“Thank you. Can you please check on the chips?” She ordered her away and then faced Henry. “The staff seems friendly here. Very friendly.”
“Are you jealous, Miss Sunshine?”
“In your dreams. You’d have to be a lot more”—she waved her hand in front of his chest—“everything to get me interested.” Her body, however, had been moving closer to his each time the waitress came near.
Kate returned with the order of chips. Gabe sent her away again with a request for ketchup. She’d have the poor girl running all night in her current mood.
He rested his arm behind her back and slid toward her until she could rest her head on his shoulder. She shifted on the bench. Her hip touched his, and her head fell back into his embrace, as though they’d been together for years. He didn’t want to like it so much, but he did. Having her in his arms felt right.
“Your women’s group must love your enthusiasm toward their cause and all the assistance you provide,” she said.
“I can’t assist as many families as I’d like. The painting would have really expanded the program.”
“It’s that important?”
“Yes. Unless you know someone willing to write a check for thousands of dollars, the painting is the only way to access the funds.”
“Could I help?” she asked, hesitation running through her words.
She wanted to help? Gabe surprised him again.
He lowered his voice, “I thought you were hiding from someone.”
She shrugged. “We can do this. You could cover more ground with me, because I’d know the questions to ask.”
“Thanks for the offer, but I don’t want you placing yourself in danger.” His arm tightened on her shoulder. Desire for the funds warred with his obligation to protect her. “I’ll think of something.”
She drank down her beer like it was water.
“Slow down, Sunshine. The beer will you hit you hard if you don’t pace yourself.”
“I’m fine.”
He could see the gears in that sharp mind of hers considering her options. Her fingers tapped the table, and she swallowed the rest of the pint in time to order another from Kate.
With a heavy sigh, she turned toward him. “If a child has to remain under the same roof as an abusive parent for one extra day because I didn’t help, I’d never be able to forgive myself. You have to let me do this.”
The sincerity of her words and the pleading in her eyes fogged over his brain. So against his better judgment, he agreed to let her help.
Chapter Nine
Alex stretched her arms over her head. She breathed in the smell of clean sheets and felt the sun tempting her eyes to open and face the day. Her leg straightened, and her bare foot brushed up against another foot—a bigger bare foot. Three shots of espresso with a Coke chaser wouldn’t have awakened her faster.
She turned to her right and saw Henry, pants on, shirt off, lying next to her on the bed in the red room. The twisted sheet covered half of his legs. She grabbed at the sheets and pulled, but they refused to budge from under his leg.
Wham! She pounded on Henry’s arm and then slapped his face, ripping him from sleep.
He rolled over to face her and gently grabbed her wrist. “Bloody hell. I don’t care if you are female. If you hit me again, I’m heading to the bathroom for some ice water. And you’ll be wearing it, not drinking it.”
Then his eyes fell toward her bare breasts, uncovered by the sheets, and his mouth dropped open. His solid muscular chest brushed against her. Warm and sensual, the skin-on-skin contact invited an unwanted reaction.
Her last sexual partner took everything from her and gave nothing, except a broken rib and a bruised neck. With Henry’s body pressed up to hers, however, she hungered for something she’d never had. Intimacy.
Her chest rose and fell in deep breaths against Henry’s solid muscles. She tried to relax, but tears threatened to break free and ruin everything.
“Steady, Sunshine. It’s okay.” He backed away from her and sat on an armchair across the room.
“Why were we in bed together?” She blinked several times. The tears stayed away, but her expression must have given her fear away.
“You insisted I stay with you.” His voice was soothing.
She remembered drinking and singing a few songs and dancing on the table and then the bar while Henry tried to get her to put her shoes back on. Then the memory ended. “I don’t remember coming back here.”
“While you were calling out the bartender for letting the patrons put their mugs directly on top of the oak bar, I phoned a cab and brought you home. You then insisted on stripping down to nothing and tried to strip me down as well. I stopped you after you removed my shirt with your teeth. You begged me to sleep next to you, which was fairly cruel considering your naked body was more than a distraction, and then you fell asleep while I stared at the ceiling, counting sheep.”
That sounded like something she’d do if hampered with alcohol, which was why she so rarely drank more than one glass of anything stronger than coffee. “I’m sorry.”
What a stupid mistake. I can’t afford to lose control, ever.
“I’ve already forgotten it, although my cheek may remind me for the next hour or so.” He rubbed his hand through his hair and sighed. “You’ll always be safe with me. I promise. If you tell me what you’re running from, I can even help you take down your enemies.”
“We’ve been through this before. I’m hiding from something evil, and helpful is no match for evil.”
In the dawn’s early light without a button-down shirt hiding his amazing pecs, Henry could be described as masculine, rugged, and definitely beddable, but not tough enough to take on Luc.
“Maybe assisting me in finding the painting isn’t such a good idea.”