My pulse quickens. Is he spending the night? I assumed he’d get dressed, grab his phone and make some excuse for having to leave like I’ve seen happen in the movies after a one-night stand. What I didn’t expect was for him to hold me close, run his fingers through my hair, and . . . doze off?
I wonder how often he does this kind of thing. As handsome as he is, I’d guess he does this often. Thinking on that is another brutal reminder that I know zero about this guy. My naked body is pressed against his, and he could have a freakin’ girlfriend for all I know.
I chew my lip as unease seeps into my chest, pushing away my good mood. Surely if he had a girlfriend I’d know. Right? What if he has a wife? Kids? What if he’s a felon? What do I really know about this guy? How stupid could I—
“The fact that you’re able to think so hard I can fucking feel it tells me I didn’t do my job.” There’s humor in his voice, but I still stop breathing hoping to hide how right he is.
“Your job?”
He traces patterns on my hip. “To take your mind off things.”
“You definitely took my mind off things.” Pretty sure I had an out-of-body experience at one point. “Now I’m thinking about other things.”
“Like?”
I swallow and pull up whatever’s left of my courage, then tilt my chin up to look at him. “I’ve never slept with a stranger before.”
He frowns, looking almost offended, and I’m reminded of how terrible I am at post-orgasm pillow talk. “I’m a stranger, am I?”
“I just don’t know that much about you and I have my naked body wrapped around yours.”
He clears his throat and looks up at the ceiling fan. I’m about to tell him it’s a waste of time, that the damn thing has no answers, when he starts talking.
“I was born in Santa Barbara. Played football, was pretty decent at it, got a scholarship to play at Washington State, but my dad was Army, my granddad was Army, all my uncles were too, so I gave up football and enlisted one week after I graduated high school.”
Giving up college for war? “Why would . . . I mean, you didn’t fight your dad on that?”
“I didn’t want to fight it. I wanted to go. I was raised to believe the most honorable thing a man could do was serve his country.”
“But what about your education?”
“I got an education in the Army. What I learned in the military was more valuable than anything I’d learn going to college. I liked football, but there was no guarantee I’d go pro. Knowing our country needed men, that we were fighting to protect innocent people, to ensure freedom, football paled in comparison to all that.”
I guess I understand. “You mentioned you have a sister, are you two close?”
“Not anymore.” He clears his throat. “She’s married, has two kids.”
“I’m sure they love having you back.”
His body stiffens at my side. “I, uh . . . I don’t see them much.”
“Why?”
“I came back and they all looked at me like they didn’t know me. They wanted answers I wouldn’t give and the more they pushed the more I shut down.”
“Why not just answer their questions?” I’m not one hundred percent sure what we’re talking about, but I fear we’re breaching the subject of his military life and I promised him I’d stay away from it.
He’s quiet for a few beats. “I refuse to bleed on the people I love.”
I stare blindly at the wall in front of me, all too familiar with how difficult it is for family to see a loved one struggling with something and not being able to help them through it.
“What about you? Tonight, Polly mentioned you had a sister.” He’s trying to change the subject from him to me; it’s what I would do in his shoes. But I can’t tell him about Celia, about how hurt I am that she’d share my ugliest secrets with people she hardly knew.
“I do.”
“What’s wrong with her?”
“Nothing!”
He raises his eyebrows.
“I mean . . .” I rub my forehead. “She’s not as bad as Polly made her seem. She’s not agoraphobic.”
I roll to my back and he pushes up on his elbow looking down at me. Silence stretches between us until it becomes suffocating.
“She thinks she may have killed our grandmother when we were kids.”
“How does a child kill her grandmother?”
“She gave her the flu. Complications of that caused her death and I guess ever since she got weird about . . . stuff.”
“Stuff like . . .?”
“She became much more aware of germs, that’s all. More than what they considered normal. After high school she spiraled a little but she’s better now.” I pick at the edge of my fingernail. “She’s mostly better now.”
“Are you two close?”
I shut my eyes and bite back the swell of emotion building in my chest.
“Celia?”
I jerk in his hold hearing him call me by my sister’s name.
He squeezes me closer, probably interpreting my reaction as meaning something different. “All right. Enough of this shit, you up for a little adventure?”
Yes, please. Enough. Wait, did he say adventure?
I peek up at him and he must sense the question in my stare.
He jumps from the bed bare-ass naked and heads to the bathroom. I prop myself up on my elbows to admire the view of his very firm backside and I frown when he returns with a towel wrapped around his waist and one in his hand. He tosses it to me. “Come on, get up and wrap that around you.”
I sit up and the sheet falls down around my hips so I cover with the towel and scoot to the edge of the bed. “Why?”
“I have an idea.” He holds out his hand and I take it.
I barely have the thing secured and tucked around me when he drags me through the cottage to the front door. “Whoa.” I dig my heels into the shag rug. “I’m not going outside like this.”
“Why not? It’s dark, no one will know you don’t have a bathing suit under there. Plus . . .” He swings open the door and guides me out. “No one’s around anyway.”
I lean back and really push my heels into the ground but it’s pointless, he’s too strong, and if I fight any harder I might lose my towel. “Aden,” I hiss through clenched teeth. “Where are we going?”
He doesn’t answer me with words, but soon we’re at the top step of the staircase that leads down the cliffs to a small beach.
My mind scrambles as I stumble behind him down the stairs.
Naked.
Towels.
Beach.
He’s not expecting me to swim, is he?
Panic flares in full force and I really put the brakes on this time by dropping down to sit my ass on the cold concrete step. If he expects me to get into that water he’s going to have to pick me up and carry me.
He whirls around, studies my seated position, then shrugs before leaning in and putting his shoulder into my stomach. He scoops me off the step and hoists me up. “Aden, no, put me down!”
“Stop yelling or someone will call the cops.”
He jogs down the remaining few steps and the cold ocean air hits my bare butt, making my entire body flash with the heat of a red-hot blush. “Good! We’ll need the cops to pull what’s left of our naked bodies from the ocean after a shark kills us!”
I squeal when he jerks to a stop and drops me back down to my feet. The movement takes my towel and I scramble to cover my body when Aden stills my hands. “Don’t.”