My chest tightened painfully at the sight. She looked so innocent. Her dark lashes fanned across wine-flushed cheeks, her hair falling in waves around her face.
She didn’t look like a cold-blooded killer. She looked like a woman who’d had too much wine and laughed too hard with a friend.
The doubt from my conversation with Knox felt like a lead weight in my stomach.
“Do you believe her?”
Watching her now—vulnerable, unguarded, beautiful—I wanted to. God, I wanted to believe every word she’d said. Wanted to trust that the woman who’d opened her home to a scared stranger wasn’t capable of premeditated murder.
But wanting something didn’t make it true.
I scooped her into my arms, and she immediately curled against my chest, warm and soft and smelling like wine.
“What are you doing?” she murmured against my neck.
“Taking you to bed.”
“Mmm …” Her lips curved in a sleepy smile, and she began playing with the hair at my nape. “I like that idea.”
When I laid her down on her rumpled sheets, she grabbed a fistful of my shirt and pulled me closer.
“Faith …”
“Stay.” Her voice was husky, her eyes half lidded.
“You’re drunk.”
“Doesn’t change the fact that I want you.” Her free hand trailed down my arm, fingers tracing the muscle there with intent focus. “Wanted you before the wine. Want you after the wine. The wine just made me brave enough to say it.”
Heat shot through me like lightning. My pants grew uncomfortably tight. “I don’t take advantage of drunk women.”
“I’m consenting.” She leaned up until her lips hovered inches from mine. “I want you. Tell me you don’t feel the same.”
I groaned, every selfish instinct screaming at me to give in. To taste those lips, to bury myself so deep inside her that nothing else existed.
But I gently pushed her shoulders back to the mattress instead.
“Get some sleep, Warrior.”
She pouted, those full lips forming the most tempting expression. “You’re no fun.”
“Trust me, this is the hardest thing I’ve ever done.” And that was the truth. My erection strained painfully against my zipper, protesting every word.
I pulled the covers over her, then pressed a soft kiss to her forehead, breathing in her scent. “I’m spending the night.”
“You said you didn’t want to stay over,” she mumbled into her pillow.
“First of all, I never said I didn’t want this.” I tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. “Second, you left your door unlocked. You’re in no condition to keep yourself safe tonight.”
“So, you’re staying?”
“On the couch.”
She smiled, her eyes already drifting closed. “My knight in shining armor. With great abs.”
“Go to sleep, Faith.”
“Ryker?”
