Liar (Madison Kate #2)(98)

He got in with me, too, but kept his boxers on and just gently washed me with my soap and shampooed my hair for me. I sighed under his caring touches, and by the time he’d bundled me up in towels and carried me to my bed I was almost asleep.

"Babe, I need to get you dressed," he whispered to me, kissing my cheek sweetly and stroking his fingertips down my neck. "Can you sit up?"

"No," I mumbled. "I'm fine like this."

Like this was just wrapped in a damp towel with another around my hair. Oh well, that's what beds had blankets for, wasn't it?

Kody chuckled softly. "Okay, let me just take the wet towels, though." He rolled me over until he could whip the damp fabric out of my bed, then tucked my blankets in around me like I was a human burrito. I wasn't even objecting; I just let it happen without offering any assistance whatsoever.

"I'm going to grab your hairbrush," he informed me with a kiss to my forehead. "I'll be right back."

I mumbled an incoherent response, but he was back again before I knew it. He lay on the bed beside me, gently brushing my wet, tangled hair with slow strokes, and I let myself drift back into sleep.

I was home. I was safe. That was all that mattered.

Murdering stalkers could go fuck themselves.





36





I don't know how long I slept for, but when I woke again, my whole room was dark and the warm place beside me where Kody had been lying was empty. Yawning, I sat up and pushed my hair off my face. It was dry, which told me it had to have been hours since I’d fallen asleep. My hair didn't dry quickly, that was for sure.

Something moved in the darkness of my room, and a small shriek escaped my throat before I could get a grip on myself. It was my fucking reflection. Just my reflection in the dark mirror above my dresser.

Fucking hell.

Footsteps thumped outside my room, and the door burst open, spilling warm, golden light into my bedroom along with a broad-shouldered man.

"What is it?" Archer demanded. "What happened? Are you okay?"

He kicked the door shut and crossed over to where I sat in a pile of blankets wearing nothing but my freshly washed and tangle-free hair to cover my nudity.

"I'm fine," I replied, feeling like a total fucking moron for screaming at my own goddamn reflection. "I just thought I saw something, but... I didn't."

Archer was barely listening to me, though, as he sat on the side of my bed and took my wrist in his hand to check my pulse. But I snatched my hand away and scowled at him.

"I'm fine, Archer. My pulse is racing because I just scared the shit out of myself when I saw my own reflection in the dark." It killed me to admit that to him, and the slow rise of his brow and twitch of his lips only made me scowl harder. "Yeah, fucking real funny. Asshole. What time is it anyway?"

"Uh, around two in the morning, I think," he replied in that low, husky voice of his. "Something like that."

I blinked a couple of times. I'd been asleep for almost fifteen hours.

"Kody needed to go and take care of something for me," he said, answering the needy question I hadn't wanted to actually ask out loud. "He should be back soon, though. Or I can go get Steele to stay with you?"

Sliding back down under my blankets and tucking them under my armpits, I sighed at the awkwardness in his voice. "Or you could just man up and stay with me yourself," I muttered, mostly under my breath.

He didn't reply for a moment, then shifted his position to peer down at me with a frown. "Would you want that?"

My voice dried up, and I felt like someone had just turned a spotlight on me. Crap. But still, it shouldn't have been a hard question. Not after everything we'd just gone through.

"Lie down or don't, D'Ath," I snapped instead. "Just quit hovering. You're making me anxious."

He huffed a short laugh, and I expected him to leave my room and get Steele to come in and cuddle me, holding me tight and reassuring me that I was safe with them.

But to my surprise, he just kicked off his jeans and crawled under my blankets in nothing but his boxer briefs and black T-shirt.

Oh shit. I'm naked under here!

He shifted around, beating one of my spare pillows into the shape he wanted, before eventually getting comfortable on his side facing me.

"Happy?" he asked, his voice a rough growl of frustration and amusement.

I couldn't help the smug-as-fuck smile spreading over my face. "Calm down, sunshine. You're just lying in bed with me. I'm not forcefully prying that bad-boy bullshit out of your personality with pliers."

"May as well be," he grumbled, but even in the darkness of my room, I could see the small smile playing across his lips. "Now shut up and sleep if that's what we're doing."

I let the subject drop, closing my eyes and trying really hard to let sleep reclaim me. But... it just wasn't so easy to fall back asleep after already sleeping for fifteen hours. Especially when there was someone else in the bed that I was all kinds of hyperaware of.

"Princess," Archer groaned when I shifted my position for about the thousandth time. "Stop fucking wriggling around." He reached out, hooking one of those big hands of his around my waist, and hauled me backward against his body.

We both fucking froze this time.