Resting my palm at the small of her back, I rub small circles. “He won’t get away with it, darlin’. I’ll make sure of that.”
“You can’t stop him.” She tips her head up to look at me, and the heartbreak in her gaze kills me. “Tomorrow, I’ll leave. But tonight…please. Stay with me?”
God. I want to. With everything I am. “I could hurt you, Hope. If I have another nightmare, you’re better off sleeping alone.”
“I was always alone when I was…his. Well, almost always.” Her voice drops to a whisper, and she stares down at Murphy. “Simon expected sex twice a week.”
The rage burning inside me demands to be released, but I have to stay calm. I’m so close to losing my shit and punching the wall, and I’m afraid that’ll send Hope over the edge into a deep, dark abyss she’ll never be able to climb out of.
“Did he force you?” I grit out.
“I didn’t say no.” She tangles her fingers in Murphy’s fur, and he lies across her legs in full comfort mode. “But that’s because there wasn’t a point. I couldn’t escape. Simon has a dozen men on his security team and cameras everywhere. I didn’t have a phone, a driver’s license, credit cards...nothing. It took me a year, stealing a couple of dollars at a time, to save enough for gas to get me from Salt Lake City to Seattle. It was all in the SUV. What was left, anyway.”
Promising Hope I wouldn’t go after this Simon asshole? Big mistake. Because I’m going to break every bone in his body. Ending with his neck. Right after I cut off his balls and shove them down his throat.
I swallow hard over the lump in my throat. “If you didn’t have a choice, it’s still—”
“I know.” Hope glances up at me briefly, her eyes shimmering in the firelight. “But it was always quick. He wasn’t...rough. Not in the bedroom. You’ve heard the phrase ‘wham, bam, thank you, ma’am’?” She chokes back a sound that’s half sob, half laugh. “Two minutes. Tops. Then he’d send me back to my room in the other wing of the house. He knew I was clean—despite his business, he never touched the girls at the brothels—and I wouldn’t fight him. Once in a while, he’d demand I dress up and let him parade me around in front of his business associates. His obedient little number cruncher who hid all his dealings from the government. But even then he barely spoke to me.”
A tear rolls down her cheek, and I ease closer so I can brush it away with my knuckle. “I’ll stay, Hope. I’ll sleep on the floor. Just let me get a blanket and pillow.”
When I return, she pulls back the blankets and stares pointedly at the empty side of the bed. “Come here. Please.”
Fuck me. This is a bad idea of epic proportions. But she needs this. It’s written all over her face. And maybe…I do too.
“Push over, Murph.” I snap my fingers, and the dog moves to the foot of the bed, curling up at Hope’s feet. We’re two fully clothed adults, and I can make it through the next few hours lying next to her. Even if I have to count the beams on the ceiling a hundred times. Because up close, her scent and her warmth do things to me that will make sleep damn near impossible.
8
Wyatt
Sunlight slices through a gap in the thick drapes, waking me from the best night’s sleep I’ve had in months. I thought being close to Hope would keep me up all fucking night. Instead, I was out in minutes.
From the angle of the beam hitting me in the face, it has to be close to nine. I haven’t slept in this late since before I joined the Navy.
Hope curls against me, wrapped in my arms with her head tucked under my chin. Like she belongs there. I’ve never felt so at peace. So…whole.
At the foot of the bed Murphy peers up at me with a look that clearly says, “Can we do this every night?”
Unsurprising since he’s usually relegated to his own bed on the floor.
She hasn’t stirred, and I revel in these last few minutes I have with her. The slow, drip, drip, drip of the snow melting from the eaves is a sure sign we’ll be able to make it to the General Store by lunch time. But until she wakes up, I’m going to hold her and memorize every single thing about her. Her hair tickling my cheek. The way her leg hooks over mine. The softness of her breasts through my t-shirt.
There’s no fucking way I’m going to be able to hand her off to West and just…leave. Not that I have any idea what I can do.
Move back to a city? No way in hell. And I’m damn sure not going to ask a woman who just escaped a three-year-long abusive relationship to stay here—in the middle of nowhere—with a man she’s only just met.
Her little moan sends blood rushing to my dick. I try to scoot away, but Hope drapes her arm around my waist and snuggles against me tighter.
“Wyatt?”
Her voice is a hundred times sexier first thing in the morning. “I’m right here, darlin’.” I skim my lips over the shell of her ear, and goosebumps race along her skin.
“You’re real.” With a sigh, she rests her head on my chest. Murphy leaps off the bed, heading for the kitchen—and the custom doggie door in the basement.
“Real?” I ask, pulling the blankets up against the chill in the room. The wood stove needs tending, but hell if I’m going to miss out on a second of closeness with Hope to do it. Not yet. “I’m one hundred percent real, darlin’. Can’t you feel my arms around you?”
Her legs tangle with mine, and it doesn’t matter that we’re fully clothed. I’m hard as a fucking rock for her. From the way she moves, how her hips swivel against me, she’s not entirely unaffected. “It’s been so long since I had…this. Someone to hold me. Someone I can hold back.”
