When she woke up, she was still in the arms of the person who held her and kept her anchored when she wanted to slip away into the darkness.
When she rolled over, she didn’t know whether to be horrified or happy that it was Max in the bed with her. Damn the man was hot even in his sleep.
Chapter
Six
Max shook his head and chuckled to himself as Desiree walked away, flipping her middle finger up at him. He cleaned up a little in the kitchen before going into the living room where everyone was sitting.
“Where’s Olly?” Ivy asked as she walked into the living room from outside.
“She’s grabbing a shower and taking a quick nap. She’s a little run down with everything that happened today.” Max informed everyone.
“Is she okay?” Jose asked as he stood up to go down the hall.
“Yeah, she just needs a few moments alone to come to terms with what happened. When she’s ready, she’ll come out to talk to us. Coffee will be ready in a couple of minutes for those that want some.”
Max sat down on the couch next to his brother and leaned his head back trying to fight the images of Desiree naked in the shower and soaping up her sexy as fuck body. The last thing he needed was to be in the same room with her brothers and getting a boner thinking about her.
If they knew how he really felt about Desiree, then they would probably gut him and his own brother would probablyhelp him in the process. So yeah, he needed to think about anything other than Desiree in the shower right now.
Max did his best to keep up with the conversation in the living room about who would want to do this to Desiree. His mind started whirling about those who could want to cause this amazing, sinfully sexy as fuck woman harm.
The list was long, if you considered the people that Blue Lotus had helped through the years. Didn’t include the men or women in the Army that were angry that Desiree accomplished things their sorry asses couldn’t.
While the others were discussing names and assigning people to check on things, Max got up and decided it was time to check on Desiree. He could still hear the water running in the bathroom.
He got up and walked towards her bedroom door and knocked softly. When she didn’t answer, he opened the door to see if maybe she was asleep and just forgot to turn the water off.
When he opened the door and saw the bed was empty, he walked into the bedroom and walked towards the master bathroom, and that’s when he heard it.
He heard Desiree’s sobs coming from the shower. He softly knocked so he wouldn’t startle her.
When she didn’t respond, he said fuck it and walked into the shower. He called her names twice before he pulled the shower curtain back and found her standing in the middle of the shower with her arms wrapped around herself and her whole body shaking from her sobs.
He quickly undressed down to his boxers and climbed into the shower and pulled her into his arms. The fact that she didn’t yell at him, scream out at him or push him away told him everything that he needed to know in that instant.
He held her until the worst of the sobs controlling the shaking of her body subsided and asked her if she’d alreadywashed her hair. After feeling her shake her head no, he moved slightly to grab her shampoo bottle and poured a little into his hand.
The whole time she stayed curled into his chest like a lost child holding on to her long-lost teddy bear. He massaged the shampoo into her hair, working it in with his fingers.
He had her lean back under the water and helped rinse out her hair. Once he’d worked the suds out, he moved her slightly so that he could lean down and turn off the water.
He told her to give him a minute to grab some towels, and he would be right back. Max grabbed two towels, wrapped one around his waist and then removed his boxers, ring out the excess water and placed them to dry on the edge of the bathtub before pulling on his pants, going commando.
Max wrapped a towel around Desiree and picked her up in his arms and carried her into the bedroom. He dried her off and then went over to her large dresser that had the mirror attached to it and looked around for her night gown.
What he’d found nearly had his cock going rock hard despite the situation. He’d found one of his shirts that he’d thought he’d lost in her dresser where her night clothes were kept.
What the hell was she doing with his shirt? He pulled it out and put it on her and then started drying her hair with the towel.
After he brushed it out, he placed her in the bed and covered her up. When he grabbed his arm and said ‘stay’, he knew he couldn’t leave her alone.
He crawled into the bed, under the covers with her and pulled her into his arms and held her. He’d only intended to stay with her until she fell asleep.
Instead, he wound up falling asleep with the woman of his dreams in his arms and slept. Max didn’t move a muscle the entire time nor did he have any nightmares like he usually had in the past.
He didn’t wake up until he felt Desiree’s eyes on him in confusion. When he looked down, all he could see was those dark blue eyes staring up at him in surprise.
