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She nodded as if she agreed, and they continued up to his place, where Zee was sprawled in a patch of sun on the deck. Zee raised her head to give them a doggy grin as they came up the stairs, and Megan bent to pat her. Zee leaned into it, then stretched, and followed them inside.
Megan lowered herself into the armchair beside the unlit fire, and Pixie leapt from the bed, landed with a thud, and trotted over to Tione’s feet. He scooped her up and deposited her on Megan’s lap. The Chihuahua looked less than impressed at being unceremoniously passed off, but curled into a ball all the same.
“They can sense when you’re upset,” Tione told her. “They want to comfort you. Dogs are good like that.”
She tried to smile. “They’re sweethearts.”
Closing her eyes, she drew a few steady breaths and tried to take comfort from the warmth and closeness of the dogs’ bodies. It didn’t help. She felt frozen on the inside. Like she should be crying, but all of her tears had turned to ice and she couldn’t squeeze them out.
Tione dragged a stool over to sit directly in front of her. “Were you hurt?”
“No. All he did was grab my arm.”
“Let me see.”
She held up her limb for him to inspect, and he gently turned it over. She knew the moment he saw the faint finger-shaped bruises because his jaw clenched, his nostrils flared, and his expression became downright fierce.
“That fucker.”
Her breath caught. She knew she ought to be scared by his temper, but she wasn’t. Not when his anger was on her behalf. She took her arm back and angled it so the bruises were hidden.
“I’m okay,” she said, meaning it. “They’ll be gone in a couple of days.”
“I hate that you know that.” He reached over and rubbed Pixie between her ears. “You’re welcome to sit on the bed—that way Zee could join you, too.”
“Really? You don’t think that’s too…”Intimatewas the word that came to mind, but she didn’t want to say it. “Intrusive?”
One corner of his mouth lifted. “Not hardly. Intrusive is having Trevor try to spoon me at two a.m.”
Grinning at the image, she stood and carried a squirming Pixie to the bed, where she positioned herself carefully on the bedspread and rested on a pillow. Tione stayed where he was, but she patted the spot beside her.
“Come on, there’s plenty of room for both of us.”
He didn’t move. “You sure? Because I’m fine over here.”
“Don’t be silly.”
Hesitantly, he rose and approached, with Zee close behind. The dog leapt easily onto the bed, while Tione sat stiffly as far from Megan as he could. She appreciated his thoughtfulness, but considering the day they’d had, he was being a bit ridiculous. Besides, she liked being close to him. It made her feel safer, as if the solidness of his body was a physical barrier between her and all the world’s evils.
“There’s no point in you balancing on the edge of the bed,” she told him. “You can come closer.” When he eyed her dubiously, she added, “I know you, Tee. At least, I know you enough to believe you won’t hurt me.” A horrible thought occurred to her. Maybe he didn’twantto be any closer to her. Maybe he didn’t feel the same connection between them that she did. God knew she’d brought nothing into his life but trouble and drama. “If you aren’t comfortable being near me, that’s fine though. I won’t push you.”
He snorted a laugh. “That’s not the problem here, Megan. I don’t want to do anything to stress you out after you’ve had to deal with that asshole. I feel bad enough for pressuring you to walk into town with me this morning, considering how that turned out.”
She scooted over. “I’m glad you did, because now I’ve done it once and I know I can do it again.” Finally, he closed the distance between them, and Pixie jumped from Megan’s lap onto his. She smiled. “I guess we know where her loyalties lie.”
She turned her attention to Zee, rubbing the dog’s belly. When she stopped, Zee looked at her plaintively.
“Later,” she said, then summoned her courage. While she was facing her demons today, it was time to deal with another. “Can you put an arm around me?” she asked. “I don’t want to be scared of people touching me anymore.”
“All right,” he agreed tentatively. “But the second you’ve had enough, just say so.”
“I will.”
With painstaking carefulness, he wrapped an arm around her. She wriggled closer, snuggling into his body, and rested her cheek on his chest. She could hear his heart beating, the rhythm strong and regular. It was nice, and she tried to relax, but softening her body into his was difficult. For months, she hadn’t allowed herself to just exist with another person, without second-guessing their every movement and breath, and wondering when the other shoe would drop. She still couldn’t manage to give herself up to the moment completely.
“You’ll need to tell me everything,” he said, after a few minutes passed. “The police, too. We can’t protect you if we don’t know the full story.”
“No.” She’d answered before he even finished talking. “No, no, no. The police can’t be trusted. Charles has connections, and many of them are in law enforcement. Being cops doesn’t make them the good guys.”
