Page 48 of Redemption

“Easy.” His lips brushed the top of her head. “You’re okay. There you go.” He wrapped his other arm around her, hugging her close. “You good?”

Nodding against him, her hair tickled his chin. “Mm-hmm.”

Hugging her until her iron grip on his side began to relax, he hummed a lullaby he knew by heart. He wasn’t sure where it came from, only that it came easily, and it repeated over and over after the last note drifted off his lips.

“You give the best hugs,” she murmured, and he didn’t know if she was awake.

That wasn’t the first time he’d heard that, and finally, he remembered where he’d heard the song he’d hummed for the last ten minutes. Growing up without parents, he’d bounced from home to home, one orphanage to the next, and there were always the kids who were smaller than him, more scared, and he’d tell them it’d be okay—even if it wouldn’t—because they needed to know that, in that fearful moment, it’d be okay. Eventually. And hugging some kid he didn’t know would make it so.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

Victoria woke surrounded by warm strength. She couldn’t place the safe, secure feeling as she blinked her eyes open until she realized that Ryder held her close to his chest, and she had spooned her way over his body.

She should be embarrassed, but this was the second time she’d been this rested in so long, and the last time was because of similar circumstances.

Ryder’s warm skin stuck to hers, and she closed her eyes again, breathing him in. He smelled sleepy and masculine, familiar and… sexy. There was no doubt that hard, steel-cut muscles wrapped around her, and a man who’d rescued her was a turn-on, but she couldn’t wrap her mind around that. Days ago, she didn’t think that part of her existed anymore, and now it was consuming more of her thoughts than it should.

She couldn’t sleep without him?Not healthy.

And she could wake and feel this way? Whether that was healthy or not, Victoria didn’t know. People who’d been assaulted, weren’t they… ruined? She thought so. Her inner arousal had false bravado. Whatever it was, it was a farce. Her mind wanted to act normal even if it didn’t know better. Who on earth wouldn’t find Ryder attractive? That accent and those arms holding her tight…

But it was the memory of him humming her to sleep that made her stomach flip. Her pulse picked up, and the replay of his low rumbling voice tossed through her memory, rolling across her senses and awakening her nerves.

“Morning, love.”

She jumped in his arms. “Oh, hi. Did I wake you?” But if she hadn’t woken him before, startling like that now would have made sure he was wide awake.

Ryder loosened his hold on her, possessively repositioning but not letting go. “No.”

Oh, no.What if she kept him up all night? “Did you go to sleep?”

“Sure.” His silent chuckle barely shook her.

Lying next to him was too comfortable, too familiar when there was nothing to base that on. She couldn’t shake the feeling they’d known each other forever when even their breathing seemed to follow the same pattern, as though their lungs held hands and skipped along the same path. What was she doing here? What was she thinking? Yet, here she was, noticing the slight tickle of his breath, the delicate touches that sent her careening toward a dead man’s drop.

Victoria peeled herself from his sinfully warm, sculpted body, and he released her from a bear hold.

“Thanks. Again. I slept great.” She nervously stumbled over her words, not sure where to focus her attention.His bare chest. His beautiful face.The stubble that she wanted to touch, his mussed hair… She couldn’t give any more attention to how the man simply inhaled and exhaled.

“You needed it.” His hands drifted over her back, her side.

God.Goose bumps prickled under his touch like a shadow trailing after his palm, and another batch of them simultaneously leapt to life at the nape of her neck and slid down her spine. “Perhaps.”

Even her insides were… awake. The free-falling spin her stomach had just started was a wicked combination, knowing that Ryder was wrapped around her. And he was. She wasn’t making that up. She was as awake as she could be, and he wasn’t moving. Just like on the deck, dangling their feet over the water, she had the urge to move closer, touch him, feel him, even if right now, she was tight in his arms.

Maybe he didn’t mind that she spent the night against him. Victoria flicked a quick glance his way. Eyes closed.So, so very beautiful. And hard. Fierce.Odd that the two could be equal parts while the man simply lay there.

Did he want her there?Maybe… Or maybe not.She’d practically knocked down his door. What was he going to do? Shoo her away? The free-falling stomach froze at the realization, and disappointment weighed down her feelings, her thoughts, every part of her from eyelids to burdened shoulders. “Go back to sleep, Ryder. I’m up. I’ll go find breakfast or—”

“Do you want to leave?” His voice bottomed out against her earlobe, setting out a frighteningly powerful reaction coursing down her nerves.

Damn, would she have a reaction to his every question? If they were posed against her neck, maybe. Victoria steeled her thoughts and wondered if all American girls shivered and quivered at the Aussie accent whispered against their bodies. “Mia probably has coffee and breakfast ready.”

“Mmm, true.” He squeezed her closer as if she were a blanket to be tucked closer. “She loves to cook. It’s a hobby of hers.”

“Lucky us.”

“Are you ready to get up?” He reworded what he’d originally asked, but the intention was still there. Did she want to get out of his bed? Was that what he wanted to know? Would she have this insane inner monologue if Ivan hadn’t assaulted her in Russia?

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