Page 93 of The Hero
She sighed, then lowered herself back onto his chest. Well ... lowered wasn’t exactly the right word. Plopped was better. She simply went boneless and collapsed against him.
“Shoot,” she mumbled.
Bob couldn’t help but smile at that. It was such a Marlowe thing to say. He speared his hand in her hair and wrapped his other arm around her waist, anchoring her to him.
“I wasn’t the one who was supposed to have a nightmare,” she complained.
Bob’s smile grew. He couldn’t believe he found any humor in this situation, but she wasn’t wrong. It was a miracle he hadn’t had a nightmare. The sight of her in that car, unconscious, with that asshole’s hands around her throat was burned into his brain. He’d thought he’d lost her. He had no doubt at some point he’d dream about that moment, but apparently not tonight.
“Want to talk about it?” he asked.
She sighed, and Bob felt the warm exhale even through his shirt. “It was his eyes,” she said softly after a moment. “They were dead. I mean, I worked with Ian. Shared meals. We laughed together. I was the one who gave him a tour around the dig site when he first arrived.
“But when he was strangling me ... I saw nothing but deadness in his eyes. He could’ve been peeling a carrot for all the emotion he had. I mean, I would’ve expected to see anger, hatred, something. His wordssoundedfurious. But he was completely blank. I knew then that it didn’t matter what I said or how hard I fought, he was going to kill me. And that sucked because all I could think about was all the things I’d miss out on with you. Laughing, loving, our kids ... all of it.”
“Punky,” Bob said in a strangled tone.
Marlowe lifted her head. “But I’m okay now. You’re here.”
“I am,” he agreed.
“And if I have any other dreams, you’ll wake me up and reassure me that he didn’t win.”
“Damn straight.”
She nodded, then lowered her head back to the crook of his neck. “You know, this is weird,” she said after a moment.
“What is?” Bob asked, running a soothing hand up and down her back.
“Lying on top of you without being naked and you inside me,” she said.
Bob snorted. “We slept like this a few times as we made our way across Thailand,” he reminded her.
“Yeah,” Marlowe agreed. “Kendric?”
“Yeah, Punky?”
“I’m thinking three.”
“Three what?”
“Kids. So we need at least a four-bedroom house. The kids can share when they’re young, but they’ll want their own space when they get older. And I want to find a house with a huge porch, and a big backyard. And not too far from Carlise and June, because I want our kids to play with theirs.”
The images her words put in Bob’s head were so visceral, so real, it almost hurt. “Okay, Punky.”
“I don’t know how we’ll pay for it, but we’ll figure something out.”
“We will,” Bob agreed. He’d do whatever it took to give his Punky everything she ever dreamed about.
“My brother’s going to come up soon with his family,” she went on.
It seemed as if his woman was wide awake now, and wanting to talk. Bob had no problem with that. “Good. I’m looking forward to getting to know them.”
“What did Tex tell you today?” she asked. “I mean, after he said like two words to me.” She chuckled.
Bob’s smile died. He didn’t really want to talk about this right now, but he knew Marlowe would need to know what was happening with Ian in order to move on with her life, and hopefully banish the nightmares for good. “He was updating me about West,” he said after a moment.
“And?”
