Under Fire (Love Over Duty #1)(36)

Once inside, he bolted the door and moved to set the alarm. What the hell was the Fibonacci sequence anyway? He pulled out his phone and looked it up. Typical. Some sort of mathematical formula that appeared a lot in nature. It was actually kind of interesting. While he had his phone in hand, he dropped Cabe a text. The guy was on the hook for pickup of the hostage retrieval, but he'd feel better if at least one more person outside of the police knew what had happened to Louisa.

With his bag over his shoulder, Six walked back up the stairs. It would be safer for them both if they slept in the same room, just for tonight, but as Louisa hadn't been awake long enough to ask if she'd be cool with his sleeping on the bed next to her, he decided to set up on the floor by the door. He stripped the bed in the spare room of its bedding and wandered back into Louisa's room. She was still lying exactly where he'd left her.

Once the door was locked, he made up his bed. Most people would hate the idea of sleeping on the floor, but Six could quite literally fall asleep anywhere. He'd fallen asleep standing up during Hell Week and on missions when he'd sometimes had no choice other than to catch an hour of sleep with his body on the cold, wet ground. So a spongy carpet, some ridiculously soft bedding, and a couple of thick pillows would be a massive improvement.

He stripped off his hoodie and put his T-shirt back on. While he was 99.9 percent certain that the men wouldn't be back tonight, he wasn't going to risk sleeping without his clothes or boots. Hand-to-hand combat performed while naked was always a miserable experience.

Six turned off all the lights and looked over to the bed where he could see the comforter rise and fall with Louisa's breath. There was so much she was going to have to deal with, and he prayed she'd get a good night's sleep.

"Good night, Lou," he said softly, and closed his eyes.





CHAPTER SIX

Why had somebody turned the lights on? It was still the middle of the night, and Louisa had been sound asleep until the brightness on the other side of her eyelids had penetrated her slumber.

She rolled over and pulled the comforter over her head, reveling in the warmth and darkness. With a large yawn, she attempted to open her eyes, but the urge to stay asleep won the battle. Until she remembered that she lived alone, and that men had broken into her house the previous evening. She threw back the comforter and sat up straight. Her head spun at the sudden movement, and she struggled to open her eyes, finding the world to be a blurry mess.



       
         
       
        

As her heart pounded in her chest, she tried to make sense of what had happened. The men had broken in, but Six had saved her. If nothing else, she would find a way to thank him. Louisa shook her head one more time to clear the grogginess and looked around the bedroom. The curtains were wide open, letting in a blaze of sunlight. And a pile of neatly folded blankets sat on the floor next to the door, which was slightly ajar. Six must have stayed the night to look after her. The thought sent an excited shiver through her and cut through her panic. He'd protected her. Her own personal hero. It was all kinds of wrong to think of him that way because-she stopped the thought. Maybe his gentle touches were a little more than friendly, but he was a flirtatious kind of guy, and it struck her that he was simply a friend who had decided to help her out.

She tilted her head to see if she could hear any sounds of him still in the house. Quietly, she got out of bed and wandered to the landing. It sounded like water was running in the guest bathroom, and she wondered what excuse she could concoct to accidentally walk in there. The thought of Six, naked, likely covered in suds, forced her thoughts from fear to arousal.

Uncertain what to do with the mash-up of feelings coursing through her, she hurried into her own bathroom. She didn't know whether to be offended or relieved to find out that she hadn't slept in her bra. The idea that Six might have seen her breasts was as exciting as it was horrifying. Louisa placed her dirty clothes in the laundry basket and quickly ran through her own morning routine.

Once she'd showered and dried her hair, she threw on a little mascara and gloss, unusual for her in her day-to-day life. It was a foolish gesture on her part, she knew it, but for some reason it seemed important to convey the fact that she was back in control and not likely to fall apart again like she had the previous evening. Today was about making plans. She wondered if she could hire somebody from Six's company, Eagle Securities, to go with her for the day. If last night's break-in and the sample were connected, she wouldn't feel particularly safe otherwise.