Chapter 14 #2
He cleared his throat and squared his shoulders, like he was trying to reaffirm his manliness before stating, “Just hang tight for a sec while I go grab your bag. Then I’ll show you to your room. I’m sure you’re ready to crash.”
“Thanks.” I really and truly was. With adrenaline no longer dumping into my blood, I was starting to feel a bone-deep weariness throughout my entire body. I wanted to crawl between a set of sheets, it didn’t even matter whose, and pass out for the next week.
I absentmindedly ran my fingers through Rollie’s fur as I moved a bit deeper into West’s place.
Pushing my compulsion to run through and tidy up the place to the back of my mind, I looked past the clutter to see that his townhouse was actually really nice.
The modern kitchen was open to the living room, boasting top-of-the-line appliances and quartz countertops that looked really nice with the white cabinets and subway-tile backsplash.
A cozy sectional faced the fireplace in the living room where a large flatscreen TV, bigger than any I could ever dream of owning, was mounted above the mantel. Off the main living area was a sliding glass door that led into the backyard, but it was too dark for me to see out.
There was a hallway off the kitchen that I could only assume led to a bedroom or two, maybe a bathroom, but before I had a chance to explore any further, West had returned, carrying my duffle bag in his hand like it weighed next to nothing.
“Your room’s down there,” he indicated with his chin toward the hallway.
I followed after him, Rollie on my heels, as West led the way, and when he turned into the second door on the left, my jaw dropped.
The room was full of dark, masculine furniture, and while the room was just as cluttered as the rest of the house, and the comforter had just been thrown over the top of the mattress without a care, the sheets still looked clean.
The smell lingering in the room was all West, all decedent leather and musk. “Is this your room?” I asked as I looked at the dresser. There were a few crumpled receipts, some loose change, and a picture frame or two with West and a bunch of people I didn’t recognize.
He gave me a shrug and moved across the room, dropping my duffel bag on a chair tucked into the bay window. “The guest rooms are all upstairs and I didn’t think that was something you could do right now.”
“West, I can’t take your room.”
“If you’re worried about the sheets,” he started with a sly smirk on his face, “they’re fresh. I put them on this morning, but I wasn’t really in the mood to go full out on remaking the bed.”
“Of course you weren’t,” I said with a little laugh, giving my head a shake. “It’s not that. This is your room; I can’t sleep here. I’m fine taking a guest room, I promise.”
“This isn’t up for discussion,” he said in that tone my father tried to use whenever he was being stern; a tone that hardly ever worked on me.
“It’s not safe for you to do those stairs, and until you feel better this is where you’re going to stay.
I’ll be crashing on the couch tonight so I can check on you every hour, just to make sure you’re okay. ”
I felt bad putting him out like this. He’d done so much for me already. Too much. I didn’t want to take him from his own bed as well. “It’s big enough for both of us,” I insisted, the words coming out before my brain could catch up with what I was saying. “We can sleep in here together.”
The fire in his gaze smoldered, the brown turning darker as he stepped in closer to me. “That what you want, sweetheart?” he asked in a husky voice that wrapped around me like a blanket, making me all snuggly and warm. “You want to share my bed with me?”
My mouth went dry at the implication in his voice, my body perking up and cheering, hell yeah we do!
But I managed to squash the tingles before they could cause any problems. “It’s not that.
I just really hate the idea of you sleeping on the couch just so you can make me feel better. I’m intruding on your space.”
“You aren’t intruding,” he reassured. “You’re here because I want you to be. I want to keep you safe, and this is the best place to do that.”
My chest felt tight, a burn forming behind my eyes.
This was something I’d never had with a man before, not even Jason, who I’d wanted to spent my life with at one point.
Besides Spence and my father, no man had ever wanted to take care of me, let alone go so far as to actually do it.
West was making me feel all these things I had no business feeling.
This wasn’t going to last, this wasn’t my life, and I needed to get these ridiculous notions out of my head that, maybe, when this was all said and done, I could keep this man.
He wasn’t mine to keep. And he never would be.
“Why?” I asked, that one word low and throaty with emotion. It was a question that needed to be asked, because I couldn’t wrap my head around his behavior. “Why do you want to keep me safe so badly? You don’t even know me.”
He nodded, understanding swimming in that sherry gaze. “You’re right. I don’t know you well.” He stressed that last word to make a point. “But what I do know I really fucking like, and I want to know more.”
That wasn’t good. What he knew of me already wasn’t anything people wrote sonnets or waxed poetic about.
I came from a family of criminals, my love life was basically a dry, dusty wasteland of failure, and I was broke as hell.
Even without the threat of O’Brien hanging over me and my family, I hadn’t exactly been winning at the game of life.
I was a thirty-three-year-old woman with no real job, nothing to put on a résumé that would make me look the slightest bit desirable, and no freaking clue what I wanted to do with my life.
“Believe me, things don’t get any better once you scratch the surface,” I warned.
“That’s for me to decide,” he said in a deep rumble that threatened to set my panties aflame.
But it wasn’t, it really wasn’t. Because I already knew how this would play out if I gave him a shot at deciding on his own.
He’d work hard to get in behind those steel reenforced walls I kept up around myself, and he’d succeed, I knew that without a doubt, because he was just that damn good.
I’d end up falling hard, and he’d discover I’d been right all along, that I hadn’t been worth it, and something told me that would crush me more than when Jason had ended things.
That was a risk I had absolutely no intention of taking. Hell, I’d rather go head to head with O’Brien. Okay, maybe not something that dramatic, but still.
Before I could utter another word, he asked, “You need help changing or anything?”
God, talk about embarrassing. “No. Thanks, but I think I can manage.” I didn’t have much choice, because no way in hell was he going to undress and redress me. There was absolutely nothing sexy about that.
“All right, Stella. Get some sleep. I’m just down the hall if you need anything.”
I nodded, my heart in my throat as he leaned in to place a kiss to my forehead. He started for the door, patting his thigh for Rollie to follow after him, but the big fluffy mutt had jumped up on the bed and made himself right at home.
“Come on, boy. She doesn’t want you taking up all her space.”
“I don’t mind,” I interrupted. “That is, as long as you’re okay with me stealing your bed and your dog.”
“I don’t mind at all.” Once again, nothing pinged on my radar. He really and truly meant that. This man was so odd. Incredible, but odd. “Get some sleep, sweetheart.”
“Yeah. You too.”
With that, he closed the door behind him and left me and Rollie alone.
I was in big trouble.