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“And we can talk out here.” Where it was safe.
Hook pulled in a heavy breath, letting it out slowly. Nothing about him deflated with the movement. If anything, he actually looked like he was wound tighter. And the way he was looking at me...
“Then will you please put on some clothes?” he asked, cutting a hostile glance at Leo.
Lily leaned her hip against the back of the couch. “For the record, I’m good either way.”
Of course she was. She’d seen me in every state of undress in every phase of my life. She was, quite literally, the closest thing I had to a sister. Now that she was rocking her human form, she was even starting to feel like one.
I shifted my attention to Leo and the way he was watching me, his nostrils flaring ever-so-slightly. His shoulders had that slight forward roll to them that always reminded me of a predator intimidating his prey.
Okay, so maybe getting dressed wasn’t a horrible idea. Another quick peek at Hook showed me he was in a similarly amped up state. There was tension between the two of them, but over what? They were friends, weren’t they?
I shook my head, turned, and headed down the hallway. “I’ll be out in five minutes,” I called over my shoulder. “And I expect answers.”
Shutting my bedroom door behind me, I leaned against the wood. Nothing about the day had gone as expected. First was the shit show with my demon-possessed brother. Then the club and the way Leo had been treating me. And now there was Hook.
Crossing to my dresser, I pulled out a set of sleep shorts and the super soft, bordering on threadbare tank I’d had for forever. You couldn’t quite see my nipples through the fabric, yet, but that day was coming. Until then, I was going to wear the shit out of that thing.
Changing took a grand total of a minute, so I sat down on my bed and tried to get my thoughts straight. The lingering buzz was pretty much gone now, but that left exhaustion in its wake. Emotional, physical, spiritual.
I was ten different kinds of tired.
And my pillows were just sitting there, all alone, looking so soft and inviting.
“One minute,” I whispered.
I laid down, promptly losing the fight to keep my eyes open once my head was cocooned in the safety of my pillow, and counted down from sixty in my mind.
When I woke up, the morning sun was starting to spill in through my windows. I was covered with a throw blanket I didn’t remember grabbing, and someone was stretched out next to me on the bed. I twisted around to get a peek.
Lily?
That tracked, actually, since it wasn’t all that different from the countless nights she’d snuggled up to me as a dog. Was it all a little strange? Yeah, I could admit that. Did I mind? Not so much.
There was no real tension with her. Not like there was with Leo, and nothing at all like what I felt when Hook was that close to me. She was my reprieve.
I’d have to remember to thank her for that when she woke up.
In the meantime, I had a powerful need to find out what was going on. Why was Hook in my world? How the hell did he even get here? And what big secret did Lily think I needed to know about him and the pendant?
I laid there for a while, seriously debating waking her up to see if I could pry those answers out of her. In the end, though, I dragged my ass out of bed and padded down the hallway.
Leo was asleep in my brother’s room, and Hook was stretched out awkwardly on the couch in the living room. Just the sight of him kicked my pulse up a notch or two, even as relief so strong it was almost tangible rolled over me. I might not know what to say to the man, or what secrets he was hiding, but I knew I wanted him here.
I got a pot of coffee going as quietly as I could, and while I waited, I leaned back against the kitchen counter and took inventory. My hangover was nonexistent, and as far as I could tell, there weren’t any parts of the night I couldn’t remember. Aside from crashing in my bed and the way the time I’d spent dancing at the club melted into one long unidentifiable song.
Right up until I’d wheeled around and damned near slapped Hook.
Why was it still hard to believe he was here? I checked the couch again, and yep, the big, bossy pirate was real enough.
Once I had two steaming cups of coffee in my hands—one laced with a liberal dose of my Irish cream creamer, the other as black as night—I moved silently and sat down on the battered living room table facing my sleeping pirate. I set his cup to the side, folded my legs underneath me, and sipped on my own sweet morning bliss while I waited for him to wake up.
It took approximately twenty seconds for his eyes to snap open. There was a wildness in them that ripped all the air from the room. Gods, the guy was something else.
“Never?” My name rattled out of him like he couldn’t quite believe his own eyes.
I took a sip of my coffee before tipping my head. “Hook.”
