Page 40 of Her Maine Reaction

I can’t even dream of a perfect ending.

I just want to be warm.

“Hey, shh, Ashley.” Ryan’s soft, pleading voice is back, and I relax again, thanking my brain for bringing him back. He slips his arm under me and pulls me against him, his body heat giving me everything I’ve been missing. “Just sleep. I’m not leaving you.”

∞∞∞

Opening my eyes to a dark room, I feel disoriented. But the solid wall of muscle nestled tightly against me tells me that I didn’t dream of Ryan carrying me to bed and holding me.

He stayed.

Smiling, I try and go back to sleep, but when my bladder starts to protest, I realize why I was woken up in the first place. Slipping soundlessly out from under Ryan’s grip, I tiptoe out of the room, and down the hall to the bathroom.

When I slip back into bed, Ryan stirs as I lift his arm to place it around me again.

“Ashley?”

“Yeah?”

“Are you okay?”

“Yeah,” I answer, pausing. “You stayed?” I ask, the words pushed from my lips.

“Is that okay?”

“Yes.” I sigh, scooting a little closer to him. “I thought I was dreaming that you were here.”

“No. But that explains why you were saying my name, though.”

My eyes pop open. “What?”

“Don’t worry.” He chuckles, tightening his arm around me. “You didn’t say anything too embarrassing. Well, except that you need me badly, and you want me to remind you why you followed me into those woods all those months ago.”

“What?” I gasp. “I did not!”

“I know.” He laughs. “Just joking. Now, go back to sleep. Unless you really do want me to remind you.”

Staying quiet, the silence between us stretches out for so long that I think we’re both holding our breath.

The air changes from light and joking, to strained and electrified. It’s thick with everything unsaid, and undone, between us.

“I do,” I whisper softly after a few minutes. So softly, in fact, I’m not sure if he heard me. I don’t know why I said it. It’s either the illusion of darkness that made me answer honestly, or all the wine I had earlier.

Probably both.

The cover of night provides me the mask I need to spill my secrets to this man, and has my mind tricking me into thinking it’s okay. But in his hands, I know they’re dangerous.

Ryan either doesn’t hear me, or he’s pretending not to have heard me, because he remains quiet, his arm around me heavy and comforting.

I breathe a sigh of relief and close my eyes, falling back asleep to the sound of his steady heartbeat.

Chapter 9

A hand brushes the hair from my face, and I snuggle closer to the warm body next to me.

As my eyes flutter open, the dull grey morning light allows me to see the handsome face staring back at me.

Ryan’s square jaw is covered in stubble, and I reach up to run my fingertips over it–feeling the rough, yet soft, hair tickle my skin.

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