Page 14 of My Girl to Protect
“I can go if you—”
“No.” The word comes out fast. Too fast. He blinks. “I mean…” He exhales. “Don’t go. Not yet.”
My heart does something strange. “Okay,” I say quietly.
I step further inside. His room is…bare. Just a bed. A dresser. Nothing else. “No chair?” I ask, trying to lighten the moment.
A faint smirk tugs at his mouth. “Didn’t think I’d need one.”
I nod slowly. Silence again. He runs a hand through his hair. “Sorry you had to see that.”
“You don’t have to apologize.”
He looks at me.Really looks. “You should be asleep,” he says.
“I don’t sleep this early.”
He huffs. “Lucky you.”
I tilt my head. “You don’t sleep at all?”
A pause. “Not much.”
That explains everything. “Do you…want me to stay?” I ask.
The question hangs between us. His jaw tightens slightly. “Yeah,” he says quietly. “If you don’t mind.”
“I don’t.” And I don’t. Not even a little.
I cross to the bed and sit carefully at the edge. He watches me like he’s still deciding whether this is real.
“Do you want to talk about it? The dreams?” I ask hesitantly.
Noah exhales aloud and scrubs a hand over his face. “They’re not dreams. They’re flashbacks…from my time in the Army.” Then those dark, tortured blue eyes find me. “War can be brutal. Now, I have PTSD, and loud noises set me off. Most nights, the flashbacks come for me as night terrors.”
I can feel his frustration and shame. “I’m sorry this is happening to you.”
He smiles. “I know, angel. You’ve got an expressive face.”
I wrinkle my nose, and my chest warms at his soft chuckle. “What do you usually do when you can’t sleep?” I ask.
“Wait for morning.”
“That sounds depressing.”
“It is.”
I smile slightly. “Okay. We’re not doing that tonight.”
He raises a brow.
“We’re watching a movie.”
“A movie.”
“Yes.”
“I don’t have a TV.”
