Page 23 of Protected from Malice
My skin tingles where it meets hers.
Shit.
Her skin reallyisas soft as I thought it would be.
Forcing the unwelcome thought away, I tug Eden in the direction of the king-size bed in the center of the room.
Not that I’m planning to sleep in the bedwithher. I was just in a hurry trying to find a room after midnight, so I took whatever room was available. Should I have asked for two queens instead? Yes. But I didn’t. And honestly, it’s not like I’m going to be sleeping tonight—well, technically it’s morning now—anyway.
Once we’re both seated—not touching, but close enough that I can smell her shampoo and the minty scent of toothpaste—I shift so I’m partially facing her.
Under the auspices of checking her hand again, I hold it carefully between mine, turning it back and forth.
But I don’t let go.
I should.
But I can’t.
Eden’s gaze dips to her hand. After a moment, she looks back at me. The corner of her mouth twitches.
“You’re not a stupid asshole,” she finally says. “I know why you were upset.”
Well. She knows a part of it.
“Still.” My voice goes gruff. “I shouldn’t have… I’m sorry. After last night, and tonight… the last thing you need is someone yelling at you.”
Eden stares at me for a few seconds, thoughts working in her eyes. “Indy told me you yelled at him. In Iraq. When he was hurt. He said you yelled at him and told him he’d better not die. That you wouldn’t allow it.”
The memory emerges, just as vivid and painful as it was back then. The fear. The desperation. And yes, yelling at Indy, threatening him if he didn’t make it.
“I did yell at him,” I admit. My lips quirk. “But it worked.”
“Sometimes…” Eden draws her lip between her teeth. “Sometimes we get mad because…”
It feels like she’s dancing dangerously close to the truth.
A truth I don’t want her to know.
Still. I prompt, “Because?”
Pink tinges her cheeks. “Nothing.”
Eden edges closer to me on the mattress. Her thigh brushes mine.
On a heavy sigh, she says quietly, “I first noticed something… off… about a month ago. But I wasn’t sure. At first it was just little stuff. Like a car following too close on the way home from work, up until I turned off into my neighborhood. It could have just been someone in a hurry. With rush hour traffic…”
“But that wasn’t all, was it?”
“No. But, Rafe.” Eden’s blue eyes widen. “It’s not like I’m not careful. I carry pepper spray and a taser. I took self-defense classes. I don’t walk alone in the dark. I put security—” She stops. Grimaces. “Well. I guess my security wasn’t very good, was it?”
Not really.
But that’s not her fault.
“It should have been enough,” I reply. “Everything you did should have been more than enough.”
Eden takes another deep breath and lets it out slowly. “Then I thought I saw the same car keep driving by my house. But always at night, so I couldn’t be sure. Sometimes I’d get strange phone calls. I didn’t answer them because I didn’t recognize the number. But there would be voicemails of someone just… breathing on them.”
