Chapter Fifteen Hollis
Chapter Fifteen
Hollis
The moment I crossed the threshold, it was as if Reed physically wrapped me in his arms. He hadn’t actually touched me, not even a brush of the hand, but his presence was impossible to ignore. Silent, solid, and steady. Like gravity itself keeping you grounded.
The security system beeped as it armed, and he dropped our bags by the door. For whatever reason, the sight of worn-out boots, sneakers, and a leash hanging up made me smile. Maybe because it was much homier than that mansion in Surrey. It was also oddly familiar, which didn’t make sense.
“You okay after all that hugging out there?” he asked in a slightly teasing tone as he began filling Ranger’s water bowl.
“The kid is cute. The best friend? Not so bad herself. Seraphina and Eden are nice, too. Well, from what little I gathered.”
He added kibble to Ranger’s bowl next and washed his hands. “They are.”
I expected him to offer me some food, too, but he probably didn’t know I hadn’t touched either meal served on the flight here.
He’d avoided me like the plague on the private plane they’d borrowed from some Irish billionaire friend of a friend.
Sebastian-something sent his regards, because apparently I also knew him.
Reed turned toward me, resting his hands on his hips, an uneasy expression crowding his face. He was clearly uncomfortable now that we were alone.
Considering that the last time it was just us I’d absentmindedly taken off my shirt in front of him, I didn’t blame the guy for worrying what I might do next. In my current state, his guess was as good as mine.
“So,” I breathed out, just as nervous. “How about a tour?” I’d never asked for one at Surrey, but in my gut, I was pretty sure I knew I wouldn’t be staying there for long.
“Yeah, uh, sure.” Reed began walking, and Ranger stayed behind to scarf up his food.
I trailed after him until he stopped and opened a door.
“I converted the garage into a gym and added a sauna.” He flicked on the light. “You’re welcome to sweat it out when you’re up for it.” He motioned to the stand-up wooden box tucked beside his equipment.
“Is the sauna big enough for two people?”
“It is. You know, if you want room to stretch out.” He caught my eyes, only to quickly look away, jerking his head back like he hadn’t meant to do that, then he killed the lights before I could better examine what appeared to be an armory in there.
“So, am I the sweat-it-out type? Do I like saunas? Working out?” I asked as we continued with his tour.
“You are,” he confirmed as we passed by a closed door. “My bedroom.” He motioned to the next door on the same side of the hall. “And the guest room is here.”
“I feel like most single guys wouldn’t have a guest room, so I’m lucky you do.”
“What makes you think I’m single?”
“Something tells me you wouldn’t let a woman stay with you if you were in a relationship, but what do I know?”
The side of his mouth lifted, like he was fighting a smile and to call me a smart-ass.
“Well, with your room next to mine, I guess I’ll have to do my best not to keep you up at night.
” I winked, because you know, why not keep making things awkward between us every time we were alone together?
It was like it came second nature to me, and that thought had me realizing: Maybe I really am in here somewhere, trying to wake up and claw my way back to the surface.
“And what do you do at night that’d be loud and might keep me awake?
” Either he hadn’t realized I’d been joking, or he was slipping into normal default mode and acting how he would’ve around me pre–memory loss.
Regardless, the rich huskiness in his tone struck a nerve, but in a good way.
It delivered a bolt of heat to my stomach that kept on going down.
“Pretty sure I was teasing, sorry. Old me hijacked my voice. There’s a good chance it’ll happen again.” I innocently lifted one shoulder. “I assume that means I’m moving in a positive direction of remembering who I am whenever that happens, though.”
“The real you showing up from time to time might make it harder for me to follow Ryder’s orders.” He clasped the door handle. “I’m supposed to be on my best behavior and play nice with you.”
“Right. I, uh, keep forgetting we don’t like each other. Won’t be easy to live with me.”
“You have no idea how hard it’ll be.” His voice shouldn’t have slid across my skin like silk, continuing to warm me up in places that had no business being warm right now, but it did.
I licked my lips, and he tracked the movement without missing a beat. We remained like that, just stuck in the moment, and all I could think about was our conversation in the office.
“Your bedroom,” he prompted in a low voice, shaking his head as if trying to pull both of us free of a silent but dangerous storm. He opened the door without another word and turned on the light.
There was a queen bed with a plain gray bedspread, nightstand, and dresser. Simple, but it’d work.
“Audrey ordered the furniture, insisting I might have a visitor one day. Picked out the bedding and the picture, too.”
A little hmph noise left my lips as I mindlessly fidgeted with the tail of my French braid that I somehow muscle-memoried my way into pulling off on the flight here.
I let go of my braid to chase away the goose bumps pebbling my skin as I studied the photo of a desert sandstorm over the bed, feeling caught up in the harsh winds myself.
“You’ll need to use my bathroom for a decent shower, unless you want to use the one in the hall where I give Ranger his baths.”
“While I don’t mind sharing with Ranger, something tells me he likes his space. But does his dad? How are you at sharing?”
“Horrible.” A wolfish grin crossed his face, and he immediately brought his hand over his mouth to physically wipe it away.
At the embarrassing growl coming from my stomach, I startled free of my thoughts.
“You not eat on the plane?”
“I was too stressed out about the whole turning-my-back-on-my-family thing, even if this is where I want to be.”
“You need to eat.” That sounded very order-like, and I didn’t even mind.
“Well then . . . are you cooking, or are we ordering in? In my dream, I wasn’t a good cook, and something tells me that’s true.”
He grimaced as if I’d somehow offended him. “What dream?”
Shit, I wasn’t ready to talk about that yet. It’d only make him ten times more uncomfortable than he clearly already was. “Nothing, just nonsense.” Now I’m lying, so this is going great.
He closed the space between us and started to reach for me but stopped himself. “You okay?” he asked while curling his fingers into his palm at his side.
Nope. I coughed up a plausible excuse to avoid the truth. “Jet lag.”
He checked his watch. “I need to keep you up for another hour or two so you don’t screw up your sleep too much.”
Something told me the old me would tease and joke, Keep me up, how? while lifting my brows a few times. “Might need a shower to wake me up, then.”
“Wash up while I fix dinner.” He caught me off guard, taking a knee by the bed. He retrieved a black metal box from under it. “There’s also a gun safe like this one in my room if you need to access a weapon.” He told me the four-digit code while punching it in, then stood and offered me the weapon.
I didn’t feel any hesitation to accept it. It was familiar. Painfully so. Part of me wished it didn’t feel so natural to hold such a thing. I’ve killed people with these things. Close kill count to Gideon’s, even. That last part was still hard to digest.
“Remember how to use it?”
I shivered, handing it back to him. “Unfortunately.”
“At my old place, I used to sleep with a Glock under my pillow. With Chase living down the street and coming over so often, I have to keep everything locked up.” He put it away and returned to stand before me. “I have a lot more weapons in the garage. I’ll show you tomorrow, just in case.”
“I figured those were gun safes, not tool chests,” I teased.
“What, don’t take me as handy?” He smirked, then quickly washed that smile away with his hand once again, as if pissed he kept having that reaction around me.
“Mm. Something tells me you’re also good with your hands.” So help me, I even followed the length of one slightly visible vein down his forearm and to his big, masculine hand.
“You really can’t help yourself, can you?”
Neither can you, mister, I wanted to hit him back with, because why the sexy rasp and hooded eyes?
“Don’t answer that,” he said before I could summon a worthy response. “Just go. Get naked.” He cursed. “Shower. I mean, shower.” He pinched the bridge of his nose and hung his head, muttering something incoherent. “I’m jet-lagged, too. Forgive me.”
I waited for his eyes before whispering, “You’re forgiven.”
He gave me a tight-mouthed nod, like he was trying to soldier forward. “I’ll grab your luggage and put it in my room for now.” He breezed around me in a hurry to get to the hall, and I quietly followed him. “I’ll check with Audrey to make sure you don’t have any food allergies before I cook.”
I paused in the doorway, and when he turned, he nearly slammed into me. He snatched my wrist as if worried I’d fall over.
Why was it that anytime he touched me, even the slightest bump, an unexplainable zing of connection hummed under my skin?
I didn’t believe my mother, that I wanted this man because he didn’t want me.
No, that wasn’t what this was. It was innate.
Natural, because I couldn’t remember who I was, but the feeling was still there just as I knew God was real.
Reed’s thumb skimmed the line of my wrist as if desperate not to let go, before releasing me.
“That’s thoughtful of you to check for any allergies. I forgot about that possibility.”
“Of course.” He backed up two steps, like he was worried he might accidentally touch me again. “Can’t go into anaphylactic shock on me. Gotta keep you alive, right?” A lopsided smile came and went fast. “I, uh, should also have another look around the property and ensure it’s secure before I cook.”
“Good idea.” I pointed to the ceiling. “You think my brothers hacked a satellite to spy on us?”
He quietly nodded, then tore his hand through his dark hair, which was thick enough to tangle your fingers in.
“My room is all yours.” He quickly tacked on, “For now,” then whistled, and Ranger came barreling down the hall, nearly flying into us from excitement.
“Stay with her.” He turned back to me, shooting an apprehensive look.
“Not going to fall in the shower and hit your head, are ya?”
“Only if you think that’ll help knock my memories back into place?”
He rolled his eyes but was fighting another smile.
“And unless you plan to keep an eye on me every second, which means watching me shower, sleep, and—”
“I get it,” he agreed. “Just be safe, okay? Last thing I need is to come rescue you while you’re—”
“Naked?”
He propped his palm on the wall at his side, his attention moving to Ranger wagging his tail between us.
“You’re sure there’s no us?” The words tumbled free of their own accord, and I had no one to blame but Sleeping Beauty somewhere deep inside me.
“I promise you, there’s no us. And there’s one thing you’re going to learn about me while here . . . I’m not a liar.”
“So when you say we don’t like each other, that means you were being honest?” I’d meant to save this confrontation for another time, but here we were anyway.
His mouth tightened around whatever words he wanted to say; he just quietly stared at me as if fighting an invisible enemy with the power of his mind.
“I’m sorry. We don’t have to do this. You had my back with my family, and you brought me here. I should just be thanking you right now, not giving you a hard time.”
He pushed off the wall, jaw strained beneath sexy stubble as he remarked in a low, even-toned voice, “If you weren’t giving me a hard time .
. . then I really would be worried about you.
” He turned and left after that, and I waited until he was out of my line of sight before Ranger and I went into his bedroom.
I kept the door unlocked so he could drop off my bag, then went into the bathroom.
After my shower, I was sadly still the same. Confused and a little brokenhearted at how things had gone with my family as well.
Aside from my bra, panties, and perfume, I couldn’t find anything appropriate to sleep in. Silk nightgowns that barely covered my panties would give the man an ulcer. On a whim, I decided to invade his space and check out his clothes for something comfortable to wear.
I caught Ranger staring at me as I rummaged through a drawer, head tipping left, then right.
“I know it looks like I’m being a bad girl, but I promise, I’m trying to be good,” I said defensively, landing on a T-shirt that looked big enough to pass for a nightgown. Hopefully, it’d be Reed- and Ranger-approved.
The tee smelled like fresh linen, not sexy man, which was probably for the best. I was already intoxicated with him as it was, for reasons I didn’t understand. Breathing him in all the time, too? Bad idea.
Barefoot, my French braid still intact from the body-only shower, I went over to the door, mentally preparing myself to face him. “Ready to have my six in case your daddy gets upset about me wearing his shirt?” I asked Ranger, smiling.
He yelped, going to his hind legs to use his front paws to pat the air.
“I’ll take that as a yes”—I went for the door—“and not a warning that I’m about to get myself in trouble.”