Page 15

14

“H ere, I got the pills and some water.” He held out the glass to her. She waited for the pills, but he just stared at her.

“Um, are you going to give me the pills?” she asked.

“You want to take them or you want me to put them in your mouth?”

Was that weird?

It sounded weird.

Eh. Who gives a fuck what’s weird?

“Stick it in my mouth, darlin’,” she told him with a smirk.

“Oh, I will.” He grinned back.

She managed to hide her unease. She was being ridiculous. He was nothing like Stefan.

“You want to see what I’m giving you first?” he asked.

Did she?

Maybe.

So she nodded. He opened his hand, showing her two small white pills. Her stomach tightened.

“Open your mouth and stick your tongue out,” he ordered. “Now, Gem.”

There was no denying the order in his voice. And she did as commanded.

Perhaps she should have taken them herself.

Maybe it wasn’t right for him to order her to take them.

But screw it. They were down and she was swallowing them with the help of the water.

And the world didn’t end.

Still, it was hard to get them to stay down. The memories of the past threatened to have her throwing them up, Renard took hold of her face with his hands, cupping her cheeks.

“That’s it, baby. Just swallow. Then breathe. Good girl. One breath. Then another. That’s all you’ve gotta do. Just breathe. I’m here. Let me take care of the rest.”

Lord.

Why? Why send her such a perfect fucking man? Was it torture?

“Such a good girl for me, Gem. Deserves a reward.”

“Am I getting a gold star?”

“Hmm, I was thinking more like my mouth on your pussy until you’ve come several times. Once you’re feeling better, that is.”

“All right. I could accept that.”

“Glad you could accept that,” he replied solemnly. “Any reason why you couldn’t take liquid painkiller?”

She grimaced. “I don’t know. Maybe? The thought of it still makes me feel ill and I don’t think I want a lot of it in the house.”

God. Did she sound like a complete lunatic?

“Understood.” He nodded and stood. “Going to check the doors and windows.”

He disappeared and she lay there for a long moment.

Renard was in her house.

And they were a . . . well, whatever they were. Could she call him her boyfriend?

It didn’t seem the right word.

Her obsession?

Yeah, that sounded more likely.

When was he going to leave? Probably soon.

And she’d be alone.

You can be alone. You’re fine.

“Gem, do you know you’ve got a broken latch on one of your living room windows?” he asked as he returned.

“What? I have?”

“Yeah. Gonna go see if I can find something to wedge in there to secure it.”

Before she could tell him that it didn’t matter, he was gone. The pills started to take effect and she could feel the pain in her back ease. She slid down lower in the bed, managing to get the heating pad back into the right spot.

Fuck.

She was so tired.

Her eyes were closed and she was dozing when he came back.

“You find something?” she asked.

“Nope. I’m going to have to stay the night.”

“Wait. What?”

“You got a spare toothbrush, Gem?”

“Yeah, there’s a new one in its packet in the cupboard under the sink,” she said. “You’re really staying?”

“Yep. I’ll sleep on the couch.”

Oh. Of course.

But maybe he should sleep with her.

“Not going to risk bumping you by sleeping in your bed and I want to be close to the window.”

Who knew how long that latch had been broken for, though?

“Do you need me to bring back a cloth so you can take off your make-up?” he asked.

Hell no.

Nobody saw her without her makeup on!

“Nope. I’m good, darlin’.”

“Hmm.” He eyed her. “Can’t be nice going to bed with makeup on.”

“The last time anyone saw me without makeup on was when I was twelve, before I started wearing makeup.”

“I don’t care what you look like without makeup,” he told her gruffly.

Maybe not.

But she did.

When he walked back in, she tensed. Renard was going to sleep in her house.

“There’s blankets and spare pillows in the linen cupboard,” she told him.

“Thanks. You look tense, Gem. Something wrong?”

Crap.

What did she say?

“Let me guess, you’re wondering how you’re gonna stop yourself from jumping my bones.”

Um. What?

He sighed dramatically. “Well, you’re just gonna have to figure that out, Gem, because I’m exhausted.”

She found herself grinning. He’d turned it from awkward and a bit weird to pretty damn funny in the blink of an eye.

“I’ll try to refrain from jumping you.”

“Appreciated. Come find me if you need me. Night, Gem.”

“Good night.” She settled in, closing her eyes.

Only trouble was, she still couldn’t sleep. Everything kept running around in her head.

Over and over.

After about an hour of trying to get to sleep, she decided to get a drink. It had nothing to do with wanting to check that he was still here.

Nope. Nothing.

She shuffled into the kitchen and quietly grabbed a glass to fill with water.

“Couldn’t sleep, Gem?”

She let out a squeal, groaning as she jumped. “Nope. Sorry if I woke you.”

“You didn’t. Couldn’t sleep.”

“Do you want to go home?” she asked.

Please don’t leave.

“Only going home if you’re going with me. And, frankly, I don’t want you in my apartment.”

Ouch.

That hurt when she hadn’t been expecting it.

“Oh.”

Was that all she had? Oh? Well, if she said anymore, she might blurt out something she’d regret.

“It’s a soulless, crappy place where even I don’t want to be. So why would I want you to be in there?”

Ohh.

This roller coaster of emotion was hard to handle.

“Come on, let me take you back to bed.”

He led her back and even tucked her in. Then he grabbed an armchair, dragging it close to the bed.

“What are you doing?”

“Going to sit here until you go to sleep.”

“That’s kind, but I usually have trouble getting back to sleep after I wake,” she told him.

“You wake a lot?” he asked.

“I have nightmares,” she told him.

He grunted.

“Not sure I’ve ever slept really deeply,” she told him. “Come close to it living here. But . . .”

“But what?”

“I don’t know. I’ve always felt like I have to be on alert. Even when I’m asleep, you know?”

“I was a Marine, so yeah, I get that.”

She guessed he would.

“Since you’re awake, I’ve got something to ask you.”

“All right. If I don’t want to tell you, then I’ll just say.”

He grunted. “How’d you escape him? Master? How did the three of you get away?”

“That was all Lilac. Stefan’s obsession with Lilac . . . it was wrong and sick. Ryleigh and I were just a passing interest to him. When Ryleigh found out the truth about what an evil man Stefan was, we started to worry about what he would do next. That’s when Lilac started to form a plan to get us all out. She’s smart and she’s brave. Everyone was scared of Stefan. His men, the people he had working for him. They feared Stefan, but they loved Lilac.” She ran her hand over her face and realized it was trembling. “My hand is trembling.”

“Probably a reaction to the pain and the memories,” he told her. “We should stop talking about this.”

“No, no. I’m fine. So, Stefan had plans to marry Lilac off to one of his allies. One of her prospective grooms was actually a semi-decent guy. So she decided to ask for his help.”

“Fuck. That could have gone horribly wrong.”

There wasn’t enough light to see his features, but if she was a betting woman she’d say he was frowning.

Then again, that was pretty much a sure bet with Renard.

“Tell me about it. But we didn’t have much of a choice. He was going to marry her off to some asshole that would likely abuse her. And we’d be split up. Ryleigh and I had no chance against Stefan. Lilac was the only one who could ever get through to him when he was in one of his ‘moods’.”

Renard breathed out heavily. “So this guy helped her?”

“Yeah, thankfully, he got her some new IDs for us and a wad of cash. He even provided a distraction for the guards so we could sneak out of the compound. Stefan came after us, of course, he nearly caught us several times. Then Ryleigh got pregnant with Kye, and we knew we had to figure out a plan. We couldn’t keep running with a baby. That’s when we decided that the Malones might be our best bet.”

“And you came here,” he said.

“Yeah, then we came here.”

“Glad you did, baby. I’m glad you did.”

“Me too.” Best thing she’d ever done in her life.

“You need to go to sleep now, though,” he told her, fussing with her blankets.

“I told you I have trouble getting back to sleep.”

“It’s nearly three in the morning, baby. You’ll sleep and you’ll sleep well. Without any nightmares,” he said firmly. “Now, close your eyes. You don’t have to be on alert, because I’m here. You can sleep, because I’m here.”

He settled in the chair, then reached over a hand to grasp hers.

There was no way she could sleep.

No. Way.

But it was sweet of him to try and help her.