Claiming Felicity (Ace Security #4)(35)

It smelled fresh and clean, as if she’d just done laundry. The scent of lilacs was, not surprisingly, stronger here than in the outer room. The riot of pastel colors around the area was calming. The quilt on the bed was thrown back, and Ryder wanted to run his hand over the obviously expensive pale-pink sheets on her bed to verify their softness. A softness he wanted under him as he held Felicity in his arms. It was quiet in her room as well; no sounds from the downtown square penetrated through the window high above the back alley. The only sense missing was that of taste, and Ryder knew that would be satisfied by Felicity herself. The taste of her lips against his, the perspiration of her skin as he ran his tongue over her body, and the ultimate pleasure of finding out what she tasted like as she came under his tongue.

He looked at the posters on the wall, the pictures on the dresser, the worn stuffed giraffe on the bed, the books on the floor. He took it all in, this time without having to worry whether or not Joseph Waters was lurking nearby. The difference between this room and the others in the apartment was shocking. While every other square inch was pristine, here in her room, chaos reigned.

Ryder smiled. He loved it. Every inch. This was the real Felicity. The mess here was exactly what he would’ve expected from someone as full of life as she was. He felt comfortable here. Relaxed.

His eyes came back to Felicity. She was biting her lip, and her brows were furrowed. Even as he watched, she chewed on her bottom lip uncertainly.

Not wanting her to stress for one more second about what he thought, Ryder quickly strode to the bed. He put a knee on the mattress, and she quickly scooted over. Without saying a word, he lay down and pulled her into his arms. He pulled up the sheet, which was just as soft and luxurious as it looked, and settled against the pillows.

At first, Felicity lay stiffly in his arms, her head resting on his shoulder, but as time passed, she slowly relaxed. Her arm tentatively moved across the black T-shirt over his belly to rest on his chest. She wiggled closer, getting comfortable. Then she finally sighed.

“Comfy?” he asked.

“Very.”

“Good.” He didn’t say anything else, letting her take the lead on their conversation. He had a million questions, but as he’d told her earlier, he wouldn’t push.

“I’m a slob,” she said after a minute had passed.

He chuckled. “Naw. If you had more furniture in here, you’d be able to put all your books away.”

Neither said anything else for a minute or so, then, as if she couldn’t resist, Felicity asked, “So? You haven’t said anything about my room. Don’t you want to know why it’s so different from the rest of my place?”

Ryder tightened the arm that was around her shoulders for a moment, then said, “I want to know anything you want to tell me. But you absolutely don’t have to explain this room to me.”

She lifted her head then. “I don’t?”

“Nope.”

“Why?”

“Because I can see the real you loud and clear when I look around this room.”

She put her head back on his shoulder. “And who is the real me? I’m not sure I even know anymore,” she said quietly, if not a little nervously.

“Underneath that badass exterior you try too hard to project is a hard-core science nerd. Who probably majored in math of some sort in college. Who loves a good sci-fi book. But along with that nerd is a woman who is a romantic at heart. From the flower posters on your wall to the soft pastel quilt on your bed. These sheets under us tell me that you’re a woman who likes to be comfortable. And the pictures of the ones you love scattered around your space tells me that you’d do anything for a friend. Even leave if it meant keeping her and her children safe.”

Ryder felt Felicity swallow several times as she tried to gain her composure. When she did finally talk, she blew him away with her strength.

“It was in college. My friend Colleen was dating Joseph. He was abusive—mentally and physically—but she refused to leave him. One night I called the cops when he was hurting her. When they arrived, Colleen denied anything was wrong. She refused to press charges, and since Joseph hadn’t hit her anywhere the cops could see, they were helpless to do anything.

“He was really upset that I dared to interfere and started to make my life a living hell. He planted drugs in my apartment, which got me kicked out as well as expelled from school before I could graduate. I lost a job with an engineering firm I had lined up. The charges for dealing drugs were eventually dropped. But he killed Colleen, then he did his best to frame me for it.

“I was eventually cleared because Colleen was found beaten to a pulp with both her legs and arms broken. The coroner determined that whoever killed her had to have been strong enough to overpower her and then snap her bones. Joseph literally beat her to death, Ryder. With his bare hands.” She shuddered and closed her eyes.

Ryder clenched his teeth to keep from swearing out loud. He didn’t want to do or say anything that would make Felicity stop talking so he could get as much information as possible to his handler and make Joseph Waters pay for every single thing he’d done to the woman in his arms. His woman. He had no doubts about that whatsoever.

She continued her tale. “I moved back home with my adoptive mom. She took me in when I was seven, and at first, I was so scared she’d send me away. But from the very first day, she told me I was staying. When I came to her after Colleen was killed, she was so scared for me. She was the one who encouraged me to leave. Told me that Joseph wasn’t going to stop coming after me. She even gave me what little savings she had to help me start a new life.”