Or two, Dominic could wake up.
Paisley couldn't have said at what point she realized that Dominic's eyes were open. A pang of embarrassment ran through her, and yet she didn't do the sensible thing of gathering the last of her dignity and making a run for it.
Dominic's eyelashes – longer, thicker, and darker than Paisley had imagined – fluttered, thin slits of iron-gray peeping out between the lids. He was watching her, but he said nothing.
"I'm sorry to disturb you," Paisley said lamely. "But I didn't realize you were sleeping in here."
He said nothing, and Paisley wondered if he was still asleep – her brother used to sleep with his eyes half-open, and it was very disconcerting – and simply didn't see her there at all.
That crease was still there between his brows, as if he were having annoying dreams. Something that made him angry. Or sad, she considered. On impulse, she reached forward, intending to press at the groove between his brows, to smooth it away.
Her father had always done that when Paisley was sad or angry. He'd gently rubbed at the line between her eyebrows as if he could erase it altogether, and she'd always ended up smiling, her bad mood gone and forgotten. She'd missed that gesture more times than she could count since she left home.
Her fingertip was almost grazing his skin when Dominic's hand shot up, so fast that Paisley didn't have time to flinch.
Long, cool fingers closed around her wrist, and for a heartbeat of time, Paisley froze, staring down into wide-open, wide-awake iron-gray eyes.
Then the world spun, and she found herself hauled effortlessly downwards. The pallet mattress bounced underneath her, and before Paisley could even register that he'd pulled her towards him, she found herself tucked back against Dominic's hard, warm body, her nose pressing against his collarbone.
Quite frankly, Paisley did not know what to do with this situation.
While it was clear that the rules between men and women wereverydifferent here – back home she would have been ruined forever if she had spent a minute alone with a man, unchaperoned, out on a balcony at a party – this certainly didn't seem to be the norm.
Needless to say, Paisley had not been this close to a man before. The closest she had ever gotten to a man were the sweet hugs and familial kisses from her father and brother.
This was somethingverydifferent.
"D-Dominic?" Paisley managed, not daring to raise her voice above a whisper. She couldn't see Dominic's face, tucked against him as she was.
She shifted her position so that her cheek rested against his shoulder, but otherwise there was no moving away. Dominic had her pinned against him, his arm looping around the middle of her back. He wasn't crushing her against him, but neither was there any wiggle room.
She could feel his palm, firm, splayed open and pressed against her shoulder blade. She could feel the way his chest, firm and delightfully warm, rose and fell with his breaths, slow with sleep.
She could feel the way her own heart sped up, the way that odd feeling swirled and throbbed in her gut, that sweetly pleasant ache which made her restless for some reason.
It didn't take a genius to work out that being pressing so firmly up against Dominic was making the ache worse.
"Dominic, I really think..." she began again, her voice hushed.
"Stay still, damn ye." he replied, voice low and heavy with sleep. He was no more than a third awake, she guessed. "Daenae wriggle so much."
Paisley had the strangest feeling that if she wriggled more, if she tried more firmly to get away, Dominic would release her immediately. She wasn't crushed or breathless. Dominic made no move, lying as if he were asleep again already.
This,Paisley thought to herself,is something different, all right.
This thought was rapidly followed by another.
It's probably a good thing that no one from my past can see me now.
She winced at that thought, and shifted, trying to free her arm, which was trapped underneath herself.
Dominic growled low in his throat.
"Paisley..."
There was something lovely about her name coming from his mouth, for a reason that Paisley couldn't quite fathom. She shifted again, this time trying to avoid something firm and uncomfortable digging into her stomach.
Whatwasthat? It was trapped between them, and no matter how much she wriggled, it only pressed harder...
