like one.” He brushed his thumb across her cheek again. “Get some sleep.”
She glanced toward the darkened bedroom and back up at him. She didn’t want to return to her nightmares. “Do you mind if I stay here until I go to sleep?”
“Again,” he waved his hand out to the side, “it’s your place.”
Sunny pulled her legs back beneath her, still clutching the pillow to her chest. She curled up in the corner of the couch, taking up less space than most people would and closed her eyes.
Dash headed for the back of the motorhome, grabbed a blanket from the bed and returned to cover Sunny’s legs.
“You can sit on the couch,” she said. “I don’t bite. Not much, anyway.”
“I will when I get tired,” he assured her.
She propped one eye open. “Will it help if I sing a lullaby?”
He shook his head. “I’m not a child.”
“You’re never too old for a lullaby,” she said with a yawn.
“Go to sleep, Sunny.”
Her eyelids drooped and closed, and her breathing became deeper until most thoughts and worries faded into the abyss of sleep. The image of Dash standing in her motor coach was the last one on her mind, calming at the same time as it excited her.
Dash paced the living room and down the hallway to the bedroom and back. What had he gotten himself into?
This woman was more than just a security assignment. She was a reminder of everything he missed in his life.
Dash and his sister, Briana, had experienced the storybook family life with a mother and father to come home to. His reluctance to start a family of his own was based on that exact life. He didn’t want to subject a wife and children to anything less than what he’d had growing up.
His parents had set the bar, and he wanted to live up to it. If he couldn’t provide that now, then he wouldn’t marry and have children until he could. It wouldn’t be fair to a women to get her pregnant and leave her to shoulder the entire burden of raising a child or children.
As a Delta Force operative, he wouldn’t be there to provide his share of parenting. He didn’t blame the women who divorced his teammates. They wanted men who were partners in raising a family. Delta Force soldiers couldn’t always be there. They were married to the military, and that job came first.
Bottom line, he hadn’t married because he couldn’t give a woman and children the storybook family he’d been blessed to have.
When, and if, he decided to marry and have children, he’d have to make that tough decision to give up the military and Delta Force, a team of men he’d grown to love like brothers.
And when he did marry, he wanted a woman as kind and caring as Sunny. Hell, he’d love that woman to be Sunny.
Who was he kidding? Sunny wouldn’t be interested in a man like him. She was a celebrity. She was so far out of his league he couldn’t begin to compete with all the men she had to choose from.
He was there to protect her life, not to become a part of it.
Eventually, he settled on the couch beside her, kicked his feet up on an ottoman and leaned his head back. He’d rest his eyes a little. It wouldn’t be long before the caravan of coaches had to leave for their next stop. He’d need to keep awake and alert on the move.
Dash must have fallen asleep. When he woke, a warm body was snuggled up against him, an arm thrown across his chest. Sometime in the early morning hours, she must have rolled over, seeking comfort.
He liked the way her body felt next to his and the smell of the shampoo she’d used in her hair. He could get used to waking up beside this woman.
It would never happen.
Sunny wasn’t the woman for him. Between their two careers, they’d never see each other. She’d be on tour. He’d be deployed. Children would be out of the question. Who would take care of them? Neither one of them had the time.
He almost laughed out loud at his musings. It wasn’t like Sunny Daye would have any interest in him whatsoever.
Carefully, he extricated himself from beneath her arm and stood. Once Dash was off the couch, Sunny stretched out, taking up the length of the sofa.
Dash tucked the blanket around her and turned.
A soft knock at the door captured his attention. He reached for the