My mouth opened, but I clamped it shut. I couldn’t complain about him wanting to sleep. That was just rude. But what the heck was I supposed to do while he was getting some shuteye? Holding onto the robe for dear life, I shuffled my weight from one foot to the next as I looked around the spacious hotel room.
“Josie.”
I turned to him, my breath catching. How in the world did anyone look that…that good simply lying in bed? “What?”
His eyes were at half-mast, drawing attention to the thick, spiky lashes. “Come here.”
Another shiver slipped over my skin. “Are you trying that mind-control thing again? Because it’s not working.”
He chuckled. “No, I’m not. Just come here.”
My heart tripped up in my chest. “I don’t think that’s a good idea.”
“Really?” he murmured, grinning lazily. “Why?”
I didn’t have a good answer, because what I was thinking was really presumptuous of me. When I didn’t answer, he rolled onto his side and extended his arm over the empty space between us.
“Come here,” he said again.
Digging in, I shook my head. “Why?”
“Because it’ll make me feel better.”
“That’s definitely not a good enough reason.”
He chuckled again. “That wasn’t very nice, Joe.”
“I don’t like you,” I whispered.
His grin spread until it transformed his face, taking some of the raw edge off his beauty. “Look. I’m not going to molest you or anything.” He wiggled his fingers while I dealt with a really weird and really disturbing sense of disappointment, which made me feel like I needed therapy. “I need to get some sleep, so I can be alert later on, but it’s hard to do that when you look like you’re seconds away from darting toward the door. All I want you to do is sit here. You can even watch TV. I’ll sleep through it, but I need you here, beside me.”
I need you.
I nibbled on my lower lip. Of course, he hadn’t meant that he needed needed me, but there was still a dangerous coiling low in my belly. Mentally slapping myself, I needed to get control of my hormones. I didn’t know this guy. I didn’t even know myself anymore. Sex and all things naughty needed to be the furthest things from my mind.
The bed was huge. I could easily sit on one side while he slept on the other. His reasoning sounded logical, and I wasn’t going to be stupid and make a run for it as long as he played nice. I knew I wouldn’t be able to defend myself. I didn’t have any cool powers like setting my hand on fire.
I needed him, and God, that sucked.
Gathering up my courage, I didn’t take his hand as I put one knee on the bed while still holding the edges of my robe. I teetered there for a moment.
Seth was on me before I even realized he’d moved. One second he was lying there, all lazy-like, and the next I was flat on my back, my eyes wide, and his leg thrown over mine, all but trapping me in place.
With shallow, uneven breaths, I turned my head toward him. Those eyes were half-open, the grin full of mischief. He moved his hand, wiggling something black and slender in my face. The remote! How in the world did he get the remote between lying there and doing nothing and practically tackling me?
The fucker was a ninja!
“Want to watch TV?” he asked.
I started to count to ten. I made it to three. “That was completely unnecessary.” “I don’t think so.”
My indignation rose swiftly. “I’m not going anywhere.”
“I know you’re not.” He winked and then placed the remote below my white-knuckled hands, right on top of my breasts.
I gaped at him. “You arrogant, annoying son—”
“Naptime,” he interrupted. “Watch TV. Or not. Stare at me or not, but I’m going to take a nap.”
So much aggravation built up inside me I thought my head would spin off my shoulders. I tried to wiggle his leg off, but the jerk weighed a ton. “Move,” I ordered with as much as dignity I could muster. “Move your fu—”
“I can’t nap when you’re talking. And I need my naptime. If not, I’ll end up driving off the road on the way to the airport tomorrow.”
Every muscle in my body tensed up. I forgot about the fact that his leg was on mine. “Airport?”
“Mmm-hmm.” Both eyes were closed. “How else do you expect us to get from here to Misery?”
“Missouri,” I corrected.
“Same difference.”
I ignored that. “It’s a town called Osborn. Well, it’s more like a village, but we can drive. I have a car.”
He sighed. “I have a car, too.”
“Good,” I rushed on quickly, knowing my poor car needed a lot of work before I made that hike again. “It’s only a thirteen-hour drive from here and—”
“Thirteen-hour drive? Are you high?” One amber eye opened. “I’m not driving thirteen hours.”
Panic curled around me. “Then I’ll drive! I can drive. I’ve done it a billion times.”
“Really,” he said blandly. “It would be like an hour or two flight. We’re flying.”
“No. No way. I’m not flying. I’m not getting in a tin can that could fall out of the sky at any moment. Screw that. Have you ever thought about how they get planes in the sky and how they stay in the sky? No? I have. It’s a lot of science I don’t understand.”
Both eyes were open now. “You’re afraid of flying.”
I briefly considered lying, but that would’ve been stupid. “Yeah, it’s never interested me.”
Seth stared at me for a moment, and then he muttered something under his breath that sounded like a different language. “Fine. We’ll drive.”
The next breath I took relaxed my muscles as my gaze flickered over his face. “Thank you.”
That appeared to be the wrong thing to say, because the earlier teasing tilt of his lips was completely gone, as was the glimmer of annoyance in his eyes. His face was absolutely stoic, showing nothing as he stared at me.
“What…what did I say?” I asked.
His eyes held mine for a moment, and then they drifted shut. “Nothing,” he murmured.
And he didn’t say anything after that. Neither did I. Remaining quiet, I kept still as I watched him until I knew he was asleep, because his face relaxed and his lips parted. And I kept watching him. In his sleep, he looked…he looked young. Vulnerable. Not normal, because even at rest, there was an unreal quality in the angles and planes of his face, but… I didn’t know. He looked different. Still insanely good-looking, but there was a quality of humanity there, and that was a relief to see, especially because I knew my life was literally in his hands.