When You Dare - Lori Foster [51]
Soon, when she returned to her normal routine, he would continue on with rescuing those in need, facing off with danger, and making a mint in the bargain. He was a high-stakes player…and she was the girl next door.
Dare squeezed her thigh. “Molly?”
“Oh, sorry.” She shook herself. This was no time to go meandering off mentally. “I was just… I’m better now. Thank you.”
“I’m glad to hear it. But the next time you feel that edginess coming on, don’t wait until it’s full-blown, okay? Just come to me. Let me help.”
Whatever tomorrow might bring, or next week or next month, she needed to get through tonight first. “Fine. I accept that I need time.” She would regain herself. Somehow, she would.
“That’s a start.” His hand stilled on her thigh. “What about tonight?”
“It’s almost over.” She tried to sound accepting instead of wretched. “But for what remains, may I sleep with you?”
“Yeah.” He turned a little toward her. “I’d like that.”
Relief robbed her spine of strength. Until he agreed, she hadn’t realized how tense she felt. “Thank you.”
“You don’t mind sharing with two hounds? Because the girls look settled in for the rest of the night.” He reached over to pat the dogs. “They usually favor the kitchen, but they sense you’re upset, I think, and they want to stay close.”
Somehow, Dare always took the most bizarre situations and made them feel…normal. Did nothing disconcert him?
“I don’t mind.” Given how being alone had thrown her, the more the merrier.
“Good.” He stood and reached out a hand to her. Molly let him pull her to her feet, and then she waited as he turned to the covers. “You won’t need this,” he said, and he took the quilt from her and tossed it to the foot of the bed, half over Tai, who didn’t stir.
Molly wore one of the big T-shirts and her panties, nothing else, but Dare paid no attention to that.
“In you go.”
Trying to be discreet, she crawled into the bed and then scooted over as Dare got in next to her. He turned out the bedside lamp, reached an arm around her and pulled her in close. Her head fit nicely into the space between his hard shoulder and his chest. Already his warmth penetrated her. She felt the prickly hair on his legs and the softer chest hair against her cheek.
She felt…at peace.
The soft kiss to her temple offered so much comfort.
“Okay?”
Molly nodded. “I guess if this was somehow…sexual, it’d be different. But I know it’s not, and that makes it—”
“Let’s try for a little more sleep before the sun comes up and the birds start singing. But Molly?”
Her heart pounded so hard, it was a wonder he didn’t mention it. “Yes?”
“If you need to, wake me.”
She’d try her best not to do that, but all she said was “Okay. Thank you.”
In that dark, quiet room, she could hear the dogs breathing, the wind outside the doors leading to a deck and the settling of an unfamiliar house.
Odd, but it felt more like home than anyplace she’d ever been.
HAIR STILL DAMP FROM his shower, carrying his shoes in one hand and his belt in the other, Dare came down the steps and across the hall. He paused by his bedroom door, heard nothing from inside and knew Molly still slept.
Sneaking out on her had been easy. Even when he’d gathered up the clothes he’d need and had ushered out the dogs, she hadn’t stirred. The sight of her there, crowded onto his side of the bed, her dark hair spilling out over the pillows, had moved him in unfamiliar ways.
He thought again of what she’d said, how holding her in his bed hadn’t been sexual.
For her.
For him, it equated to a true test of his control. All night he’d felt her warm breath on his skin, felt the softness of her thigh, her hair, her scent. Awareness of her body against his, separated only by a cotton T-shirt, had tortured him.
He wanted her. Bad. It had been all kinds of sexual for him.
Determined to do the right thing, Dare turned away from the bedroom door and went into the kitchen.
Looking like death, wearing only lounge pants and a wrinkled oversize white T-shirt, Chris slumped at the