Page 44 of Protecting Josie
Instead of going to the bathroom to brush her teeth—she’d scrubbed them for fifteen minutes straight when she’d arrived in Germany—she simply turned and climbed under the covers on the small bed. She didn’t bother to remove the sweats or the shirt she wore. She was suddenly too exhausted to do anything other than lie down.
Within seconds of her eyes closing, she was asleep.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Blink wasn’t sure what woke him. He lay still in his king-size bed and stared at the ceiling, trying to reorientate himself. It wasn’t that long ago when he was on his back, staring up at the concrete ceiling of a prison cell in Iran. Now he was home, safe, comfortable…and suddenly on edge.
Something had disturbed him enough to wake him from a deep sleep. Then he remembered that Josie was with him. In the other room. Was she having nightmares? She hadn’t had any that he knew of since they’d been rescued, or even while they’d been in the cells next to each other, but many times they wouldn’t start until after getting out of whatever situation had caused psychological stress in the first place. He had firsthand knowledge of that.
Looking at the clock, he saw he’d been asleep for a few hours. It was just beginning to lighten outside, but it was definitely still early in the morning.
Sitting up, Blink flung his covers aside and stood. Heheaded for the door to check on Josie when something made him turn around and look behind him.
There, on the floor at the foot of his bed, was Josie. Curled into a small ball, with the blanket from the guest room wrapped around her.
“Fuck,” he muttered.
Remembering the first words Josie had spoken, about him saying that word a lot, he sighed as he headed to her side. Crouching next to her, Blink brushed a lock of matted hair off her cheek.
“Josie?” he said quietly, not wanting to startle her.
Her eyes popped open, and she stared up at him.
“It’s me, Blink. Are you all right?”
“Woke up. Couldn’t sleep,” she said drowsily.
“Did you have a bad dream?” he asked.
She shook her head. “Just didn’t see you. Got used to sleeping in your presence.”
Her words made his heart skip a beat. This woman. She slayed him.
He reached out and picked her up off the floor without any effort whatsoever. It made him realize anew how far she still needed to go to get healthy. But he’d work on that. They would go to the store and he’d get all her favorite foods, making sure to follow the doctor’s orders about eating lots of protein and healthy food to build her muscles back up.
He walked around the bed and placed her on the mattress, then said, “Scoot over.”
She did as he asked, and soon he was in the bed with her, pulling up the covers. He wrapped an arm around Josie, so herhead was once more on his chest, the way they’d slept on the Navy ship. “This is better,” he said with satisfaction.
Josie nodded against him. It hadn’t escaped his notice that she’d spoken when she’d been half asleep, as if she wasn’t aware she was doing it. Her voice was there. She just needed to get used to using it again. Feel safe doing so.
It wasn’t long before he felt Josie’s breaths even out against him. One of her arms was across his belly and one of her legs had actually hitched up and over his thigh. He felt pinned down by her, even though she weighed less than a hundred pounds. She probably had no idea that she held all the power in their relationship. Blink was helpless against her…and he couldn’t be more content.
When he woke up hours later, he was alone in bed. Panic set in, and Blink threw the covers back and was across the room before he thought about what he was doing. He ran into the living area and stopped in his tracks.
Josie was sitting on his couch, curled into the corner with a bottle of water on the table next to her, a book in one hand and a sleeve of crackers in the other. She looked up at him with wide eyes.
“Are you okay?” Blink barked.
She nodded quickly.
And just like that, his muscles relaxed. “I woke up and you weren’t there. I thought…hell, I don’t knowwhatI thought.”
Josie set her things down and got up off the couch and walked over to him. She was still wearing the same sweats and T-shirt she’d gotten on the ship. Blink made a mental note to prioritize getting her some more clothes.
She walked right into his personal space until her cheekwas resting on his chest. Wrapping his arms around her, Blink immediately felt better.
Josie hugged him hard. Then lifted her head and tilted it back to look at him. “I got hungry.”
