“If you need to go home—”
“No.”
Reese nodded, relieved. “Okay. Good.”
Now it was David’s turn to look athimcuriously. “You know Chance has plenty of qualified people who could step in for me if that’s ever what you want, right?”
Reese felt a flutter of unease. He stepped forward, closing the gap David had put between them. “I know, but I don’t want them. They’re not you.”
“Thanks,” David said quietly, running his hand down Reese’s arm.
Reese traced his gaze over David’s neck and shoulders, dipping to take in his pecs straining his shirt. He could smell a hint of what was maybe cologne, or maybe David’s soap or shampoo. It was musky and light.
Reese’s gut tightened, a curl of arousal warming him. He wanted to bury his face into the soft slope of muscle and skin where David’s neck met his powerful shoulder.
Which was still strange, and new, but not alarming. The only cause for alarm was how his pajama pants weren’t going to hide a thing in about thirty seconds if he didn’t put a leash on his wandering eyes and imagination.
“I’m not going anywhere,” David promised, his low voice making the hairs on the back of Reese’s neck stand on end.
Reese took a deep, stuttering breath while David’s fingertips doodled a pattern onto the sensitive skin of his inner elbow. He wanted to lean in. To tip his chin that last inch and kiss David.
“I’m glad it’s you,” Reese said. He wasn’t only speaking of the protection detail.
David’s dark eyes, almost black in the low light, were captivating.
Reese had the sudden, ridiculous urge to call Rupert and tell him everything. He wanted someone he trusted and loved to tell him he wasn’t crazy, and that he should take a chance and run with it,celebrateit, because even if change was scary, it was worth it.
He blinked and looked at Mati, who hadn’t moved an inch. “I guess she’s a sound sleeper.”
He liked knowing that. He wanted to learn more. About both of them.
David smiled softly. “I guess so.”
“I’ll wake her up in another hour so she can sleep tonight.” Then he added, more playfully, “I may need your protection when I do.”
David ran a hand down Reese’s arm, one more brush of fingers and palm sending a corresponding wave of shivers up his spine.
“I’ve got you.”
Mati woke to someone saying her name and gently running a hand over her hair.
Her eyes fluttered open and she found the vague shapes of Reese and David above her.
“Good morning,” she said, her voice raspy.
Reese smiled apologetically. “It’s actually one o’clock in the afternoon.”
She groaned and sat up. Fuck, that hadn’t been nearly enough sleep. She put on her glasses and looked around the room, noting Reese’s laptop glowing on the table next to a pile of folders.
“You’ve been working without me,” she accused.
“God forbid,” Reese agreed, offering her his hand as she dragged herself out of bed.
She felt a surge of satisfaction when Reese and David’s gazes slid over her.
She crossed to her suitcase to retrieve a change of clothes while Reese made his way back to the table and his work. He slipped past David, pausing and smiling over his shoulder at David’s gentle, lingering touch to his lower back.
Okay, thathadn’tbeen a sleep deprivation-induced fantasy, and she wasn’t imagining whatever was going on there.
