Beneath This Man(81)

'Mouth.' He laughs. 'I'm sorry. I really needed to see you before I go.'

I stiffen instantly at his words. Well, one word in particular; sorry. Shit! I had forgotten about his midnight meltdown. Well, not forgotten, it just hadn't landed in my morning brain yet.

'What's wrong?' He's sensed my sudden tenseness. He places me on the cool marble, but it doesn't shock me like it did the other morning. I'm too busy searching my brain for the best way to approach this.

'You woke up in the night.' I inform his concerned face.

'I did?' His brow furrows, and I don't know whether to be relieved or disappointed.

'You don't remember?' I ask tentatively.

'No.' he says on a shrug. 'What do you want for breakfast?' He leaves me on the counter and goes to the fridge. 'Eggs, bagel, fruit?'

Is that it? 'You said you need me.' I throw it in the air and hope he catches it.

He doesn't. He lets it drop straight to the floor and tramples all over it. 'And? I say that when I'm awake.' He doesn't even turn away from the fridge.

'You said you were sorry.' I place my hands under my thighs.

He turns around from the fridge. 'I've said that when I'm awake too.'

This is true, he's said it all when he's awake, but he was in such a state.

He smiles. 'Ava, I was probably having a bad dream. I don't remember.' He turns back to the fridge.

'You were just a bit frantic, I was worried.' I say timidly. It wasn't normal.

He shuts the fridge door, harder than is really necessary, and I immediately regret bringing this up. I'm not scared of him. I've seen him go off at the deep end plenty of times, but the way he is holding himself is making me wary. I don't want to start a fresh day on a quarrel. It was just sleep talk, after all.

He wanders over to me chewing his bottom lip, and I watch him with caution. When he reaches me, he muscles between my legs and takes my hands out from under my thighs, holding them between us and stroking the tops with his thumbs.

'Stop worrying about what I say in my sleep. Did I say I didn't love you?' he asks softy.

I feel my brow knit. 'No.'

His green eyes twinkle as one side of his mouth tips upwards at the corner. 'That's all that matters.' He plants a kiss on my forehead.

I pull away from his lips. Yes, actually, it does matter. He's doing it again. He's evading. 'That wasn't normal. And I'm getting pissed off hearing that tone.' I scowl, real hard, and he recoils in shock, his mouth gaping slightly, but I don't give him a chance to come back at me. 'You either talk, or I'm gone.'

His gaping mouth shuts, but he still doesn't speak. I've shocked him.

I raise cocky eyebrows at him. 'What's it to be?'

'You said you'd never leave me.' he says quietly.

'Okay. Let me rephrase that. I won't leave you if you start answering me when I ask you something. How about that?'

He's chewing his lip and staring at me, but I don't look away. I maintain the eye contact and keep a deadly serious face. His thumb strokes become firmer. 'It's not important.'

I laugh in disbelieve and make to move, but he moves in closer, hampering my attempts to get myself down from the counter. 'Jesse, I'll walk away.' I so won't, I know this.

'I dreamt you were gone.' He fires the words out quickly, almost panicky.

I stop with my struggle to free myself. 'What?'

'I dreamt I woke up, and you were gone.'

'Gone where?'

'I don't f*cking know,' He releases his grip of me and his hands plunge straight into his hair. 'I couldn't find you.'

'You dreamt I left you?'

His frown line is fierce. 'I don't know where you went. Just gone.'

'Oh.' I don't know what else to say. He won't look at me. He got himself in that state over me leaving him?

'It wasn't a nice dream, that's all.' He's embarrassed, and I suddenly feel a little guilty. This is a serious hang up.

'I'm not leaving you,' I try to reassure him, 'but we've got to talk. I have to torture information out of you, Jesse. It's exhausting.'

'I'm sorry.'

I reach forward and pull him back between my thighs. This is one of those moments - the ones where I'm the strong one. They are becoming more frequent as I'm working out this man. 'Have you had bad dreams before?'