Page 78 of A Shot at Love
He opened his eyes again and found her standing next to the bed twisting her T-shirt and shorts in her hands, looking down at him. The corner of her bottom lip was tucked between her teeth.
He reached out a hand to her, and, when she slipped hers into it, he tugged her back down on the bed. “You okay?”
She nodded.
Her gaze dropped to the clothes in her hands and he realized she was nervous. Gone was the bravado and cockiness of just a few minutes before. He squeezed the hand he held. “Gemma, look at me.”
When she did, he worried his thumb across her knuckles. “Stay?”
Surprise rose to her eyes first then traveled down to her mouth. He thought she was going to refuse, so before she could he added, “please?”
This time, when the surprise grew, she grinned. “I don’t usually do sleepovers.”
He understood since he didn’t make a habit of them either.
But.
“Well,” he shifted his head on the pillow and kept her hand in his, “it’s not like a real sleepover. You room is just a few yards away, not in another location. It’s really you’re just sleeping in a different bed in the same house. Trying a new one on for size.”
That glorious giggle was back and Ky swore he could live off just the sound of it and the expression on her face when she made it.
Her pajamas were tossed unceremoniously back onto the floor. Ky shifted, dragged the sheets down and then pulled her under with him.
Spooning, he wrapped an arm around her waist to hold her in place and smiled when she grabbed his wrist.
“Get some sleep,” he said into her hair, inhaling the fragrance of cherries lingering there. For the rest of his life he knew he’d associate the scent with Gemma.
“I’m really glad we…talked,” she whispered sleepily a few minutes later.
Ky fell asleep with a smile.
*
With extreme care so she wouldn’t disturb him, Gemma unwrapped Ky’s hand from around her waist. One finger, then the next, and then the next until, finally, he stirred, shifted, and fell to his back, still sound asleep.
The medallion at his neck slipped to the side of the pillow. Gemma smoothed its raised edges and regarded the man lying next to her, the first and only man she’d ever spent an entire night with.
His hair looked like he’d just combed it, even though she’d almost pulled it bald the times he’d had his head between her legs during the night. After their first…talk…he’d woken her twice more, taking his time to wring any number of orgasms from her—she’d stopped counting at four—to the two more she brought from him.
In sleep his features were comfortable and relaxed. Gone was the coiled tension he’d been filled with since she’d first met him. She’d been able to give him a few hours of escape, as he’d done for her.
But now it was morning.
Watching him, she slid to the side of the bed, dropped one foot, then the other, onto the floor and eased up to stand. She crept to where she’d thrown her clothes, grabbed them and then went into the adjoining bathroom. When she was dressed, she exited through the hallway door.
The house was silent as she made her way back to her own room to ready for the day.
The connecting bathroom door was open and when she peeked in, Rick’s room was empty, the bed made.
She hadn’t known he was an early riser.
After washing and dressing in fresh yoga pants and a T-shirt, the majority of the clothing style Kandy had packed for her, she went downstairs to see what she could make them all for breakfast.
From the kitchen, she heard the water from the downstairs’ shower go on.
So. He was awake.
Would he act any different toward her this morning? Would she? Gemma didn’t do mornings after for a reason. All the speculation, the overthinking, the analyzing of what had been shared the night before; what did it mean, if anything other than a slaking of a physical need. What it could mean if continued.
Ky was such a professional Gemma worried he’d be filled with regrets at sleeping with the person he was responsible for protecting. Knowing how seriously he took his job and having seen it for herself, she didn’t want him to feel sorry for what they’d shared during the night. She certainly didn’t.
