Head Hunter (City Shifters the Pack #3) - Layla Nash Page 0,62

around me and held my arms down, and a weight moved over my legs. I kicked and fought, sobbing for breath, but the weight didn’t budge.

“Persephone.”

The voice tried to drag me out of there, tried to pull me out of the water, but I was too deep. Too stuck. I hardly heard it. And it felt like a cruel tease, a lifesaver tossed negligently into the water too far away to reach.

“Baby, wake up.”

Tears burned my eyes. It was too late. Too late. The alligators were too close, the water too deep. I stopped struggling, ready to give up. I was so tired of fighting.

Then something soft and warm brushed my lips. Some of the panic receded. The touch returned, still gentle but more insistent, and feathered kisses across my mouth and cheek and then behind my ear. I exhaled. Turned toward the reassuring caress. Felt like someone finally bailed water out of the boat and I stood a chance of surviving.

“There we go,” he murmured, and something tight in my chest eased. Dodge.

Dodge would save me. He had saved me.

I dragged myself out of the dream as he kissed me again, and I turned fully toward him. I didn’t open my eyes; it was safer to linger in the darkness of half-awake, half-asleep.

Dodge kissed the corner of my mouth and I nuzzled toward him, wanting more. He evaded and kissed my cheek, but by the time I moved to intercept his lips, he’d turned his attention to my throat. My arms linked around his neck, wanting to hold him close, and he chuckled. Dodge bumped his nose against mine and said, “Gotta open your eyes, baby.”

“Don’t want to,” I said, sighing.

His body moved next to me, and I realized his leg had been thrown over my thighs while I struggled with the nightmare. His elbows pressed into the mattress on either side of my chest; I could feel the weight of his chest against mine, though it was comforting more than overwhelming.

Dodge made a grumbly growly noise that ignited heat low in my stomach, and he nuzzled behind my ear, nipping at my earlobe and all down my throat. “Gotta. I want to see your eyes.”

It seemed a small price to pay, even though my stomach squirmed with nerves. If I opened my eyes, it meant I was really awake and really in bed and canoodling with the most handsome and intimidating man I’d ever met in my life. What if he ran away again?

Granted, the weight of his hips against mine made it clear he was interested in staying. But I’d thought the same thing the night before and been dead wrong.

So I cracked one eye open and caught his gaze reflecting back at me from very close. The only light in the room came from a dim lamp across the room, leaving everything in deep shadows; the window let in only darkness around the curtains. Apparently I’d slept the rest of the afternoon and into the night.

“Halfway there,” Dodge murmured, and kissed my bottom lip.

I arched against him, stretching and relaxing under his weight, and his hips shifted until his knee pressed into the mattress between mine. I tilted my head back so he could reach more of my throat and down to my shoulder. “You sure you’re going to stay?”

He hesitated long enough that I opened both eyes and gazed at him in the near-dark. He didn’t move away but he didn’t give me the enthusiastic confirmation I’d wanted to hear. I studied his face and ran my nails through his beard.

Dodge exhaled and his hand slid into my hair, cradling my head so he could tilt me how he wanted to kiss more of me. I surrendered as he ignited a fire in my blood and low in my stomach. He grumbled and his other hand slid down to grab my hip, squeezing my ass. I was suddenly cognizant that I only wore panties.

He pulled back and trailed kisses down my throat to where my shirt gapped at the throat. “Here’s the thing.”

My chest tightened and I braced for more rejection, the admission that he was only distracting me so I’d go along with whatever plan they came up with. I swallowed the knot in my throat and let my arms fall to the mattress.

The corner of his mouth turned up and he reached down to pick up my hand and place it on his back. “I’m a cynical old dude, Persephone. I spent most