I awakened the moment he climbed into bed with me. I attempted to reach for him, but his long arms were already bracketing my body, pulling me closer to him. I blinked my eyes open and found myself staring into those eyes that I was always getting lost in. They were red-rimmed. He’d been up all night.
“Are you okay?” His voice was so tender. It betrayed the storm that raged in his eyes.
I nodded and leaned forward so that my head laid on his broad chest. “I am now.”
“I’m going to take care of this, Kay. Those men that broke in, they won’t get away with this. You know that, right?”
His conviction was evident in the rigidity in his body, in the sternness I heard in his voice, and the far off look I saw in his eyes when I lifted my head.
I leaned in, pressing a kiss to his lips. “You got one of them already.”
His face hardened and he took my chin between his fingers. “That was dumb going after a man holding a gun.
My eyes ballooned. “Last night you said—”
“I know what I said. It was still dumb. You could’ve been shot and ki—” He broke off, looking to a far off corner of the room.
I felt his heart beating rapidly underneath the hand I had splayed on his chest.
“Don’t ever do that shit again,” he commanded, tightening the hold on my chin.
“What good is self-defense if I can’t use it?” I sat up farther, growing angry.
“There’s a time and place for everything, Kay. A man has a gun in your fucking face is not the time to get fancy with the little bit I’ve taught you.”
“It worked, didn’t it?” I sat up, crossing my legs and folding my arms over my chest. I was growing pissed. I’d been scared shitless with that gun in my face but in spite of my fear, I’d acted. I’d thwarted one of the robbers and taken control of situation. I’d been able to regain a part of me that I thought I’d lost forever. And now Josh was trying to take my victory away.
I started to get up from the bed. “I’m going to—”
“Nowhere!” he growled in my ear after tackling me to the bed. “You’re not going anywhere. I’ve spent the last twelve hours in police stations and my offices working on this shit. You’re not getting out of my sight.” He bit my earlobe.
As much as I didn’t want it to, my anger began to recede. I could see his point. It was pretty stupid to attack a man holding a gun on me. But still.
“Who says I want to sleep with you?”
“The way your nipples are perking up through that thin top of yours.”
He was right. My nipples were aching to be touched. My body’s reaction to his nearness was always instant.
“Trust me, Kay,” were his last whispered words before he pressed a kiss to my lips, and then my nose, and cheeks.
I didn’t respond verbally, instead opening up to him, wrapping my legs around his waist and allowing his body to sink into mine. The feeling of safety that I’d been craving all night began to replace the fear.
****
“Thank you for meeting me,” Sandra greeted, a wary look in her eyes.
It’d been about a week since the break-in. While I’d taken off the day after, I was glad to have work to keep me distracted. Joshua, of course, checked in with me daily, keeping me updated on the progress they were making on the investigation. Every night he reassured me that the bastards would be caught. I didn’t need his promises, however. I knew he was doing everything he could, and I knew that it wasn’t just because this was beyond just business to him. He was working to reassure me. I couldn’t put into words how comforting that knowledge was.
But as I sat there on the bench, staring at Sandra, I wondered who she had to comfort her. I took her hand in mine, just because I could tell she needed it.
“Of course. Let’s sit down.” I gestured with a nod of my head to one of the benches. We were in Williamsport City Park. The park had miles of paved trails, stretches of neatly trimmed grass for sitting in the sun or under a tree, and benches for park dwellers as well. I swallowed when the thought occurred to me that this was the same park in which those teens had been stopped and brutalized by those police officers. A sense of dread welled up in the pit of my stomach.
“I’m sorry to take you away from the office,” Sandra’s soft words floated to my ears.
This isn’t about you right now,I reminded myself. I’d come to meet Sandra because she sounded so distraught over the phone when I’d spoken with her earlier. She’d called to make a follow-up appointment for Monique, but the tremor in her voice led me to ask how she was doing. She could barely get out the “Everything’s fine” lie she’d tried to use to conceal her angst.
“Please don’t apologize. I could tell something was wrong over the phone.” I turned fully to her, clasping her hands in mine. “Do you want to talk about it?”
