She swallowed hard.“That sounds…lonely.”
“It can be.”
“It doesn’thaveto be.”
His gaze dropped to her plush lower lip—the one she was now biting down on.If he let himself think, even for a second, that they had a future together outside of this fuck-ass mission, he’d grab Hadley and never let her go.
So, he ruthlessly shut that train of thought down.She wasn’t offering him forever.She was warm and sleepy and grateful and most likely offering nothing more than her friendship.
Which was still way more than he deserved.
“Not for you, it doesn’t,” he told her.“I’m not going anywhere until you tell me to.”
“Maybe you could just…stay and talk to me for a while?”
“Of course.”
“And maybe just…hold me?”
He should say no.Watching over her and talking until she fell asleep was one thing.But holding her?Thatwas dangerous territory.So, of course, he said, “Anything you need.”
D’oh!When did I get to be so damn dumb?
Chapter17
Lying in bed, half on top of a near stranger, half dressed, should feel strange to Hadley.
But it didn’t.
Truth was, Hadley felt truly safe for the first time in a long, long time.That might’ve been because she knew firsthand that this man would kill bad guys to protect her.Or maybe it was just because he threw off heat like a campfire and had arms that felt like freakin’ Sequoia branches banded around her.But who knew?
All she knew was that she was safe and warm and comfortable and she never wanted to get out of this bed.“Talk to me,” she urged.
“What do you want to talk about?”
Anything.Everything.“Tell me about your childhood.What did little Cole Clayton want to be when he grew up?”
He snorted.“Little Cole Clayton grew up poor—even homeless for a while—in the South.He would’ve been happy with anything that paid him enough to put food on the table.Choosing a profession was the last thing on my mind.”
Hadleyhatedthat for young Cole.“What about your parents?What did they do?”
“Drugs, I’m afraid.They mostly did drugs,” he said wryly.“So, when the military recruiter came around the high school with promises of free meals and college tuition, I signed up before they even finished their spiel.”
There was a pause while she digested that information and her heart broke for this man who’d grown up to be a hero—herhero—even though he’d never had one step up whenheneeded help.But eventually, he sighed and said wryly, “I imagine you wanted to talk so I could distract you from horrible things, not depress you.Why don’t you tell me aboutyourchildhood instead.”
“It wasn’t anything too special.Only child.My parents divorced when I was ten.I lived with my dad full time because my mom got a teaching position at Oxford.It was fine, though.We talked every weekend.And they were mature about the breakup, so I escaped the whole thing without the trauma a lot of my classmates seemed to go through,” she said.“My parents were better apart than together.I realized that even as a kid.”
His breath ruffled her hair and it felt way better than it should’ve.“Are you still close?”
She shrugged.“As close as we can be, I guess.They don’t really understand me, which makes it hard for us to connect sometimes.”
“What’s to understand?You’re amazing.”
Such a simple statement shouldn’t turn her on.Maybe it wouldn’t have on its own.But in combination with his warm arms around her, muscle-y chest under her cheek, and minty breath ruffling her hair?
Instant arousal.Like Niagara-fucking-Falls.
She cleared her throat.“They’re just old fashioned.They were skeptical when I went to art school instead of business school.They especially don’t understand why I’m not married with a bunch of babies at my big age.”
