He seemed to understand, however. He understood so well that he didn’t even have to say anything in return. He just offered her the safe little crook between his shoulder and his body, and when she pressed herself into it he did the rest. His other arm came around her all strong and big and good—like some kind of shelter against whatever terrible thing might be out there.
And she rested in it gratefully until the pain died away.
Chapter Four
She hadn’t realized how tired she was until she woke again from a doze she didn’t remember sinking into. All she could recall was the heat of his body and how firm yet soft his chest had felt against her cheek, and then the next thing she knew it was lights out for the second time.
It made her wonder if he had some kind of sleeping drug impregnated in his skin. Or maybe she just wasn’t used to being held...yeah, that was probably it. The last time she’d had arms around her everything had still been okay, so really it wasn’t a surprise that she let go whenever it happened now.
She was glad of it, in truth. The night before had wiped her out, and some of her limbs still weren’t working properly. They’d stiffened and set themselves at funny angles, and it took her a good long while to work the kinks out of them. She had to slowly ease her left leg into bending, and that grinding metal-against-bone feeling happened when she did.
It was pretty bad.
But not half as awful as the sudden realization she had a second later—Holden was missing from the space beside her. And if he was missing from there, it probably didn’t mean he’d gone to get himself a drink or some breakfast or a bathroom break.
It probably meant he’d freaked out and made a run for it.
She’d said too much earlier. She’d cried too weirdly. Now he was off killing himself with cocaine in some seedy bar most likely, and it was all her fault for being rubbish at comforting people.
“Hey, is that you I can hear creaking around?”
She didn’t like the way her heart thumped once against her rib cage on suddenly hearing the sound of his voice.Like it’s being restarted, she thought, then shook the idea away. It was far too intense for this early in their semi-friendship—a second ago she’d been sure he’d flown the coop.
Things needed to settle first, before she had all of these strong feelings about him.
“Yeah, I’m awake. I don’t even know how I fell asleep really,” she said, to the bathroom door. And then there was one awful moment of silence, where she really let herself think—He’s not actually in there.You’re just imagining him.
You needed someone, and so invented the most impossible person ever.
“I’d guess it’s ’cause you were tired, honey. Oh, and maybe my magical arms had something to do with it.”
Yeah, he was definitely the most impossible person ever. A handsome movie star who echoed thoughts she’d just had and hugged her when she needed to be hugged. Surely he couldn’t be real? And if he was, then why on earth was he in her bathroom right now, splashing around in her tub?
That didn’t seem right, for someone like him.
She needed to check, to be sure.
“Are you...having a bath?”
There was a moment of silence—one which almost reeked of mild embarrassment.
But he got over it fairly fast.
“Uh...yeah.”
“Is it weird if I find that weird?”
“I think it’d be weird if you didn’t. I’m some stranger, soaking himself in your bathtub while you’re passed out on the bed. Sounds like the start of a horrible Lifetime movie about a crazed hobo.”
She laughed, but had to correct him at the same time.
“You’re not some stranger. Or a hobo. And I wasn’t passed out on the bed.”
“I’ll give you the first two, but not the last.”
“Passed out sounds like you slipped me a roofie then stripped me naked. Come on. I went to sleep in your gently cradling arms.”
“So maybe my reward could be that I get to bask in your tub?”
