Her voice was low and small, and she picked at a thread on the edge of the comforter. “Maybe that would be okay.”
“Huh?” He leaned forward, placing his elbows on his knees. Hecouldn’thave heard her correctly.
“I mean, if I’m fending off your advances, I won’t be thinking about…” She swallowed and turned her face away. Even so, there was no mistaking the little sound of misery that escaped her throat.
All the teasing and temptation in him melted away, leaving only empathy. “I wish I’d been there, Liza. Wish I’d seen the things ya saw, shared in your pain. Maybe then the horror of it would be halved.”
She shook her head before turning back to him. “How do you do that? How do you make me want to strangle you one minute and bear-hug the life out of you the next?”
He shrugged and offered her a grin he hoped would lighten the mood. “It’s a gift.”
For long seconds, she searched his eyes. He wasn’t sure what she was looking for. And he wasn’t sure if she found it. But eventually she said, “I like it when you call me Liza.”
He lifted an eyebrow. “I reckoned ya might think I was bein’ too informal.”
The look she gave him was incredulous. “We share a wall, Fish. I know when you take a shower and flush the toilet. I think we left formal behind years ago.”
He chuckled. “Liza it is then.”
A small smile played at the corner of her mouth. He couldn’t help but feel a burst of pride that he’d been the one to put it there.
All he wanted was to see her smile. To ease what pain he could.
That’s all you want?The better angels of his nature challenged.
Fine. That wasn’tallhe wanted. But it was enough.
He’d make it be enough.
“It starts with a little grin just like that.” He pointed to her face.
“What does?” A line appeared between her eyebrows.
“Healin’. It starts with a small smile that becomes a little laugh. And then, before ya know it, the hurt no longer feels like it’s killin’ ya from the inside out.”
Folks said the eyes were the windows to the soul. And the expression in Eliza’s told him her soul was battered and bruised. Be he hoped like hell it wasn’t broken.
She patted the space beside her again. “Come lie next to me, Fish. I trust in your ability to restrain yourself. Besides, feeling someone near me is the only way I’ll be able to relax enough to fall asleep.”
“Liza—”
“I won’t beg,” she interrupted. “I respect myself too much for that. Besides, I don’t want your sympathy unless it’s freely offered.”
He understood the basic human need for human contact after suffering trauma. And he couldn’t deny the answering ache in his chest.
This is going to be hell, he silently admitted even as he stood and took the first of three steps that brought him to the side of the bed.
“Thank you,” she whispered and then went and made everything so much worse by throwing the covers back and indicating he should crawl in beside her.
Is shetryin’to kill me?
Sitting on the edge of the bed, he unlaced his boots and kicked them off. By the time he slid between the cool sheets, blood pounded in his ears.
“Thank you,” she said again as she dropped the covers atop his chest. And then…
Oh, andthenhe felt her slim, cool fingers slip inside his hand.
For a while, neither of them moved. He struggled just to breathe. And his mind was a mess of swirling thoughts, so he was startled when her voice suddenly cut through his internal chaos.
