“Ready.” Kiersten’s small voice called from the bathroom as the door opened and the light turned off. She was practically swimming in my clothes. I couldn’t help the smile that spread across my face. She looked so damn sexy in my shorts I wanted to charge toward her and rip them from her body.
Self control.
I cleared my throat and patted the bed. “I don’t bite.”
“But you do lick.”
“Always.” I fought to keep my hands at my sides. Damn, but they itched to reach out and pull her against me. “I won’t lick you now, Lamb.”
“Says the wolf,” she sang as she slowly made her way over to the bed and sat next to me. “I don’t do things like this. Furthermore, I’m only doing this to prove a point to my uncle and myself.”
“And what’s that?”
“That I can live,” she said in a low voice. “That I didn’t die with them.”
“Them?” I pulled her against my chest.
“I don’t really talk about it much. Not unless you’re a doctor and charge over two hundred dollars an hour to scribble stuff on a notepad and prescribe me drugs.” Her entire body tightened. “Not that I’m on drugs. I’m just—”
“Kiersten?”
“Yeah.” She sounded like she was going to cry.
“It’s fine to have help.”
After a few moments of silence where her heartbeat slammed against my hand, she gave a jerky nod. “Thanks.”
“You’re welcome. Now, let’s be all crazy and go to sleep.”
“Like old people.” She laughed.
“Yeah, exactly like that.” Because if she squirmed any more against me I was going to lose my mind. “Goodnight, Lamb.”
“Night, Big Bad Wolf.” She yawned and turned to face me. “I should warn you, sometimes I have night terrors.”
“It’s okay, I snore.”
“Are you lying?”
“Yup.”
She sighed and bit her lip. Damn, how I wanted to hold her lips captive like her teeth were.
“I peed the bed once.”
Her eyes widened.
“I was four.”
“How life-altering.”
“It was.” I nodded. “My teddy bear didn’t make it.”
“Tragic.”
I shook my head. “I always wonder to myself, could I have done something different to save my bear?”
Her laugh made my heart skip a beat; in fact, it did a hell of a falter before going back to normal. “Thanks.”
“For what?” I brushed some hair away from her porcelain face.
“Making me feel better.”
“Well, I am your RA…”
“This probably isn’t in the job description.” She laughed. “And I know it wasn’t in the brochure.”
I shrugged. “Well, it’s in the description now. My new job description is making you laugh and chasing away the bad dreams.”
“I wish that was true.”
“Sleep.” I kissed her forehead. “And if you do any more crazy shit, can I be a part of it?”
“Sure, why?” Her eyelids fluttered closed.
Oh, you know, because I would murder anyone who touches you. “No reason, I just don’t like to think of you being all crazy without your partner in crime.”
“‘Kay.”
“Night.
“Night,” she whispered.
Chapter Fourteen
Maybe I didn’t dream because for once in my life I was living it.
Kiersten
“Morning, sunshine,” a gravelly male voice said next to my ear.
I jolted awake and almost knocked my forehead against his. It was a close call. Wes jerked back and laughed, putting his hands behind his head as he stared up at the ceiling. “So, no nightmares.”
“No nightmares.” He seriously couldn’t possibly know how life-altering it was to go through a full night without waking myself up screaming. Maybe it wasn’t a side effect of the drugs. Maybe it was just me. Maybe I was defective.
“Class?” He yawned again.
I looked at the clock next to the bed. “In two hours. I should go.”
“It takes you two hours to get ready? I had you more for a twenty-minute girl.”
I slapped him across his hard stomach. “If you must know, I take thirty, but I want to get back before Lisa sends out a search party.”
He was quiet for a moment and then asked, “Are you going to tell her where you were?”
“Maybe.”
“I’ll keep it a secret,” he said. “Friends have secrets, right?”
“Right.” I pushed away from the mattress and stood. It was the best night’s sleep I’d had in two years. Part of me longed to return to the bed, to his warmth. Instead, I marched into the bathroom, changed back into my clothes from the day before, and grabbed my keys and phone.
“Same time tonight?” He winked, and dang the man was sexy all stretched out on his bed. How the hell had I slept through that? With his body so close to mine? I must have been completely exhausted. Either that or I wasn’t attracted to guys or something.
“Uh, I have homework.”
“On day two of classes?” His eyebrows lifted and then his face fell. “Oh, I see, you’re going to do the whole avoiding thing. Well, let me shoot you straight. We didn’t have sex, so you’re not doing the walk of shame, things aren’t awkward, and if you avoid me like the plague I’ll just stalk you.”