ended up doing nothing, just staring at her bowed head. He was frustrated he couldn’t get the truth out of her and was worried he was not helping her concussion by bringing on emotional stress. If the physical pain in his chest was a prelude to what this unfinished business between them was going to bring, he could only imagine what she was feeling in her concussed state.
He didn’t want that for her.
Even after all the hurt they’d caused each other, he still hurt when she did.
“I’ll help you pack, okay?” he said quietly. “Just tell me what clothes you want to bring. And don’t fucking move.”
“Were you always this bossy?” she grumbled, toeing off her shoes as she scooted back to the headboard, leaning against it. Her eyes drooped.
“Do you need to take any meds?”
“I’m good until morning. That damned Bristow shot me up with something,” her voice slurred.
“I was there. He didn’t. It’s the concussion.” He glanced at the columns of clothes in the closet. “Where are your lounge clothes?”
“Drawers on the left.”
“Underwear?”
“Same. Don’t forget to pack pants and shirts. Hanging right in front of you.”
“You’re taking it easy remember?”
Gabby yawned. “Bristow exaggerates. I’m fine.”
“Uh-huh. You know, you are kind of loopy right now, right?”
“So tired.” She closed her eyes.
“Gabby.”
No response.
“Gabby!”
Her eyes shot open and she sat forward. “What?”
“I need to wake you up every hour.”
She huffed. “Okay.”
“It’s probably better to head out tomorrow morning. I’ll lock up.”
“You’re not sleeping with me.”
Declan didn’t respond. She was out of it and she fell sideways smack into her pillow, burrowing her face into it. He slipped out his phone and shot a text off to Levi, informing him of the change of plans. He pulled the suitcase off the bed. He could pack tomorrow.
He stood there staring at his ex-wife, looking so peaceful with a hand tucked under her cheek. His lungs felt raw and his ticker was doing double time with the nameless emotions coursing through him. The ache in his chest felt new yet vaguely familiar.
“What happened to us?” Declan whispered. When Gabby shifted and a groan escaped her lips, he forced himself to move so he could get her more comfortable. He picked the least revealing pajamas, but she still seemed to favor her sleeping shorts.
He glanced back at her sleeping form. Maybe, she was fine the way she was?
What are you afraid of, Roarke? Can’t handle your ex-wife naked?
Dropping the sleepwear on the mattress, he tried to be as clinical as possible as he repositioned her on the bed. However, the second his fingers undid the first button of her top, feelings from the past reverberated in the present. Of how he felt when he cared for her when she was so tired from a week of filming.
Fuck.
His fingers shook as he unbuttoned her shirt and pulled it out from her damned gray pants. He sucked in his breath at the swell of her breasts. They were fuller than he remembered.
He quickly slipped her tee over her bare skin and dragged her pants over her hips more slowly so as not to wake her. Gabby was dead to the world, and here he was, sweat beading his forehead with the simple task of undressing her.
Her body had changed, and it was obvious she took care of it by lifting weights. And it seemed she went heavy, judging from her shapely, toned thighs, and firm ass. And she mustn’t have been kidding when she told Levi that she knew kung-fu, even when it sounded tongue-in-cheek.
His ex-wife was hot as fuck underneath her starched clothes. But more than the physical chemistry that was still apparent between them, he didn’t know what to do with these complicated emotions—scratch that—conflicting emotions that warred inside him.
Declan should despise her, but admiration was winning out, for Gabby forging her own path after they divorced, for taking on a male-dominated profession. And yet he was saddened at the colorless life outside her job if the contents of her house and her closet were his yardstick.
But was her life so different from his own?
She mumbled a protest when he moved her under the covers. Heading out to the living room to pick up his duffle, he made sure everything was locked up for the night. Levi responded that Captain Mitchell ordered extra patrols in her neighborhood anyway, and whoever attacked them would be thinking twice about striking again so soon.
Declan took a quick shower, put on athletic shorts, and threw on a tee which