Protector(38)

He said calmly, “Good night, Caitlin.”

“Good night, Alex.” She sounded far more composed now, although there was a tension in her voice that indicated she wasn’t quite as relaxed as she would have liked him to think. Well, he couldn’t blame her for that. They’d just met this afternoon, and now she was here in his bed….

Sleeping, he told himself. Only sleeping. At the moment, he was just glad he’d bought a king-size bed when he moved to this house. That put some nice, safe real estate between him and the body he’d been trying hard not to ogle a few minutes earlier.

He reached over and turned off the light. Darkness immediately surrounded them, save for the faint reflected glow of the nightlight in the en suite bathroom. Caitlin was lying so still that he could almost convince himself she wasn’t there at all.

But he knew better.





8





Caitlin opened her eyes and blinked up at the ceiling fan above her head. It was off, the air against her face cool enough that a fan wasn’t needed. For a second, she couldn’t figure out where she was. The condo she’d rented with Danica and Roslyn?

Then she felt the bed shift slightly, and she looked over to her right, saw Alex Trujillo’s dark head on the pillow next to her. Well, okay, not right next to her; the bed was large, and he was on his side, facing away from her. She could see the smooth golden-brown skin of his shoulders and back, underlaid with an impressive amount of muscle.

It all came back to her — the warlocks, the kidnapping. How she’d ended up here, in Alex’s house. In his bed.

Nothing happened, she told herself. It was true. Nothing had happened. That didn’t make the current situation any less awkward.

“Good morning,” she said, since she could tell he was awake.

He turned toward her, propping himself up on his elbow. The fine lines of his jaw were now covered with dark stubble, and his hair was sticking out every which way, and he looked freaking gorgeous. “Did you sleep well?” he asked.

“Fine,” she managed.

“No more visions?”

She shook her head, hoping she looked as adorably rumpled as he did, and guessing she probably didn’t. Oh, well. “Nothing.”

“That has to be a relief.” His expression was sympathetic. “At least you were able to get some rest.”

Yes, she had, although it had taken her what felt like forever to fall asleep, knowing that Alex was in bed with her, that all she had to do was reach out and…what? Pull him to her? That was insane. But once she’d heard his breaths deepen as he slept, she’d allowed herself to relax, to drift off, until eventually slumber had claimed her as well. It hadn’t been easy, however.

“You want some coffee?” he asked, sitting up.

It was hard not to stare at his exposed chest, even though she’d gotten an eyeful of it the night before. Then again, it was a lot brighter this morning, even though all the blinds in the bedroom were still shut. “I don’t really drink coffee,” she confessed. “Do you have any tea?”

He shook his head, but brightened a little as something appeared to occur to him. “I have a jug of iced tea from Trader Joe’s in the fridge. Will that work?”

It would have to. She’d rather start off the day with a hot drink, but better some kind of caffeine than none at all. “Sure.”

After pushing back the covers, he got up and promptly disappeared through a door in the sitting area off the bathroom. Apparently, that led to some sort of walk-in closet, because he came back out a minute later in a pair of faded jeans and a University of Arizona T-shirt. Much better. At least now his face would be the only thing distracting her.

“Is that where you went?” she asked, sliding out of bed as well. The clothes she’d slept in covered everything, more or less, but they also didn’t hide much. And crossing her arms over her chest would be way too obvious. Tone casual, she added, “U of A?”

“Yeah,” he replied, and, thank the Goddess, his eyes were on her face and didn’t seem inclined to move any lower.

“Did you like it?”

He shrugged. “It was okay. I graduated, which is the important thing, I guess.”

His attitude puzzled her. She’d been overjoyed at the prospect of finishing up college at Northern Pines, since it meant she could get a real degree from a real four-year university, something that had been denied the McAllister clan until the recent truce with the Wilcoxes. And here Alex had grown up in the town that had the best school in the state, and was acting as if it was no big deal.

“What did you major in?”

“Double major. Marketing and communications.” Something in his expression told her he really didn’t want to talk about it. He picked up the iPhone that had been sitting on his nightstand, then asked, “You ready for that tea?”