her words together, she stretched out next to him. “Could I sleep with you? Sleep, I mean? That nap with you today was the best rest I’ve had in a very long time but I’m still so tired. I just want to sleep, but I don’t dare.” She squeezed him, her small body pressed to his, her face against his throat. Her warm breath teased his skin with her agonized explanation. “I know I shouldn’t trust you, but I keep wanting to anyway.”
Leese tried to relax. “You can trust me.”
As if he hadn’t said that, she continued, “It’s nuts to stay with you, I know that. You’re so far out of your realm it only puts you at risk. I don’t want that on my conscience, so I tried to convince myself to run—”
“Don’t run.” Cautiously, he put his arms around her. Out of his realm? She didn’t have much faith in him.
“Every time I tried to make plans I ended up thinking instead about you being right here. So close and so... Jesus, I hate to say it, but you feel safe.” She tipped her face up to his. “I need you to be safe.”
“I am,” he assured her, tucking her closer, folding his arms protectively around her. He gave her a gentle squeeze.
She snuggled in. “I need to make some big decisions, but tonight it just feels too difficult. I think if I slept well, that’d help.”
“Sleep always helps.” And now, with her body so soft and lax against his, he didn’t want to let her go. Stretching out one long arm he rearranged his blanket to cover her too. “Let your thoughts rest, Cat, and tomorrow we’ll work it out.”
She gave a soft laugh. “Sure. Teamwork, right?”
Clearly she didn’t believe him. “We can talk tonight if you’d rather.”
“No.” Shaking her head, she squeezed him again. “I still haven’t decided how much to tell you—or how much you might already know.”
He didn’t know jack shit, and it frustrated him a lot. “Tomorrow, then.”
She tipped up her face. In the darkness, she studied him. “You don’t mind?”
Every nerve ending in his body sizzled, but... “No.” She smelled sweet and felt soft, and if he let himself, he’d be hard in a heartbeat. But he’d once risked a woman through poor judgment.
He’d never make that mistake again.
“Where is your gun?” she asked.
Where she wouldn’t get to it. “Don’t worry about it,” he said, then promised, “I won’t accidentally shoot you.”
“I figured.” Sighing long and loud, she got comfortable again. “I didn’t want to bump into it.”
“You won’t.” He didn’t mean to, but he kissed the top of her head. “Now sleep. We both need it.”
She said nothing else, and within five minutes her breaths had turned slow, deep and even. Apparently her mind had finally quieted.
Unfortunately, his did just the opposite and he ended up spending most of the night thinking very inappropriate, erotic, explicit things that had no place between a bodyguard and the woman he was assigned to protect.
JUSTICE’S LIGHT TAP on the door stirred Catalina awake by slow degrees. She nestled closer and went still again. A second later she yawned and turned away from Leese. Her eyes opened, blinked heavily up at the ceiling, then closed again.
As she stretched, Leese dodged an elbow. “Easy now.”
Jerking her head around, she stared at him.
He watched the awareness creep into her slumberous eyes and suddenly she bolted upright. The blankets fell away and he saw her body in the dim room. Nice.
“It’s Justice,” he said. “Time for us to rise and shine.”
After turning to stare blankly toward the door, she gave her attention back to him and her eyes further widened at his naked chest.
Heat crept up her cheeks.
Smiling, Leese reached past her to the end table for his phone. He sent Justice a text: Five minutes—with coffee?
He got back an affirmative. Sure thing.
“Coffee in five,” he told Cat.
She swallowed loudly, and blurted, “I don’t remember anything!”
A grin fought to take over. She looked a little wild at the moment, and sweeter because of it. Catalina Nicholson, he surmised, was used to being in charge. Instead, with him, she’d let down her guard.
At least a little.
“Nothing to remember.” Did she think he’d taken advantage of her through the night—and that she’d slept through it? “We both got the rest we needed, that’s all.”
“But usually I’m a light sleeper. I’ve had to be.”
That bothered him.
“I remember you telling me to sleep, and then...nothing.”
He pushed halfway up to his elbows. “You were exhausted.”
“And you’re a stranger.” Using both hands she pushed back her hair and continued looking at his body. “I’m losing it.”
Though he hadn’t realized it last night, she’d come to bed in cotton sleep shorts and a T-shirt. The important parts were covered, but a lot of skin showed: her arms, her thighs... Seeing her now, Leese was grateful he hadn’t had that image to add to his torment through the night.
The cool morning air had stiffened her nipples, now pressing against the stretchy material of the shirt. Small breasts, but that only added to the delicate look of her.
A deception, because he had a feeling that once you got beyond the physical, Catalina Nicholson was made of pure steel.
Catching the direction of his gaze, she folded her arms around herself. “These are the only pajamas I have.”
“Yeah?”
With irony, she said, “I had to pack light when I left.”
Mostly, he assumed, because she’d left under troubled circumstances.
The reality of that niggled at his brain, but with her currently in such a pretty pose—her wild hair, her eyes puffy and expression slumberous, the flush on her skin—he had a hard time concentrating on reality. When she’d come to him in the hush of quiet and the dark of the night, he’d focused mostly on her uncertainty.
Now, not so much, and morning wood became a very real possibility.
Testing his resolve, Leese tucked one side of her silky hair behind her ear. “Justice won’t be long. Did you want to freshen up before he gets
