That made him pause. He took a long moment to decide, then sat up and put the handcuffs on the nightstand. “You’re right. You can sleep under the covers, and I’ll sleep on top, if that makes you feel better.” He lay back down and closed his eyes.
Sejal gritted her teeth. How could she explain her issues? She hadn’t slept with anyone in two years, since the whole kidnapping thing. Had sex with people, sure. Scammed them, no problem. Sleeping with someone, though, was as intimate as kissing, and the last thing she was ready for was intimacy.Hey, bud, remember how I went into a flailing ball of fury when you tried to grab me? Weird things can trigger my whole Mom kidnapping me PTSD. I could wake up, feel you next to me, and spiral into a rage. Or worse, curl up and cry. I don’t want anyone seeing me that vulnerable ever again. Especially you.
He opened his eyes and sighed. Then he sat up, grabbed a pillow, and placed it between them. He leaned over the bed and rummaged around in his bag. He pulled something out and held it out to her.
She knew pepper spray when she saw it. Her eyes shot to his.
“I am exhausted,” he said softly. “And I know you are, too. I’m going on twenty-four hours of no sleep. I understand being scared to sleep in the same bed with someone you don’t know. If I try anything, you can spray me.”
Wow. That was... more trust than she’d expected.
He didn’t sound like he would budge, and Sejal was her own brand of tired, too.
She crossed the space between them to gingerly pull back the covers, and get under them. She took the pepper spray from him. Their fingers brushed, and that odd little tingle ran down her arm.
He didn’t seem to notice, and leaned over to snap the light off, plunging the room into darkness. The neon of the light from the bar crept in under the curtains, splashing orange and red across the ceiling.
Krish promptly rolled over to sleep on his side, back to her. She shifted, trying to get comfortable in her jeans, but she’d been in the stiff denim for the entire very long day, and the waistband was digging into her tummy. What she wouldn’t give for sweatpants. Or nothing.
“Go to sleep,” came her bedmate’s muffled voice next to her.
“I’m trying,” she muttered back. The room was quiet. Way too quiet. She always fell asleep to the sound of a podcast, or car alarms, or a television. She hadn’t slept in silence in more years than she could count. Silence let the memories and thoughts in her head get far too loud.
Plus, there was the man next to her.
As if summoned, he turned to face her. His arm flopped over the bumper he’d erected between them.
She turned her head to look at his profile. A gentle snore left hislips, and she raised an eyebrow. How had he fallen asleep so fast, like he didn’t have a thought in his brain? The dream.
In sleep, his face had softened, his full lips going lax. They were slightly parted. His hand was inches away from her belly.
She snapped her head back to stare at the ceiling. Nope. She definitely didn’t want to think about his lips or his hands. It was one thing to be attracted to a stranger, and a whole other thing to be attracted to the enemy.
Or enemy of your enemy.
Krish made a small noise and shifted. His finger brushed against her side. Though there was a good foot between them, his breath skated across her shoulder. Her shiver was an involuntary reflex.
Yeah, sure. A reflex.
Sejal closed her eyes. Breathed in, then out. Meditated. Tried visualizing the wordrelaxin her head, letter by letter.
But when she realized she was timing her breaths with his, she gave up. This was never going to work.
Chapter Six
Krish was quite used to waking up well before his alarm. As an adult, getting up before dawn meant that he had time to make himself a latte in his well-stocked coffee bar, nibble on a light breakfast, and go for a run along the Potomac before work.
As a child, it had meant getting out of bed, taking a shower before his mom and brother used up all the hot water, and getting a precious hour in the still-sleeping house to read by himself. It had annoyed Avi to no end, both because Krish would garner their mother’s praise and because he’d usually be woken up in the bottom bunk as Krish clambered down from the top one.
With his ability to come to consciousness lightning-fast, before he even opened his eyes Krish knew that Sejal wasn’t in the bed with him. Or in the room, actually.
“Son of a bitch,” he muttered in the dark, and tried to tamp down his annoyance. He shouldn’t be disappointed in her. That would be like being disappointed in a cat for purring. Of course she’d leave at the first chance.
Be disappointed in yourself.How had he slept as deeply as he had?
Krish sat up and switched on the rickety lamp on the nightstand. The clock told him it was a little past midnight. At least he’d gotten a few hours of solid rest. He didn’t feel nearly as snappy and short-tempered as he had when they’d arrived.
As he stood, he gave a deep sigh that came from the soles of his feet. He was so tired, more tired than a person should be from one sleepless night and driving all day. This was the kind of tired that came from running a never-ending marathon.
