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Another scream, this one dying down to an almost animalistic whine.
“Come on, baby. Don’t do this.” Saul tapped her face, easing back as her body went limp. Her breath whistled between pale, parted lips so he knew she was still alive. “Wake up.”
She shuddered, whimpering fitfully.
He talked to her, patting her cheek until the turmoil raging inside her lost its frantic pulse. The pain on her face softened, and relief swamped him as her eyes fluttered open.
Sitting back, lifting his hands clear, Saul exhaled quietly and smiled at her.
“Well hello there, little rabbit.”
*
Caera’s awakening felt as though eternity had taken over the time clock of her life. She was aware of warmth, so much lovely heat wrapped around her like a snuggly blanket. The dregs of a nightmare still lingered, not as heavy as they usually were, poisoning her system.
She thought she’d heard a voice. A male voice, unfamiliar and thick with something dark, or so she imagined. After all, she’d never actually been seduced by a sexy voice or any variation of dark, but the voice murmuring through the wreckage of her subconscious had drawn her home.
Her eyes fluttered open and Caera squinted against the glare of light, blinking like a disturbed owl. Her heart picked up a beat as she fastened her gaze on the figure kneeling beside her, within touching distance.
She nearly had an instant panic attack when he said, “Well hello there, little rabbit.”
Breath strangling her, she struggled to focus on his features. Dark hair, neatly cut. A lean face shadowed with a day’s worth of beard. Narrow nose, full lips. Not too plump, not too thin, but just right to suit his facial symmetry. Intense gray eyes.
She edged away, pressing into the back of the couch with a whimper trapped in her throat.
“No, no, don’t do that. Don’t be afraid, Caera. I won’t hurt you.”
What the hell? “How do you know my name?”
His eyes fascinated her. Dark gray with flecks of silver around the irises. Wonderful, beautiful eyes watching her every move with something like sympathy. Honest eyes, Caera decided. Eyes someone could trust if they needed a friend.
Which she didn’t, she told herself. She didn’t need any friends, anyone to trust.
She didn’t want to leave anyone behind to grieve when she died.
This was the closest Caera had ever been to a man not of her family, and she wasn’t sure she liked it. Kind eyes or not, he was a stranger, and strangers didn’t always have the best intentions.
He made no move to touch her. “It would seem we’ve been maneuvered together by mutual friends who mean well,” he told her conversationally. “But maneuvered, nonetheless. Connie seems to think I could be of some use to you regarding your…problem.”
Caera felt the blood drain from her face. “She told you?”
“Some minor details, not everything. I have the feeling some of it is not for her to tell. The hardest things, the stuff that needs to come out and be purged, should come from where it hurts. From inside you. But,” he said in that lovely dark and silky voice, “I think we might be rushing ahead of ourselves.”
Okay, this was getting freaky. Anxiety rose up to choke her—she could feel her chest tighten. Who the hell was this guy? How did she know if he’d been sent by Connie? He’d used her name, but maybe he’d been stalking her. How did he get in here when she knew she’d locked the door?
“So, let me introduce myself,” he continued smoothly. “My name is Saul Danvers. I’m thirty-six and I…let’s just say for now that I have my fingers in a few complex pies when it comes to work. I’m single, healthy, and one of the good guys.” He gave her a wink that lit her face up with embarrassed heat. “Are you afraid of me, Caera?”
Caera shook her head, lying without words. If she told him the truth, he would use it against her. Slowly, her hands shifted to the edge of the blanket, ready to shove it back and make a run for a room with locks on the door. She could call Connie and verify who this maniac was.
“Sweetheart, I’ve seen you naked once already. You lose that blanket and I’ll get the full view all over again. Why don’t you tell me what you need, and I’ll go get it for you so you can just stay there and rest?”
He seemed nice enough, Caera thought to herself. As he knelt beside her, his scent strong and fresh like a mossy forest after rain, she realized she didn’t have that itchy sensation under her skin that usually came with her social anxiety.
“My phone. I need my phone. Please.”
“You have it on you?” Saul smirked.
“It’s in my…” Pocket, she realized. My phone is in my pocket which is…in the bathroom. “It’s in the pocket of my pants in the bathroom.”
