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She shook her head, her lips beginning to quiver. “They’re just going to make me fuzzy-headed and groggy. But I need to be alert. I need to be ready in case he—”
“He’s not,” I whispered softly, taking her hand. “I swear. I saw him get arrested myself. He’s in jail. And you’re safe. No one is getting near you. Not without coming through me and your entire family first.”
When I squeezed her hand, she squeezed back, but the fear was still real and alive in her eyes.
“I know,” she answered. “Logically, I know that. But illogically…” She shook her head and shuddered out an unsteady breath. “I just can’t shake this feeling. I can’t convince myself… I just need to keep my head clear, so I can be alert and ready. I’m sorry. I know—”
“No, it’s okay,” I cut in, inclining my head to let her know I understood. “I get it. You don’t have to…shit…” Hissing out a breath, I glanced toward the doorway of the room, not sure what was taking Pick and Eva so long to find a damn pill but grateful for the reprieve anyway.
“Alright, new plan,” I announced and slid onto the bed until I was sitting where Pick had been, right up against her. I toed off my shoes and kicked them over the side of the bed, onto the floor. “Curl up against me and close your eyes.” I slid my arm around her shoulders, encouraging her to turn in and rest her head on my chest. “When your parents come in, I’ll tell them you don’t need anything after all because you finally fell asleep. And with me here, they won’t try to curl up next to you to discover you’re really faking it.”
“You’re delusional,” she mumbled, curling up to me anyway, her warmth soaking through my clothes and reassuring me that she was honestly alive and well. “They’re going to figure it out in seconds.”
“Shh,” I hissed. “Just close your damn eyes.”
“Bully,” she whispered and nudged me weakly in the ribs with a knuckle. But I could feel her lashes move against my chest as she shut her eyes.
“Stubborn,” I tossed back affectionately as I kissed her hair and then rested my cheek against the spot where I’d just placed my mouth.
Exhaling, I relaxed against her and closed my eyes as well, glad I got to hold her again.
Keeping my lashes shut, I strained to hear footsteps in the hall so I could open my eyes again and report to Chloe’s parents when they returned that she was asleep, but I never heard them because I accidentally passed out.
My relief from getting to hold her and assure myself that she was truly honestly okay simply gave way to my exhaustion.
I had no idea how long I slept, but it was one of those hard, deep sleeps that claimed a person’s entire body and forced it to repair itself from any mental, physical, or emotional trauma it had just experienced.
I just knew I didn’t wake up again until it was morning and light was streaming into the room, with people talking nearby.
That barely registered, though, what with the soft, warm body draped across my chest and a very feminine leg shifting past my aching, morning wood.
I didn’t realize I had my hand on her bare hip, all five fingers imprinting themselves to glorious flesh, until they flexed, instinctively gripping her leg to keep her right where she was so the pressure of her knee could alleviate the throbbing in my erection.
She froze and inhaled, her breath washing across my chest.
The pleasure that spiked through me caused me to gasp and finally wake up enough to realize I was practically humping her leg…with witnesses in the doorway.
“Shit!”
12CHLOE
Ididn’t mean to pass out on Luke.
One minute, I’d been certain I was never going to sleep again. The next, I was dragged under, against his warmth and smell and…and Lukeness. Then bam, just like that, I was out.
And I didn’t stir again until hushed muted voices across the room roused me.
Like a gnat flying around my head, they irritated me back to consciousness, and I woke with my brow furrowed into a frown.
“Aren’t they just adorable? We came back to her room and found them both like this, burrowed against each other like baby bunnies and passed out cold.”
Mom, I realized. She was at the door as she whispered to someone else. Not sure who.
When her companion answered, “I just want to take a picture of them like this together,” it finally soaked in that they were talking about me, and that I wasn’t in bed alone.
Another body lay against mine, limp and heavy as if it had been sleeping just as hard as I had. And the more awake I grew, the more I could feel a hard, masculine chest pillowed under my head, a large hand on my hip, a jean-clad leg tucked under mine, and a very distinct bulge under my knee that was bent across his lap.
Whoops. I started to shift my leg off him, only for the fingers on my hip to tighten, digging in slightly as if trying to keep my knee where it was against him. I paused, surprised by his unwillingness to let me go, only to hear him suck in a breath a moment later as if he were justthenwaking up. And then, he ripped his hand off my hip with a whispered curse.
