“What?”
His fingers curled around her shoulder, his thumb resting at the base of her neck beneath her hair.
“I’m very glad you’re okay.”
Breath caught at the back of her throat and she squeezed her eyes shut as tears suddenly seeped out from beneath her lashes.
“Thank you, Ryder.So am I.”
“Does your shoulder feel better?”
Her voice was just above a whisper.“Yes.”
She heard him putting the lid back on the tube of ointment and felt the bed giving beneath the movement of his body.And then she thought of the loneliness of the night and the fear that kept coming when she closed her eyes, and asked the unforgivable.
“Ryder?”
Half on and half off of the bed, he paused.“What?”
“Would you mind—” She never finished the question.
“Would I mind what?”he finally asked.
“Would you mind staying with me?Just until I fall asleep?”
She couldn’t see it, but a small smile tilted the corner of his mouth as he turned to her in the dark.
“No.honey, I wouldn’t mind at all.”
Casey held her breath as the mattress yielded to the greater pressure of his body.
“Easy does it,” he whispered, and lightly rubbed her arm to let her know that he was there.
She closed her eyes and so did he, but not for the same reason.Ryder didn’t want to think about the slender indentation of her waist so near his hand, or the gentle flare of hip just below it.He didn’t want to remember the silky feel of her skin beneath his touch, or the way she sounded when she sighed.She had suffered much this day, and didn’t deserve what he was thinking.But as time wore on, he couldn’t get past wishing they were lying in bed for something other than rest.
CHAPTER 8
Sometime during the night it started to rain.It was a slow, heavy downpour that rolled like thick molasses off of the roof above where Casey and Ryder were sleeping, encompassing them within a dark, wet cocoon of sound.
Ryder woke with a start, the dream in which he’d been lost still so fresh in his mind that he came close to believing it was real.He looked down at Casey who lay sleeping with her head upon his chest and her hand splayed across the beat of his heart.Any man would consider himself fortunate to be in Ryder’s place.The only problem was, she wasn’t as awake and willing as she’d been in his dream.
The air felt close.The room seemed smaller.He ached.He wanted.He couldn’t have.He moved, but only enough to brush the thick length of her hair that had fallen across her face.Her eyelashes fluttered against his chest.Her breasts had flattened against his side and she’d thrown her leg across the lower half of his body, pinning him in place.He swallowed a groan and made himself lie still when all he wanted was to be so far inside her warmth that nothing else mattered.
But lying still didn’t help his misery, and finally, he slipped out of her arms and rolled out of bed, then stood in the dark looking down at her as she slept.
She trusts you.
Rain hammered against the roof as need hammered through him.
She’s been hurt.
Hard.Constant.Insistent.
Justice men do not use women.
He turned and walked out of the room, grabbing his jeans from a chair as he headed for the door.He needed some air.
Some distance.Something else on which to focus besides the thrust of her breast and the juncture of her thighs.He kept telling himself that this overwhelming feeling was nothing more than a result of proximity, that reason would return with daylight and distance, but his heart wasn’t listening.He’d spent time with plenty of other women in his life and had been able to separate fact from fiction.
