his gaze down the length of her, was so hot. Her breasts had swelled beneath his stare, her nipples tightened all over to the point of pain, and a liquid kind of heat settled between her thighs. She went back to the chair, studying his body with hungry eyes.
The man was chiseled perfection from the thick column of his neck down to his well-shaped feet. Heavy pectorals moved with his even breathing, his biceps a thick, rounded bulge even with his arm at rest over his head. His abs were shredded, his stomach flat, the ridge of muscle looping down his belly to curve just above his hip bones enticed her mouth. She wanted to kiss all of him.
His face was in profile, but she would know him anywhere with his strong jaw and high cheekbones, the soft slant to his eyes.
She didn’t believe she could get this much pleasure from watching someone sleep. Her mouth softened. He looked so peaceful; the lines between his eyes that always showed when he was deep in thought were gone.
Even though he did look relaxed, there was nothing innocent about him, even in sleep. He was sleek, honed, and a warrior. He was close to her age—pushing thirty, she guessed—and had a few scars and new bruises. He was so easy in his skin, sexy, skilled, strong, effortlessly a man and a SEAL. With all the masculinity on display for her enjoyment, he made her feel more aware of herself as a woman, a state of mind she’d tried to leave behind when she became a Shadowguard. She only thought of herself as a weapon.
But Preacher had changed all that. The only man on this planet who could make her feel so feminine, so turned on, so out of her element on a personal basis as she’d ever felt in her life…in a good way.
Luna wasn’t sure how she was going to reconcile what she had done in Geneva and here, but he was being more wonderful than she deserved. She’d wanted to talk to him before she’d ever gotten into bed with him, but with his celibacy, she despaired it would ever happen.
He’d blown her mind and taken her body,taken her,and she wasn’t sure she hadn’t given more than she could get back.
God.
She almost didn’t give a damn.
She wanted to give more, get more.
But the realist in her warred with the woman she could become with Preacher.
Was this a mess she couldn’t fix, a mess he couldn’t forgive her for no matter what he’d said? She felt…vulnerable…breakable.
Her throat got so thick, her eyes stung. What was that feeling…hope?
She closed her eyes. Wait, hadn’t she been broken, or had he already started his mending when she’d met him?
There was a draw in being reborn, in starting fresh.
Stop hiding and do somethingplayed in her head and she pressed her forehead to her knees. She couldn’t move forward if she sat still, if she wallowed. Maybe it was time to see if she could salvage her life. See if maybe, God, maybe, she could go home, come out of the shadows into the light.
With him.
She lifted her head, her eyes raking over him again.
“You getting a good look there?” he said.
“You owe me,” she said, her mouth going dry, and she felt like a coward. She inhaled and, on the exhale, said, “I compromised you when you had a fever in Geneva.” Her shoulders tensed as if awaiting a blow.
Preacher searched her upturned face, and she could see the impact of her confession in his eyes. He rolled to his side and reached out his hand. For a moment, she didn’t move.
“Come here,” he murmured. “Talk to me.”
She reached out and grasped his hand like a lifeline, and he pulled her back into bed.
“I was— You—” she started a couple of times, then closed her mouth.
“Take your time.” Tenderness and something she wasn’t sure of made her heart hurt. He was such a good man.
