The belt came loose and he leaned into me. I reared back, nearly toppling on the bed. He straightened and held in front of me what I had, until a few hours previously, considered my confiscated Night Stalkers tee.
Since the likelihood of me winning a physical tussle was in the negative percentile and I was tired down to the bone, I snatched the tee from him and whirled around to give him my back.
I could sleep with him, I told myself as I pushed my head through the neckline of the tee. I’d slept with him the last however-many nights and I’d survived. One more night wouldn’t kill me.
I slid the robe off my shoulders and let it drop to the ground and, as fast as I could, I pushed my arms through the holes of the tee.
I wasn’t fast enough.
Lee’s hands settled on the skin at my hips, just above my panties, as the t-shirt dropped into place, its hem came to rest on his hands.
His chin rested on my shoulder.
“How long are you gonna be mad at me?”
His voice was deep and kind of husky and I felt a quiver in my nether regions.
“Forever,” I answered.
His hands slid from hips to belly and he pulled me into his body.
“I can’t discuss clients with you, Indy. I offer confidentiality with my services. I won’t be able to talk about my work, it’s something you’re gonna have to get used to.”
That was hardly the point.
Okay, it was a point, just not the point.
It was my longstanding theory that men missed the point on purpose.
His chin moved to pull the hair away from my neck and his mouth went to my ear.
Then he got to the point.
“You’d been dodgin’ me for a decade and then you presented me with an opportunity to get your attention. I’m not big on missin’ an opportunity, so I took it. It worked. I got your attention. I don’t regret it and I’d do it again, even considerin’ in the process I lost ‘diamond man’.”
Hmm, it was annoying but it was honest and it was annoying because it was honest.
I pushed forward and broke free of his hands, putting a knee on the bed.
I could have pushed the sleeping-on-the-couch business but I feared a wrestling match and he’d already gotten a nether-region-quiver. I’d never survive a wrestling match.
I crawled across the bed and stationed myself at the far edge, pulling the sheet up over me.
I felt the bed move as Lee got in and the light went out.
Then I was hauled across the bed and positioned in the half spoon/half pin he was so good at carrying off.
I didn’t struggle, I was doing pretty good at the silent treatment so I just stayed tense and used my body to communicate that all was not forgiven. The Silent Treatment/Cold Shoulder was a perfectly honed weapon in my arsenal and I was not afraid to use it.
Apropos of nothing, Lee told the back of my head, “The last time I remember feelin’ fear was during survival training. I thought if the good guys could think up that shit for training, what were the bad guys gonna do?”
Um.
Yikes!
It was apparently story time for bad little girls.
“Then I realized I might not be able to control what they were doing, but I could control my reaction. Fear breaks your focus, makes you lose control, makes you weak. It gives the enemy the edge. That was the last time I felt fear and the last time I lost control.”
I was still tense but now for a different reason, waiting to hear what he was going to say next.
“Tonight Ally called and told me you’d been taken. I left you there and they came to Tom’s fucking front door and grabbed you. When I heard that, I lost control.”
Holy shit.
What did that mean?
What was he saying?
Was he scared?
About me and the idea of maybe losing me?
Oh… my… God.
I waited for him to say more, to explain, but he didn’t.
So I waited some more.
Nothing.
“What does that mean, you lost control?” I whispered.
More nothing.
After awhile, his fingers brushed my hair aside and his lips touched my nape.
I let it go at that and listened to his steady breathing. I knew he wasn’t asleep and I also knew our talk was over. No way was Liam Nightingale going to admit, out loud, to being scared. That was as good as I was going to get.
And it was all I needed.
I let the tension go out of my body and settled into him, wriggling my bottom into his groin.
There was a time to hold a grudge, this wasn’t that time.
Chapter Twelve
I Did My Duty to the Pot
I woke up when I felt the sheet go down my hip and a hand go up it.
I turned bleary eyes to Lee, who was sitting, from what I could tell in the dawns early light, fully-clothed on the side of the bed.
“I need coffee,” I mumbled.
“You don’t have to get up, I’m just sayin’ good-bye,” he answered.
I blinked in the semi-darkness.
“Where are you going?”
But I’d lost his attention, he was looking in the vicinity of my hips.
“Do you always wear underwear like this, or is it for me?”
I rolled to my back and pulled the sheet to my waist.