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“Hey, it’s okay.Callie.” I gently shook her. Finally, her eyes focused on my face, and she stopped fighting me. “That’s it. Just a dream.”
“What?” she said on an exhale, turning her head to scan the room. “Where...” She looked at me again.
“Elm Grove, remember? It was just a nightmare.”
She took a few fast, heaving breaths, then threw herself into my arms. Callie clung to me, breathing like a track star after the big race. She trembled against me. The only thing between our bodies was the silky material of her pajama tank top.
I cupped the back of her head and stroked her hair. “Hey. You’re okay. You’re okay now,” I said softly.
After a few more seconds, she leaned back enough to look up at me. “Sorry.”
“No need.”
The moment went on too long, her hanging onto me, gazing up at me. I could feel the peaks of her nipples against my chest. The tiniest yank would have torn that silky top and gotten it out of my way.
I should have won some kind of fucking award for not kissing her then and there, because that was all that I could think about. Having her in my arms, our bodies together, her breath against my neck. I almost couldn’t hold her close enough.
I had to remind myself she was terrified. I was supposed to be comforting her, not getting turned on.
“Some nightmare,” I said.
She nodded. “Sometimes, if I’m really stressed, I have the same one. I’m in a room alone, like a basement or underground. I can’t see anything around me, but there’s someone coming to get me, a man…There’s growling and scratching, popping, and the more I try to back away, the closer he gets.” She sighed heavily. “I usually wake around the time he grabs my legs and starts dragging me toward him.”
“I’d probably scream too.” I stroked her hair again without thinking.
She chuckled at that. “Big tough guy like you? You probably wouldn’t even back away. You’d run at him with your gun, and he’d be the one having the nightmare.”
“Maybe,” I said, glad she seemed to be feeling better.
She finally let go of me and scrubbed her palms down her cheeks, then her gaze settled on my chest. I don’t think I imagined the way she looked at me as some sort of wishful thinking. Callie appeared to like what she saw, even though she also still looked shaken up from her dream.
Her gaze lifted back to meet mine. “I’m sorry I woke you.”
“That’s ok.”
She clearly wanted something, her wide blue eyes appealing to me. I raised my eyebrows, waiting.
Finally, she said, “Would you mind... staying until I fall asleep?”
Her swallow drew my attention to her long, shapely neck, which led down to those thin little straps.
Her shoulders. Her collarbone.
I needed to get the hell out of there before my rational brain got stomped into dust. Every other part of me wanted nothing more than to press Callie back onto her bed and make her scream for reasons a hell of a lot more pleasant than a nightmare.
“Of course,” I said, because how the hell could I say no?
I stood to move into the chair against the wall, but she grabbed my hand and scooted over to make room.
Fuck.
I sat on the bed, my back against the headboard, my hands in my lap. She was on her side, facing me, her hands together in front of her cheek. Her arm hid her breasts, and the covers draped over her hip, but my imagination filled in all the blanks.
Stop being a lech.
I watched her facial muscles relax as she fell asleep. When her breathing steadied, I carefully got up and slipped out.
Several mostly sleepless hours later, after the sun came up, I found her in the kitchen, eating a bowl of cereal.
