Chapter 9
Sleep came slowly forBella.
She lay in the too-large bed, wrapped in warm blankets that smelled of lavender and wood smoke, and tried not to think about what had just happened.
She'd been on top of Boyd.Straddling him.Pressed against him in the most intimate way possible, and she'd felt his response against her thighs.Had felt the way his body had hardened beneath hers, the way his breath had caught, the way his eyes had darkened with hunger.
He'd said he did not want her.But his body had told a different story.The thought made heat pool low in her belly.When he'd flipped her, pinned her beneath him, for one heart-stopping moment, Bella thought he might kiss her.She wanted him to kiss her.
But he'd pulled away because despite his body's response, he still did not want her.Not really.
The rejection stung.
Finally, exhaustion claimed her, and Bella drifted into an uneasy sleep.
***
BOYD HAD FINALLY MANAGEDto find a position on the cot that did not make his back scream in protest when he heard it.
A whimper.
He went still, listening.
Another sound followed.It was distressed, frightened.Coming from the bed.
Boyd sat up, his warrior instincts immediately alert.But there was no danger.Just Bella, caught in the grip of a nightmare.
She thrashed against the blankets; her face twisted with distress.
"No," she whimpered.
Boyd moved toward the bed cautiously, ensuring there was no blade in sight.
Then Bella cried out, and Boyd's entire world stopped.
"Boyd!Where are ye?"
He went rigid, every muscle in his body tensing.His hands clenched into fists at his sides.
"Boyd!Dinnae leave me."Bella wrestled with the blankets, tears streaming down her face, caught in whatever haunted her dreams.
