HER BODYGUARD

She’d sentenced herself to lying here for the rest of the night, hot and needy and obsessing about whether she was the only one suffering. But some time during the next hour, she drifted off to sleep. And some time later, a low, choking sound woke her again.

Alarmed by the sound of distress, Kimberly pressed her back against the mattress, trying to figure out where she was and why.

It was dark, with only a narrow shaft of light coming in between the curtains, and it took a moment for her fogged brain to remember that she was in a hotel room bed-and why there was a man lying next to her.

His body jerked, and she shifted toward him. “Asher?” she called softly.

He didn’t answer. He appeared to be asleep. But his head moved from side to side on the pillow, and she knew that he was in the grip of a nightmare. She knew because she’d been there.

“It’s all right. Asher, wake up.” she said.

When he didn’t answer, she slid over and laid a hand on his warm, muscular shoulder.

She knew immediately that she’d made a big mistake. He was still in the grip of a nightmare, but he reacted instantly. Flipping her to her back, he came down heavily on top of her, his big body pressing hers into the mattress.

Instinctively, she flailed against the weight of his chest pressed to hers. At the same time, she tried to let him know where he was and whom he was with.

“Asher! It’s Kimberly! We’re in a hotel room. Please…Asher, wake up, you’re scaring me,” she gasped.

One minute he was on top of her. In the next, his weight lifted. But she sensed him hovering over her, looking down at her in the darkness.

“Kimberly. Kim, I’m so sorry. Are you all right?” he said.

“Yes. But you…frightened me.” Kimberly replied.

“Oh, Christ! I’m so sorry,” he repeated, his voice raw, and she knew he hated what he’d just done.

“What happened?” she asked, making an effort to speak normally.

He heaved a sigh. “The guy. The kidnapper. I was trying to stop him from getting away. Then you woke me up-only he wasn’t here. And you were.” he said.

He turned on the light beside the bed. Although the bulb was low, they both blinked in the sudden illumination.

“You mean the man who kidnapped your friend?” she asked.

“Yeah. I guess what happened tonight brought it all back. I was dreaming about him, but it was all mixed up. In the dream he’d kidnapped you, and I was frantic to find you.” he explained.

“Oh,” she breathed, thinking about how she’d figured into the bad dream.

“Then I did. He and I were fighting. Only you were in the wrong place at the wrong time. Here in bed with me, to be exact. And I was going after you-not him.” he said.

The look of remorse clouding his features and the anguish in his voice tore at her. Her fingers stroked up and down his arm, but he pulled away from her and flopped to his back, pressing his hand to his forehead.Property © NôvelDrama.Org.

“I’m dangerous,” he muttered.

“No.” Kimberly said.

“What do you mean-no? I attacked you.”

“Well, you started to. But you didn’t do any damage. You stopped as soon as you knew it was me.”

“Thank God!” He turned his head toward her. “Why aren’t you climbing out of this bed and running screaming in the other direction?” he asked.

“Because I know you’re a good man, Asher Adams-whether you want to admit it or not.” she said.

“Oh yeah, how do you know?”

“Because I’m a good judge of character.” she said and smiled. “At least I like to think that I am. And all you have done since we met is try to protect me, even when I was a jerk sometimes”

He made a dismissive sound. “Sure you are not just saying that to make me feel better?” he asked.

Kimberly smiled. She hoped the light wasn’t bright enough to reveal the stain that spread across her cheeks. “No, I’m not just saying it,” she said. “You have protected me since we met. Even if you were doing your job. You did it right, and I’m safe right now because of you. That makes you a good man”

“You’ve sure changed your tune,” he said.

It sounded like he was determined to make her say something negative about him. If so, he was going to be disappointed. Into the darkened bedroom, she said, “If you were an insensitive jerk, you wouldn’t be having nightmares about your friend’s kidnapping. You would have gotten over it.”

He snorted. “Yeah right.”

She realized that words weren’t going to make him feel better. He had an answer for every argument she put forth. Stretching out her arm, she found his hand and clasped it. That was the only place they touched, just a few inches of his warm skin against hers, yet she felt as though she’d bridged a continental gulf.

Neither of them spoke. There were so many things she wanted to say, but she didn’t think he’d believe her. He’d been through a terrible experience. People were shaped by the things that happened to them. He’d been hurt and felt scared and guilty.

She was sure she could help him…. Somehow. If he would let her. Which she knew wasn’t a sure thing.

But that wasn’t her only motivation. There was something for her here, too.

She sensed that he could help her.. Protect her. They hadn’t known each other long. Still, there was something about her relationship with him that was different from any man she’d met before in her life. Was it because he was the most frankly sexual man she’d ever been with?

She sighed. Or because she found him so appealing? They hadn’t really talked about relationships. Well, they seemed to have one. And she wanted to explore that. She wanted to find out what they meant to each other and what they might mean. But she wasn’t sure he wanted the same thing. For now she lay with him in bed, their fingers barely touching.

It was such a minimal contact, yet she sensed its importance-to both of them.