She was out cold within seconds.
Reese rolled toward her and laid a hand over hers.
He looked at David. “Have you ever wanted something so much, for such a long time, you can’t bring yourself to believe it’s something you can actually have?”
David remembered when he’d finally been done with school, and the tests, and the interviews, and had been waiting to hear if he’d made the force.
He smiled sadly. “Yeah, I have.”
Reese was exhausted, but he lay in the bed watching Mati. It had been a long time since he’d slept withanyoneso close, and for it to be Mati? In all the years he’d loved her, he’d never let himself imagine what it would be like to have this. To have her hand warm under his, to see her beautiful face trusting and soft with sleep.
Then there was David. Reese might be clueless about people flirting with him, but David wasn’t subtle. Even crazier than the idea that someone as beautiful as David might want Reese, was how easy it was to flirt back. It was confounding. Not because there was anything wrong with it—but because Reese had gotten to the ripe-old-age of thirty-eight thinking his own sexuality was something he had a handle on.
Apparently, he’d been wrong.
Reese was achingly aware of David just a few feet away, stretching out on the couch without having bothered to pull out the bed. Reese closed his eyes and could picture him, his hawkish nose and devilish smile and thick, silky hair.
When Reese opened his eyes again, images of David and Mati still winding through his brain, he knew at least a couple of hours had passed. The light outside the windows was bright enough that the dark glass couldn’t completely dampen the sun on the trees of the park.
Reese lay in the middle of the bed, loosely arched around Mati, who was curled up facing him. He closed his eyes, absorbing the warmth trapped under the covers and between their bodies, the soft sounds of her breaths. A hint of her perfume was in the air and he inhaled deeply.
A low noise halted his slow descent back into sleep. Reese peeled his eyes open again.
Another noise. A grunt, as if someone were in pain.
David.
Reese sat up, trying not to disturb Mati as he propped himself against the headboard. Only the top of David’s head was visible over the arm of the couch, but it was enough to see he was twitching.
Reese waited, hoping David would settle, but he kept moving. The next noise sounded as if it had been torn from his throat. Terror in a single note.
Reese slipped from under the comforter and stood. There was enough light coming through the windows to see the distress on David’s face, and how his eyes were moving too quickly beneath his lids.
Reese wasn’t sure what to do. He wanted to help, but he knew there was a rule about not waking someone from a nightmare.
David’s entire body thrashed and went still, his head tipping back. His eyes were still closed, but now his lashes were spiked with moisture.
Reese was beside the couch before reason could remind him it might not be a good idea, his hand on David’s shoulder before caution could take hold.
One moment David was lying on the couch, the next he was on his feet, his hands clamped around Reese’s upper arms. It only took a second, not even long enough for Reese to be truly frightened, before recognition filled David’s eyes.
He immediately crushed Reese to his chest.
“Sorry,” David muttered into Reese’s hair, his big hand cupping the back of Reese’s head, the other low on his back. “You startled me.” He was absolutely rigid except for the fine tremors in his hands.
Reese wrapped his arms around David’s waist, absorbing his warmth and hopefully giving some back. “I’m sorry if waking you was the wrong thing to do.”
David clutched him tighter, almost painfully so, then released him so quickly, Reese staggered to stay on his feet.
“I’m sorry. Wow. That was…unprofessional,” David said, tugging his shirt down.
Reese studied David curiously, because this seemed like a strange time to start worrying about that. “Which part?”
“That,” David said, waving his hand at the couch. “I don’t usually sleep with my clients.”
Reese arched a brow, his lips twitching.
David laughed quietly. “You know that’s not what I mean—though for what it’s worth, I’ve neverslept with a client. I just meant I usually go home to sleep and someone else takes over protection duty.”
