AllFreeNovel
Share Us
When he touched her, she was clammy with sweat and ice cold. He wanted to pull her against his body, share his warmth, but he didn’t want to frighten her, either. As a Marine, he’d seen nightmares before and knew he had to be cautious. He shook her very lightly, repeating her name over and over.
When she opened her mouth to scream again, he was afraid he’d have to slap her to snap her out of it. He dug his fingers into her shoulders and shook her hard. Her head jerked forward then back again, and her eyes, unfocused, began to clear.
“Wha—Cole?” She blinked. “What happened? What are you doing here?”
“Darlin’, you were screaming the roof down.” He slid his hands over her exposed skin. “You’re covered with sweat, cold as ice, and shaking like a leaf. Let’s get you into a hot shower.”
“No. Please. I’m okay. Really.” She pushed against him weakly.
He pulled her to his body, stroking her back. “You are far from all right. Come on. You’ll feel better. Then you can tell me what it was all about.”
“I…I can do this myself.” She swung her legs over the side of the bed, but when she tried to stand, she nearly crumpled to the floor.
Cole lifted her in his arms and carried her to the bathroom, holding her against him while he turned on the shower and adjusted the spray. He hesitated a moment, then shut his mind to everything but necessity and stripped off both her sleep shirt and his sweats. He took one moment to admire her slim body and full breasts before pulling her into the shower with him.
As soon as the hot spray hit her, she came alive in his arms, struggling. “Damn, Cole. That’s hot. And I can shower by myself.”
“Not this time,” he told her, holding her against him while the water beat down on them. “Consider it purely therapeutic.”
He let the steam from the heat surround them until he felt her stiffen in his arms again.
“I’m naked,” she said and looked up at him with something like fear in her eyes.
He grinned. “That’s the usual procedure for showering.” He reached for the handle and turned off the water. “Come on. I think you’re warmed up enough now.”
He pulled a towel from a hook, dried her, and wrapped her in it. He quickly wrapped another around his waist and knotted it at his hips before digging a T-shirt out of his drawer and slipping it over Dana’s head. Lifting her to the counter, he found another towel to wrap around her head and squeeze out most of the water.
“I think that’s the best we can do for now.” His voice was still soft. Calming. He tossed the towel over a bar, carried her back to bed, put her beneath the covers, and slid in next to her. She tried to push him away and sit up, but he kept his arms around her.
“Uh-uh. You need my body heat. It’s better than medicine after a nightmare.”
She stiffened again. “I can go back to sleep now. I’m fine.”
“Darlin’, you are many things, but at the moment, fine isn’t one of them. You have had a hellacious day, and your mind is fighting back. Just relax. Come on. Let it go.”
They lay there for long minutes, his hand stroking the graceful line of her back, the smoothness of her skin. The swell of her hip. Her breasts pushed against him through the T-shirt, and he prayed his body would behave. But his cock seemed to have a mind of its own, swelling and poking at her soft skin. He rolled her resisting body over, so she faced away from him and spooned her against him, but his hot erection pressed against the crevice of her ass, and she jumped as if scalded.
“Cole, I—”
“Shh, shh, shh. It’s okay. I won’t hurt you.”
She lay there stiff as a board again.
Cole sighed. “I promise I’m not going to hurt you, Dana. Or force you to do anything you don’t want to. I just want to ease you back to sleep.”
“I don’t sleep with men in my bed.” Her voice sounded very small.
“Ever?” She was thirty-two years old, and he was pretty sure she wasn’t a virgin.
“Well…hardly ever.” She cleared her throat. “I have…issues.”
He waited a heartbeat for her to say more, but when she didn’t he asked, “Want to talk about it?”
****
Did she want to talk about it? Tell Cole about the dreams that never left her? That plagued her sleep? Hell, no.
Dana had been back in the barn in her dream, listening to Kylie scream. Feeling the man’s hands on her. Hurting her.
