Page 14 of Rescued

She was so, so tired. Without thinking, she said, “Yes, please.”

Oh, shit.

Heat flashed through his eyes. For a minute she couldn’t stop looking at his lips. Wondering what they tasted like.

Then he let go of her and stepped back. Cold air rushed in between them. Breanna backpedaled as well as she could. “I mean, I’d kind of like to go to sleep now? If that’s okay?” She actually wanted to go to sleep forever. She wanted none of this to ever have happened.

He still had that look in his eyes, but he moved aside.

She walked past him into the bedroom, still feeling his heat like he was a furnace. Especially because everything was still cold. The air in the bedroom, the floor under her feet when she tucked her bag in the corner. Even the sheets were cold when she climbed into bed.

She pulled the covers up around her, but she couldn’t help shivering.

Switch said, “It’ll warm up in here.”

She nodded.

“Okay then,” he said, and turned away to leave.

Switch was planning to walk away. Because yeah, sure, she was beautiful and she smelled amazing, but obviously, the less he got involved with her, the better. She was totally not from his world. And a trouble magnet. But she looked so scared and pathetic, shivering in his bed. Soft little human, without even teeth or claws to protect her.

Without thinking, he said, “You just really don’t have any defenses at all, do you?”

There was a silence, and then she said softly, “Doe eyes.”

“Excuse me?” He had no idea what the fuck she was talking about.

She said seriously, “I’m pretty and I have doe eyes. Scientific studies show that people instinctively want to protect helpless creatures with big doe eyes. Some theories say that’s why baby mammals have big eyes, so adults of their species will take care of them and not kill them when they get annoying.”

“Right.” He had the feeling that doe eyes weren’t exactly an advantage in the middle of a wolf pack. “So that explains why you don’t mind annoying people.”

He started to walk away again, and something stopped him. It had been a long time since he’d been that helpless, but he still remembered how it felt. To be at the mercy of other people, and not have any way to fight back.

He turned back towards her. She was still shivering.

Ah, fuck. He said, “If you want, you can come out and lay on the couch while I work on my project. It’s warmer out there, by the stove.”

She hesitated for a moment, and then she climbed out of bed, pulled off the blanket and pillow, and followed him out to the living room. She lay down on the sagging couch and pulled the blanket over her.

Switch settled in at the table to work on his new drone. He usually blasted vintage rock while he was building things, but that would keep her awake. And she was so tired, she looked like she had bruises under her eyes.

Doe eyes. She was right—just looking at those incredible pools of blue made him want to protect her. Yay science.

Maybe if her eyes were shut, the feeling would go away.

He picked up his phone, opened his music app and tossed it to her. “Here. Pick some music to fall asleep to.” It was one of those online services that had all different kinds of music, so she should be able to find something. He hoped it wasn’t too heinous.

She paged through the online menu and picked something, then tossed the phone back to him. Ancient cowboy music came out of his speaker.

He gaped at her. “What the hell is this?”

“Eddy Arnold,” she said. “‘Streets of Laredo.’”

He listened for a moment. “It’s about some dude dying in the street. This is what you want to fall asleep to?”

Closing her eyes, she snuggled down into her pillow and smiled a little. “This was my grandpa’s favorite album when I was a little girl. He used to put it on a lot at night, after I went to bed, and sing along to it. Listening to it still makes me feel safe.”

He got a sudden picture in his mind of a sweet little girl, safe in her house with her grandpa, and wondered how she ended up here—on the run and hiding out with a pack of wolves.