Niko(Love Me Harder #2)(15)
She nodded her head, seeing those claws coming for her. Real bad dream. He turned his back to her. It seemed a little too late, but she still appreciated the gesture.
She dried off and dressed quickly. “What now?”
“Now we sleep, unless you had something else in mind.”
She shook her head. “Sleep sounds good. I am exhausted. Which guest room would you like me to take?”
He smiled at her. “You will be sleeping in here with me.”
“Now we have a problem.”
He stood quietly and waited.
“I always sleep alone.”
He raked her from head to foot before meeting her eyes.
She blushed. “When I sleep, I always sleep alone. I go home, I go to a guest room, but I sleep alone.”
“Tonight you sleep in here and you will not be alone.”
“Where can I go? The doors are locked tight. I am sure the windows are too. I am just asking for some privacy to be able to sleep.”
“No. You sleep here or sit up the rest of the night. Either way, it will be in this room.”
“You know what?” She glared at him, “You’re mean.”
His lips twitched, then a smile spread and finally laughter rocked his body. She honestly wanted to keep glaring, but all she could see was that playback of herself calling him mean. Before she knew it, she was laughing too.
“So am I going to wake up to find you crammed inside of me?”
“Kitten, when I enter you, you will know it.”
Promises, promises she mumbled under her breath. The bed did look cozy and she did have to sleep somewhere.
She skirted around the bed until she came to the other side. “This isn’t your side is it?”
He shook his head and she got in, laying stiff, as she wondered what was next. He went around and turned off the lights before she heard the soft rustle of clothes. He was undressing. She clenched her fists and waited.
He grabbed something and began pulling it on. Night pants? She let out an audible breath of air. She had believed she could trust him, but now she had proof.
“Dee, go to sleep. You need the rest.”
“How do I sleep? How do I close my eyes and get rest when all I can see is a nightmare?”
“Why don’t you start by telling me about it?”
She took her hand and rubbed her face, knowing she had been holding it in for months. What would it hurt?
“I was supposed to stay with Rena and Aran, but I didn’t want too. Rena was so hurt, but I knew they needed time alone to become a couple. I was a third wheel, so I left. She warned me that I might be a target and begged me to stay. Funny, my paranoia didn’t kick in until it was too late. I just needed space.”
She lay in the bed remembering the cloying need to get out, to be alone.
“I went home and everything was good. I spent the day just hanging out at my place until the walls started closing in on me. That’s when I decided to go to the store. I needed something, coffee. I needed coffee, but I was trying to stop giving SB’s, the local coffee shop, all of my money.”
She hadn’t even thought about Rena’s warning, grabbing her keys, she got into her car and hit the local grocery store. While there, she had flirted with a few guys, grabbed the coffee and creamer. Creamer was one of her guilty pleasures. Then she had headed back home.
“I had parked in my assigned spot, when I thought I heard a low moan. Then I heard a desperate voice begging for help. ‘My wife has passed out someone help please. She’s pregnant. I have to get her to a hospital.’ I never thought about it. I rushed over to help, only to find out it was a trap.”
Her body shivered just a little and her voice was expressionless as she told her story.
“He caught me so easily. Me the prepared one. I guess my mind was on other things. He stuffed me into the car, leaving my good coffee and creamer on the ground. I sort of thought it was a joke at first because, I could tell I knew him or at least knew of him. I was blindfolded and bound. Next thing I knew, I am tied to a chair and the blindfold was gone. He left me. He left me alone with a maniac.”
“The maniac was the one at the park or the one at the bank?” Niko had been there for her at the bank and from what Rena had told her all the brothers had rescued her from the park.
“Neither. He was something totally different from either of those two. I had never seen him before and to be honest, I didn’t see him this time. All I got was shadows. Frightening shadows that haunt my dreams. They stalk me at night.”
“Was there anything you could see about him?”
She shook her head yes, rubbing her arms as if the temperature had dropped. Her body shook as fear clouded her eyes.
“Tell me.”