Page 33 of Been There Dragon That
“Did something happen?”
She shook her head.
“Tired?”
“Probably more than I’m willing to admit.”
“You take the bed. I’ll sleep on the floor.” He grabbed a folded blanket from the foot of the bed and a pillow.
“I—but, it’s freezing. The bed is huge.” The war inside her was real. He was a stranger. A kind one. But one who was also openly attracted to her and interested. She was attracted to him, too, but it was so fast. She didn’t trust herself, and she was offering to share the bed. “We can put a couple pillows down the center. There’s no reason for you to sleep on the floor.”
Wrath stood quietly holding the blanket and pillow while she rambled.
“I mean, unless you’d rather sleep on the floor. If you don’t think you can share a bed without keeping your hands to yourself.” She looked straight at him, and he responded with a grin that made her ovaries implode.
“It won’t be my hands that cross the pillow wall,shuarra.I give you my word.”
Meaning what? That he thought she couldn’t keep her hands off of him?
“I won’t either.”
He held out the pillow in his hand. She took it from him and tossed it to the center of the big king-size bed. Then moved another to continue the wall down the middle. She leaned over to push another pillow in place, and he was next to her a second later growling in a slightly scary way and lifting the hem of her shirt.
She yelped and slapped his hands away from her waist. “Hey!”
“You have huge bruises.” He crowded her and tugged at the bottom of her sweatshirt and tank top again, pulling them both up so her black and blue souvenirs from the accident were on full display. “Who fucking did this to you?”
“It was a car accident. I told you. A car hit me.” He hadn’t let go this time. His hands were still on her. Her body trembled, and she wasn’t sure if it was fear that he would find her body ugly or that in seeing the injuries he would further prove how much he cared about her.
He yanked harder, pulling the sweatshirt over her head and off her body.
She instinctively crossed her arms over the tank top, blocking him from stripping her further. She wasn’t ready for further…
“Explain how this was an accident.” His hands gently prodded and slid across her skin, like he couldn’t believe his eyes. Like he had to touch them, or they might be illusions.
They weren’t, and she could feel every single drag of his fingertips like they were white-hot irons. Except she didn’t want him to stop. Deep down beneath the fear, Wrath made her feel nothing but safe and treasured.
“My friend and I were crossing the street. The car came around the corner and he would’ve hit her. So I jumped and knocked her up onto the sidewalk.”
“You saved your friend and took the hit yourself. Brave woman.” His words were reverent and filled with understanding. “You almost died.”
Her eyes glassed over, and she wiped them quickly. “The doctors said I was very lucky. I had a pretty bad concussion and was in the hospital for a while.”
“The person who hit you. What happened to them?”
“They ran. The police haven’t found any trace of them.” That little tidbit was why she’d come to Alaska. In case it hadn’t been an accident. She was very afraid that it had been on purpose.
Wrath bared his teeth and growled like an animal. Not at her, but still. It wasn’t a human reaction. And the room was suddenly really, really warm.
Rylee yanked her tank all the way back down to cover the bruises and backed away from him. “What the actual hell?”
His expression softened immediately. “Forgive me,shuarra. I didn’t mean to frighten you. I was angry on your behalf. The police have failed you. The man who nearly killed you walks free. This is why you’re afraid. Why you thought I was attacking you in the house.”
“I was—” Rylee stopped herself from telling him about Jeff. About the death of the secretary. A part of her wanted to tell him everything, but another part of her still thought she was crazy thinking that Jeff would really go to such lengths to punish her for canceling the wedding.
“Yes, probably,” she finally said. For now, his assumptions about her situation would be enough. “Now explain how you growled like an animal and why it feels like a tropical sauna in here.”
“Not right now. Right now, I want you to get some rest.”
