"I'm not some brainless twit who needs coddling, Decker. She's my sister. You should have woken me up," Dani snapped, and then added with frustration, "It's not your place to save me worry. The phone could have been fixed by now, Nicholas could have called, and we could have Stephanie back safe and sound. Instead she's out there God knows where having God knows what done to her... if she's still alive," she added bitterly.
"Dani, I'm sorry, but he won't call," he repeated solemnly.
"You don't know that. And I'm sorry doesn't get my sister back, does it?" she asked, shaking his hand off and moving out of the kitchen. She headed up the hall and then took the stairs to the second floor, aware that he was following, but trying to ignore that fact. It was hard to ignore it when she walked into her room and tried to close the door behind her, only to have him stop her.
Dani glared at him briefly and then shook her head wearily and said, "Go away, Decker. I need time to think."
He ran a weary hand through his hair as he followed her into the room. "I can't."
She hadn't forgotten Lucian's order that he keep an eye on her, and Dani was too weary to argue with him, so she glanced around in search of an escape. Her eyes settled on the door to the bathroom. "Then stay. But I'm going to take a bath. I trust you don't have to be in there with me?"
"No, that's fine," Decker said in subdued tones.
Nodding, she crossed to the door and slid into the bathroom. Dani closed the door, but rather than start running a bath, leaned back against the panel of wood and lowered her head briefly. She'd only just woken up a short while ago, but felt as if she hadn't slept at all. The morning's events had been terribly draining, and all she wanted to do was curl up on the floor, go to sleep, and not wake up until Stephanie was back safe and sound.
Her lips twisted at the thought. That was exactly what Decker had hoped to do for her by keeping her asleep last night and she was mad at him for it. She supposed it wasn't really what she wanted at all. What she really wanted was to get Stephanie back right then, whether she was alive or dead. Obviously, she would prefer to have her back alive, but if the rogue had already killed Stephanie, then it was better to know now than to suffer the agony and anxiety of bouncing between hope and fear as she was. That, she found, was unbearable.
But you don't always get what you want, Dani told herself grimly, and forced herself away from the door to start running a bath.
She had pushed the button to drop the stopper and turned on the taps to start the water running when a knock sounded at the door. It made her scowl.
Knowing it was Decker, she was about to tell him to go away when he said, "Dani? I fetched you some soap and towels."
She blinked in surprise at the words, glancing around to see that while the small hand towel and bar of soap she'd used that morning were there, they were the only things that were, besides toilet paper. There were no towels hung over the rack, no washcloths either, and no soap by the tub. A quick search of the cupboards proved that those were completely empty.
"Dani?" There was concern in his voice now at her silence.
Grimacing at the realization that she'd have to answer the door after all, Dani called, "It isn't locked."
There was a pause and then the door opened. Decker entered, a stack of towels and various other things in hand. He eyed her warily, and then moved to the counter, explaining, "I guess Bastien didn't think to purchase things like this for the house, but Sam ran out to the twenty-four-hour drugstore last night and picked up a few sundries and then swung by her apartment for the towels. I didn't remember until you came in here or I would have mentioned it so that you could choose what you needed yourself." Decker set the items down and added, "If there's anything I didn't think of, let me know and I'll get it for you."
Dani's face softened at the thoughtful gesture, but she only murmured, "Thank you" as he turned to move back out of the room. She stood there for a moment after he left, part of her wanting to go out and say something to end this awkwardness between them, but she had no idea what to say. He'd been wrong to keep her asleep, even if it had been with good intentions. Decker hadn't set out to hurt her, and it had been sweet in a way, but...
Dani shook her head and glanced to the tub to find that it was already half full. She moved to the counter to collect the bubble bath, one of the sundries he'd brought her. She poured a generous amount into the tub and began to strip.
The water was warm and inviting when Dani stepped into it. She eased slowly to sit, sighing as the water and bubbles enveloped her. She reclined back in the tub and closed her eyes, hoping the warm, bubble-filled water would soak away some of her tension and worries, but knowing it wouldn't.
The sound of rushing water died and Decker stopped pacing the bedroom to peer toward the bathroom door, very aware that his Dani was on the other side of it. His life mate... who presently hated his guts, he thought grimly. It was a depressing thought! Decker knew he hadn't done much right since meeting her. First there had been that stupid CSIS business, and then biting her, and now he felt as if he'd personally failed her by not saving Stephanie. Intellectually, Decker knew that there was nothing he could have done, but that didn't stop him from feeling responsible. And it wasn't even the reason she was angry with him at the moment. It was his having Justin control her to make her sleep. That had seriously pissed her off.
I'm not some brainless twit who needs coddling. She's my sister, You should have woken me up. It's not your place to save me worry. Her words ran through his head, and Decker scowled at the bathroom door. Of course it was his place. She was his life mate.
Irritated now, he glanced around for somewhere to sit, but the only piece of furniture in the room was the bed. Decker moved to it and dropped to lie flat, his legs crossing at the ankles and hands resting on his stomach as he listened for sounds from the next room.
Was she in the tub yet or just now undressing? He wondered and wasn't terribly surprised when his thoughts immediately moved south, producing an image of her tugging her T-shirt off over her head and letting it drop to the floor as her hands moved around to her back and rose to undo the clasps of her bra.
Decker could still recall the silky feel of it as he'd tugged it away from her breast to touch her warm skin. He remembered the smell of her too and savored the memory as what she might be doing continued to play in his head, and she allowed the bra to glide down her arms and slip to rest on her T-shirt. In his imaginings, Dani then paused to twist her hair up on the back of her head so that only little wisps hung around her face. That done, she reached for the button of her shorts. Those shimmied to the floor the moment they were undone, and she stepped out of them, then slipped her thumbs beneath the elastic on either side of her panties and drew them slowly, lovingly, down over her hips, thighs, and knees until she could step out of them one foot at a time. They fluttered to the bath mat as Dani stepped carefully and oh so slowly into a tub full of bubbles.
A little moan of disappointment slipped from Decker's lips as the water and bubbles embraced his dream Dani, hiding her from view. He grimaced at the ceiling, telling himself that she was his life mate and it would all work out. The day would come when he would simply walk in there while she reclined in the bath. She'd smile at him welcomingly and crook her finger to bring him to the side of the tub, then reach out to run her hand slowly up his leg before slipping it around to caress him through the cloth of his jeans and ask, "Care to join me? The tub's big enough for two."
"Oh yeah," Decker breathed aloud as his Dani sat up and reached for the button of his jeans. She unsnapped it with a hand that had bubbles clinging to it, and then raised her eyes to watch his face as she drew the zipper down in a leisurely fashion. He pushed his jeans off his hips the moment she'd finished, letting them pool around his ankles, and she reached down to help him step out of them, then turned her attention to his boxers. Dani pulled those down much more slowly than he had his jeans. The elastic waistband got caught on his emerging erection so that she had to lift it over his shaft. A smile played about her lips, and she leaned forward to press a kiss to the tip before helping him to step out of those too.
Dani raised her head to peer up at him then, her eyes just skittering over what she'd revealed as she murmured, "Your shirt."
Decker reached to tug that up over his head. The moment his face was enshrouded in the soft cloth and he couldn't see what she was doing, Dani caught his erection in a suddenly soapy hand and squeezed gently as she ran her fingers along its length.
Shuddering at the explosion of desire that shot through him, Decker ripped the shirt off to toss it over his shoulder and then urged her hand away and stepped up to the top of the tub. Dani scooted forward, leaving room for him behind her as he stepped into the water. Decker sat down behind her, the warm water sliding over his skin like a caress as he settled, then Dani eased back to sit between his spread legs, and reclined to rest against his chest.
"I was waiting for you," she murmured, running her hands along his outer thighs under the water.