Total pages in book: 83
Estimated words: 79814 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 399(@200wpm)___ 319(@250wpm)___ 266(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 79814 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 399(@200wpm)___ 319(@250wpm)___ 266(@300wpm)
“We won’t be here past dawn.”
I slipped under the covers and hoped there weren’t any bed bugs or questionable stains. “Where are we going?”
He chuckled softly and shook his head.
“I can’t sleep without knowing,” I challenged.
His smirk made me realize my mistake a second before his hand moved. “Suit yourself,” he grinned and unhooked his towel. I gasped and squeezed my eyes shut. I could hear his chuckle followed by the sound of his towel hitting the floor.
Moments later, I drifted off.
Chapter Eleven
MIAN
I WAS FORCED awake in the middle of night, covered in a cold sweat and trembling from the terror that had followed me into my sleep and stole my dreams. It didn’t help when I realized I wasn’t in bed alone. “Why are you in bed with me?”
“You didn’t expect me to cuddle with Z, did you?”
“I don’t care who you cuddle with as long as it’s not me.” I huffed and sat up. I was ready to kick him off the bed when he gripped the front of my shirt and tugged me down onto his chest.
“What are you doing?” I struggled to free myself after he wrapped his arms around me and buried his nose in my hair.
“Making up.”
“I don’t want to make up. I want you—all of you—to leave me alone.”
“Be a good girl, or you’ll wake the baby again.”
Suddenly, it dawned on me that we were molded together in the middle of the bed and my baby was nowhere in sight. I drove the back of my head into his chest, but it didn’t free me. His pain-filled groan was muffled by my wild bed hair. “Where is he?”
“I put him in bed with Z,” he growled after untangling his face from my hair.
“What if he rolls over because he doesn’t know he’s there? He’ll crush him!” I hissed. The blanket slipped from our bodies and off the bed as we struggled. I was forced to stop fighting him when I ran out of breath.
He, on the other hand, had no trouble breathing as he said, “He’s fine. Z’s a sound sleeper.”
“Lucas,” I said slowly to allow patience to sink in. “Get out of my bed and give me my son.”
“I heard him crying and found you thrashing in your sleep,” he replied. He allowed me to turn in his arms after I relaxed. I could only see the silver of his eyes in the dark as he gazed back.
“Did I hurt him?” Worry was etched in every syllable. My fingers dug into his bare shoulders, but he didn’t seem to notice.
“He’s fine,” he repeated. “He hung out with his favorite uncle for a little while until he went back to sleep.”
“I can’t believe I didn’t hear him cry.” My biggest fear had finally been realized.
I wasn’t the mother Caylen deserved.
“You were doing quite a bit of crying yourself, girl. Don’t be too hard on yourself.” He pressed me tighter against him, and then I felt his lips brush my forehead. Hours ago, we were at each other’s throats, and now I clung to him while he kept me safe from the demons that chased me from my sleep.
After a while, Lucas rolled to his back, and my head fell comfortably on his chest. I listened to his heartbeat in the dark, afraid to go to sleep and face once again what could very soon become my reality.
“It was just a dream.” I was startled by his whisper, thinking he had fallen asleep.
“It felt real to me,” I whispered back. Suddenly, he rolled us over until he was leaning over me.
“There is more than one life he’ll have to take before he can get to you, girl.”
I wasn’t a girl who swooned. Especially over words whispered by a man whose feelings were tangled with my best friend’s, but he made it impossible not to.
“I’m not asking you to die for me.”
His smile was leisurely, and he no longer appeared to be the brooding man I came to be wary of. “You don’t have to.”
“You wouldn’t be doing it for me. You’d be doing it for Angel, and I’d still have to live with it.”
“Well, then, I guess I better not die.” He fell on his back again. “But I’ll still do whatever is needed to protect you.” He then ordered me to sleep.
* * *
I HAD AWAKENED once more in the early hours of the morning by a different nightmare.
I was asleep in my bed, safe in the home I shared with my parents when I was awakened by Angel holding in the rotting flesh of his hand the bloody knife I used to kill him.
Z had been the one to wake me with tender kisses on my lips as he pulled me gently from my nightmare.
“Want to talk about it?” he asked.
“No.”
We hadn’t shared pillow talk like I had with Lucas, but he’d held me until Caylen had woken up with a hungry cry. Lucas was nowhere to be found as I fed and changed Caylen, and I found out why when he came through the door carrying breakfast and coffee.