“You’re awake.” Hew’s voice was rusty from disuse. But his green eyes were as sharp as ever when her gaze darted to his face.
“How long was I out?” Her eyes flicked again to the window. The light flooding in was brighter now.
He checked his watch. “Nearly seven hours.”
“Seven.” She blinked. “Did y’all give me something?”
“With the level of dehydration you were suffering, disorientation and extreme fatigue are normal. We didn’t need to give ya anything. You went out like a light as soon as your head hit the pillow.”
He leaned forward, elbows on his knees, big hands dangling in the void between them. “Didn’t know if we were goin’ to have to haul ya to the ER.” He pointed to the IV bag. “That’s your third one. Your poor body’s been soakin’ it up like a sponge.”
“Well that would explain why my bladder’s about to burst.” She grimaced. “How do I—?” She waved vaguely at the needle and the tubing.
“Here.” With careful, practiced hands, he peeled the tape free, withdrew the needle, and pressed a cotton swab to her arm.
Then…poof…a Band-Aid miraculously appeared from the first aid kit on her nightstand. Hew pasted it over the injection site.
“You’re a deft hand at that,” she murmured, only slightly surprised. He was a man of many talents.
He winked and reiterated her thoughts. “Just one of my many talents.”
A few months ago, she might have thought he was flirting. Now? She knew better.
“Thank you.” Her throat went tight. “Thank you for coming for me. I was so afraid y’all would walk right into her trap and—” She blinked as a hundred questions bloomed to life inside her brain. “Wait. How did you avoid her trap? Did someone tell you what she was planning? Did you know that she was hired?—”
“Hey.” He stopped her flood of words and worry. “Take a beat. Take a breath. We’re okay. You’re okay. And we have all the time in the world to talk about what happened.”
Her relief at being back at BKI with everyone safe and sound mixed with the remnants of her fear to have a sob bursting from the back of her throat. It shocked her with its suddenness.
In an instant, Hew was there. Pulling her against the solid wall of his chest.
No questions. No hesitation. Just him offering her everything she needed while silent tears fell and her soul emptied out the last of the terror she’d carried since the black van rear-ended her and sent her careening off the side of that country road.
“It’s over now,” he murmured against the top of her head. “You’re safe. You’re home.”
Home.
Such a simple word. Just four little letters and one little syllable. But its meaning was immense.
Home was a windy exhale after a long-held breath. It was where she could shut away the world, and no one would ask her to be anything but herself. It was the familiar creak of door hinges. The light pooling in certain corners at sunset. The scent of strong coffee and old paperbacks and fresh-baked pastries.
It was where her name sounded right, even when spoken in a whisper. Where silence didn’t feel like absence but acceptance.
And she’d never truly had any of that until BKI. Until Hew.
She wrapped her arms around his shoulders as gratitude swelled inside her. It took over all the space horror had left behind.
Hew…
With his tender heart and lopsided half-smiles and love of books, with his courage and loyalty and steadfastness, he had become her sanctuary. Her shelter.
And she wanted him.
All of him.
She wanted his quiet words and his unpredictable wit. His silly jokes and his soft silences. His heat and his hardness. His warm breath and his firm lips. His calloused hands and his hot?—
Blame it on her recent near-death experience. Blame it on the lasting effects of the drug her abductors had given her. Hell, blame it on the long months she’d gone without knowing the feel of a man inside her.
