He opened his mouth, and then she slammed her hand on top of it. “Shut it. I know the next thing that comes out of your mouth is just going to piss me off even more, and I don’t want to fight. This is important. We need to talk.”
He carefully pulled her hand away. “You need to get your ass in that bed where it’s warm, then we can talk.”
“Drake-” she began in her teacher's voice.
“Karen, I’m the second in command of my SEAL team. Guess who’s going to win this little battle of wills.” He watched her consider it, then turn toward the bed. Before she got there, he pulled back the covers. She eased into the bed, and he pulled up the comforter, ensuring she was snug. “Now tell me what’s on your mind.”
“Piper. I found her in her room throwing up.”
Drake’s gut clenched. Before he could turn away, Karen grabbed his wrist. “She’s okay now. It was nerves.”
“Are you sure? It could be the flu.”
Karen’s eyes were warm with reassurance. “She finally fell into an exhausted sleep a couple of hours ago. She hasn’t been sleeping. Can you do me a favor and go into her room and tell her you’re home and okay.”
“I shouldn’t wake her.”
“The reason she was throwing up is she was sure that you were going to get hurt, or worse, and it was all because of her.”
“She can’t possibly believe that,” Drake protested.
“She does. Go reassure her that you’re okay. She’ll sleep better.”
***
Karen watched as Drake left her room and turned off the lights. The moonlight coming through the bedroom window seemed inordinately bright. The comforter was scratchy. The air in the room seemed stuffy. Her ribs hurt like a son of a bitch, and it hurt to breathe. She so wasn’t going to get any sleep tonight.
“Fine, admit it.” Her voice sounded like a bass drum in the quiet room, and the words echoed in her mind.
Stupid, stupid, stupid. She actually had a master’s degree in education, but she was the most stupid woman on the face of the Earth. What the hell was she doing falling for a man who was so domineering, overbearing, and over-protective? She’d grown up with that type and had sworn to stay away from them, they were impossible to deal with. Then again, for her first time, she’d tried calm and malleable, and that had been a disaster.
She rolled over again, and banged her head against her pillow, then grinned. God, having him carry her, and worry if her feet were cold just gave her a zing of warmth in her girly parts. Hell, the man hadn’t even kissed her. Those eyes, that southern accent, those muscles. She sighed again. Then how he cared about his sisters. Lord, but he was such a man!
She rolled over and groaned, but she couldn’t tell if it was pain from the ribs or neediness. She had it bad.
She didn’t hear anything, but it was as if the stuffy air in the room shifted, moved, tendrils caressed her cheek warning her that she was no longer alone.
“I’ll leave if you want,” Drake said. She struggled to sit up.
“How’s Piper?” She soaked in the look of him.
“Good, she went right back asleep after I told her I was home safe.”
She waited.
“Are your feet warm?”
“I’m warm all over.” Did she just say that?
“I was both hoping you’d be asleep and hoping you wouldn’t. If you weren’t, then that meant you were probably in pain. You look pale.”
“It’s the moonlight.”
“Nope. When you’re pale with pain, your freckles are more noticeable.”
“Way to make a girl feel good about herself.”
He knelt on the bed, and reached out and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear.
“How about this, no matter how pale you get, your lips are still strawberry red and you biting them right now just makes them more swollen and kissable.”
It no longer hurt to breathe, because she was no longer breathing. She stared up into eyes so brown they were black. He looked like a fallen angel, and God help her, he could talk like one too.
“Drake, don’t start something you don’t mean. Now’s not the time, I’m too susceptible, and the timing sucks.”
His eyes darkened.
“You’re right, it does. But God, Karen, you were hitting all my buttons when you first showed up and then seeing those assholes hurting you today scared me to death.”
“Ha! You came in like a superhero, you showed no fear.”
“You’re kidding, right? When you stopped talking to me on the phone, I thought my heart would stop.”
She searched his eyes and saw that he wasn’t kidding.
“You don’t know me,” she protested. Praying he would disagree.