Their intensity made me swallow more than once. “Do you get nightmares often?”
“Not since I was a kid.” His lashes fluttered again, as though to sweep away the hateful images.
I sighed. “It’s probably a side effect of thecupola.”
“Better wear off fast, or I’m quitting sleeping.”
“Troubled sleep beats no sleep, Remo.” I squeezed his wrist before releasing it.
He lowered his hands from my face, returning one to the sheets and the other to his abdomen, just over his navel and the trail of hair that began there and ended . . . someplace I had no right ogling. I laid back on my side next to him, pillowing my head on my bent arm. I started to remove the hand covering his heart when he anchored it with his palm.
A stillness fell over him. Over me, too.
“How long do you think we slept?” The thumping at my temples told me it hadn’t been long enough.
His gaze cut to the brightness edging the drawn curtains. “I don’t know.”
“Do you want to head out or try to go back to sleep?”
His head turned toward mine. “Have you slept enough?”
“Probably not.”
“How about you try to fall back asleep?”
“What about you?”
His pulse, although no longer erratic, beat fast. “I’d rather stay awake.”
Was he worried something bad was about to happen? I was. Gregor’s prison loved nothing more than offering its residents a false sense of security before knocking it down. “Want me to sing you back to sleep? It worked so well on the snakes.”
The corners of his mouth rose. “Can I shelve that offer for later?”
Saving it for later implied we’d be sleeping next to each other again. I supposed it was preferable, while we were locked in prison, to sleep side by side rather than camp out on our own.
His smile faltered when silence stretched between us.
I sighed. “My offer is valid for the duration of our incarceration.”
“What about after?”
After?I wasn’t ready to go there yet. “You’ll either have to self-soothe or crawl into your mother’s lap.”
“You do know I don’t live with my mother, right?”
His index finger idled up the length of my arm to the ripped fabric at my shoulder, coaxing out goose bumps he thankfully couldn’t see.
“I didn’t know.” My thick inflection revealed what my suit concealed.
“I share a room with three otherlucionagain the guard barracks.”
“How very . . . mainstream of you.”
He dragged his finger back down. “We can’t all live in floating sea palaces.”
Grated by his critical tone, I stole my hand off his body and nestled it against my own chest. “Because you think I have a choice?”
His eyebrows dipped. “You’re not happy with your living arrangements?”
