I reached out and brushed my hand softly down her cheek. “You can tell or ask me anything.”
And it was true. I knew at that moment I would do anything for her.
“Can you stay for a little while? I don’t want to be alone.”
It wasn’t lost on me that this was big for her. She never asked for help or for anything as far as I’d seen.
“I will stay as long as you need me to.”
There was no way I’d planned on shoving her in the condo and taking off. If she didn’t want me inside I’d work around that.
Even if it had meant sitting in the hall outside her door all night.
ChapterFive
CAPRI
What was I thinking,asking Paxton to stay?
It seemed like I was doing a lot of unbelievable stuff when it came to him. I hadn’t even hinted to the girls that I wasn’t safe but it rolled right off my tongue when talking to Paxton. In my defense, I had been under extreme distress after being shot at. But there was also something about him that made me want to drop my tough girl act and lean heavily on him.
Because being alone was… well, it was lonely.
The hot water cascaded over my head, the warmth sinking into every one of my pores and relaxing me. But as the tension started to seep from my body, reality kicked in, along with fear and sorrow.
I had to run again.
My butt dropped to the tile floor and I pulled my knees against my chest, lying my head on their bony knobs. The tears began to flow freely like a raging river, strong and turbulent. I struggled to keep up the fight so I didn't lose myself completely in my grief.
The salty liquid slid down my cheeks one after another. I cried about my marriage that was broken long before it was over. I cried for my parents who were cruelly taken from me. I cried because I’d have to give up my bakery. And I cried over the fact I had people I cared about for the first time in years but who I’d have to leave behind.
By the time I was done sobbing I was spent.
I felt boneless and weak. I barely registered the shower being shut off but the next thing I knew a huge fluffy towel was wrapped around my body and I was in Paxton’s arms, cradled against his chest like a baby.
It felt heavenly.
And oddly enough, it felt familiar too.
I'd found myself against him a few times during the evening and each time it had seemed as if that’s where I belonged. But that couldn’t be true at all.
I didn’t truly belong anywhere and was destined to be alone.
My head dropped to Paxton’s shoulder, my mouth a hair-breadth away from the sensitive skin on his neck. His scent surrounded me and instinctively I inhaled through my nose. It was a woodsy smell and that little extra something I couldn’t figure out but thought it had to just be the man himself.
I was startled when Paxton let out a chuckle and the vibration jiggled me. “Did you just sniff me?”
I’d thought after being removed from the hot shower that I would have gotten chilled, but between my personal furnace—Paxton’s body—and the heat from embarrassment running through me, my temperature was about to reach a level of combustion.
“No.” I barely managed to squeak out the one word lie.
“Liar,” Paxton said as another laugh rumbled out of him.
Thank God he let it go at that.
He flipped the covers back and gently sat me down on the bed. When my body hit the plush mattress that was when it hit me like a ton of bricks.
Beneath the towel I was naked as the day I was born.
