“You don’t understand.” Her voice sharpened. “I need to check my messages and do some research. I won’t be able to sleep if I don’t have a plan. There’s no time to waste.”
“Sleep isn’t a waste of time.” He folded his arms over his head, and she got a full, soul-destroying look at the abuse he’d suffered in Viper’s dungeon. Cuts, bruises, whip marks, knife wounds, scars … Even with all her forensic-science training, she couldn’t identify some of the implements that had been used on him. How did someone go through all that and come out emotionally unscathed?
“You had a shit day, same as me,” he continued. “Gotta recharge the batteries.”
Naiya twisted her lips to the side, considering. Although she was loathe to admit it, the prospect of sleep held some appeal. And she hadn’t been keen on sleeping on the floor, which was no doubt as filthy as the bed spread.
But did she trust him? After the night with Viper, trust had been her biggest issue with men. Even more than her inability to enjoy sex. Although she’d come a long way with her therapist, she only dated men she knew first as friends, or who were known by her friends. Holt was the first man she’d been alone with whom she didn’t know in some respect.
“You can trust me, darlin’,” he said, as if reading her thoughts. “The last thing I would ever do is hurt you.”
Clearly, some part of her did trust him, or she would have stayed in the truck with Lucky Larry to the next town instead of agreeing to share the motel room with a strange biker. And it wasn’t like she’d be trapped here all night with him, the way she’d been trapped with Viper. The door was locked from the inside. The walls were paper thin, and the parking lot was almost full, which meant there were people who could hear—civilians who wouldn’t ignore her screams the way the Jacks had done when Viper took her on his office desk.
Not only that. Ally was on her way with Maurice and Doug. And although Doug was a marshmallow, he was a cop, a big guy, and more than able to hold his own in a fight.
“Okay. But you have to put on the sweatpants. I’ve taken off the bedspread to protect us from germs, but we’ll need to put towels over the pillows and check for bedbugs, too. I got you some socks. You should wear them to walk on the floor, but take them off before you get into bed.”
“Bedbugs?” Holt pushed himself up, laughing. “The things that were crawling around that dungeon…”
“Don’t.” She held up her hands in warning. “I don’t need to know.”
While Holt ate the leftovers she’d managed to procure from the motel restaurant, Naiya covered the pillows and checked the sheets all under Holt’s bemused gaze. She joined him at the table for a snack, and then went to the bathroom to change.
“Where’s your sweatpants?” Holt, already in bed, glared as she hung her clothes up in the closet. She’d thrown on the biggest of the Bolton Beaver Tshirts and it fell to her mid-thigh, enough to cover what she didn’t want to be seen.
“They didn’t have any my size.”
“So I gotta lie here beside you while you’re wearing a shirt that says Beaver Country and nothing else but a pair of panties, after being alone in a dungeon for three months?” He cocked his head to the side. “You are wearing panties, aren’t you?”
“None of your business. And if it’s a problem, we can go with plan number two, which is Naiya sleeps on the floor.” She reached over and turned off the light, her body freezing until she reminded herself she’d left the bathroom light on. “That’s probably better because I don’t want to hurt you.”
Holt rolled to his side, propping his head up with his elbow. “Yeah, I’m hurting. But I know you’re hurting, too. You buried your momma, got slapped around, kidnapped, and now you’re on the run after escaping Viper’s dungeon. So come lie beside me and let me hold you and we’ll hurt together.”
Emotion welled up in her throat, and for a moment she couldn’t speak. She’d locked the day away so she could focus on doing what it took to survive. Holt’s words and his gentle tone threatened to open a door to feelings she couldn’t analyze or understand. Feelings and emotions that scared her. “People don’t hurt together. They hurt alone.”
“Naiya.” His deep voice rumbled through her. “I’ve been alone a long time. Lie with me.”
Her breath left her in a rush, his command as much a permission to put aside her fears, as it was an invitation to share her burden, and behind it a plea. He needed her.
No one had ever needed her before. She lay down beside him, her head on his shoulder, keeping her body rigid in case she hurt him. With an irritated huff, Holt pulled her close until her body pressed tight against him.