Guilt washed over me.
Just because I couldn’t sleep didn’t mean he didn’t deserve to get some rest. Especially after he’d spent the entire evening pampering and caring for me. With all the extra duties he performed as acting chief, he probably wasn’t getting as much sleep as he needed to sustain his schedule. And with his investigation into the fire and the stress from the chief’s death, it wouldn’t be fair to disturb him or rob him of any more of it.
The good news could wait until morning.
I barely finished the thought when Cowboy rolled over, idly rubbing his hand over my side of the bed. The very idea that he was subconsciously seeking me out in his sleep made me smile. So I crawled carefully back into bed with him, slid under the sheet, and snuggled into his hard, masculine body.
“Mmm,” he moaned, pulling me tighter against his warm chest and making me shiver. “Are you cold?” His raspy voice sounded thick, heavy with sleep.
“A little.”
He angled away from me, letting his large hand move around to my waist to the front, then dipped his fingers beneath the waistband of my pajama bottoms. “Want me to warm you up?”
Holy hell. This man and his insatiable libido.
But remembering the news I hadn’t yet shared with him, I grabbed his wrist to stop him. “Wait a minute,” I said, while wondering why the hell the news couldn’t hold out a little longer. “I have something to share with you.”
His lips traveled up my neck and he nuzzled my ear. “Oh, yeah?”
“I found Chief Swanson’s brother. Even got his phone number for you.”
Cowboy yanked his head up and blinked at me. “What? When did you—”
“After you dozed off. I’ve been searching for him for over a week. But tonight when I couldn’t sleep, I got back up and spent some time online doing research.”
He frowned at that. “Anna, I’m glad you found him, but we need to talk about this sleep disorder you have.”
“I don’t have a sleeping disorder.”
The look on his face told me he wasn’t buying it. “Where’s the number?”
“It’s on my desk. I scribbled it on the notepad next to the keyboard. Why?”
“I need to call him.”
I shook my head. “You can’t call him at this hour.”
“Sweetheart, his brother died. I don’t think he’s going to give a damn what hour it is when I call—”
A high-pitched alarm rang out, and my body jolted.
Cowboy unraveled his naked body from mine and sat upright, grabbing his pager from the nightstand and turning it off. He lifted his cell phone, read the screen, and quietly cursed under his breath. With the sheet still covering my waist, I sat up and leaned into his shirtless back. “What is it?”
“There’s a structure fire on the south side of town.”
“Oh,” I said solemnly. An involuntary shiver ran through me at the thought of him leaving me here alone.
He must’ve felt it because he said, “Don’t worry. I’m not going.”
I didn’t know which was worse: him putting off work commitments to make sure I was all right or me needing him to so I could breathe normally. I sighed. “You can’t not go. You have a job to do.”
“I’m not leaving you here by yourself.”
“I’ll be okay,” I promised.
He groaned. “Then I’ll get Jake to come over here and keep an eye on things until I get back.”
“No, they have a new baby. I don’t want you to wake up Emily and Lily by calling him in the middle of the night. Just go. I’ll be all right. If nothing else, I’ll stay awake until you get back.”
“You sure?”