The alarm cut off.Relief. In the sudden silence, he could hear Lauren wheeze.
“Yeah, it’s her.” Her eyes met his. He held her gaze as he spoke into the phone. “Front door was open. Have you reached Jane yet? Well, keep trying... Thanks. Yeah, I’ll lock up.”
Lauren wrapped her arms across her chest, as if she could physically hold herself together.
He’d seen Marines freeze like that in battle, their systems on overload, flooded with adrenaline and cortisol. And after battle, too. The body had no way to distinguish between real and remembered danger. The reactions were the same.Fight or flight.
He didn’t tell her to calm down or suck it up. If she could have calmed herself, she would. And telling her there was nothing to worry about would just make her feel crazier.
He hunkered down beside her, his weight on the balls of his feet. Not crowding, not threatening, not even touching her the way he wanted to. Just there. Her dark, dilated gaze fixed anxiously on his face. He began to breathe slowly in and out. In through the nose, out through the mouth, deeply, deliberately, again, regulating her breath with his, until the rhythm caught and held, until she realized what he was doing and began to breathe in time with him, in and out, in an intimate cadence like sex.
Until they matched, sharing the same rhythm, the same breath. The tension screwing his insides slipped a half notch.
“You must have really wanted a muffin,” he said.
Her breathing broke on a laugh. Something turned over in his chest. Like his heart.
She got to him. Not her vulnerability, not just that. He’d never been attracted to weak women. But the strength and humor she found to face and fight her fears.
She stretched out her hand and patted the computer on the floor beside her.
“You left your laptop,” he guessed.
She nodded. “I...” Her lungs wheezed.
“Give it a minute,” he suggested.
“I’m fine.” A pause, measured in breaths and heartbeats. Her color deepened. “I feel stupid.”
In his years as a cop, he’d responded to a lot of false alarms. It wasn’t her fault that Jane hadn’t prepared her for the new security system. “At least you got your laptop.”
“Probably busted. I dropped it. When...” She ran out of air and flapped her hand toward the back door.
Understanding twisted him up.When the sirens went off.
Her breathing was easier now. Jack straightened, reaching out his hand to help her to her feet.
Her fingers were like ice. She gripped him—I’ve got you, it’s okay—and lurched to her feet.
“Oops.” She staggered.
He steadied her with an arm around her waist and then gave in to temptation and pulled her close. Instead of resisting, instead of fighting to get away, she pressed her face against his chest and held on as if she wanted him there, as if she needed his strength and reassurance. As if he were worth holding on to.
She was still recovering from a panic attack, he told himself. Her pulse was too rapid, her breathing choppy. He was support, nothing more.
But it felt so good to be wanted like that, to be held like that. She was warm and soft against him, her skin hot and sweet. She made a little sound, burrowing against him, pulling him around her like a blanket, and he went hard.
Taking advantage.Hell. He loosened his hold, easing himself away before she noticed his dick trying to get in on the action, pressing for her attention.This isn’t about you, you bastard. “You want to test it?”
She raised her head, her eyes dazed and dark. “What?”
Test me, his body begged.
He cleared his throat. “The laptop. You want to check if it’s still working?”
She blinked like a woman waking up after sex. “Oh. Okay.”
She stooped unsteadily to pick it up, flashing the tattoo before she straightened. A crack zagged across a corner of the case. The DVD drive stuck out slightly.
