the threshold. He didn’t want to go. He couldn’t let her out of his sight. Whatever storm had kicked up inside him when he had his hands on her demanded he stay.
He swept back into the living room and returned a moment later to wedge a stuffed chair through the bedroom door. Once inside, he closed them both in darkness and took a seat in front of the exit.
“What are you doing?” Lilah demanded.
Seth leaned back and stretched his legs long. “Just making sure you don’t go slipping out the window.”
“How do you expect me to sleep with you staring at me in the darkness?”
Fucking hell, she didn’t know when to quit.
Seth reached into his pocket and pulled out one of the sleeping pills he’d taken off her. He shot one into the air like a champion basketballer and landed it somewhere on the bed. “That should help,” he growled.
Stuffy silence answered him.
Chapter 7
Lilah startled awake to an earthquake shaking her bed. She shot straight up, ready to head for cover, before reality crashed down.
The outline of a hulking man stood at the foot of the bed. Light spilled into the room from the hallway. Nothing else moved or rattled, except for her hands and all her nerves signaling her brain to run, run, run.
She was being hunted. She’d had her life broken into pieces and her carefully crafted sense of comfort destroyed. The only thing that stood between her and the devils on her tail was the man looming over her while she slept.
Seth gave the bed another kick. “Let’s go, woman. We can’t spend all day in bed.”
Anger burned through her and squashed the nervous churn in her gut. She craned her neck to fix him with a glare. “I’m awake. You can stop.”
The nerve of the man. To send her to bed, then wake her so abruptly? She’d tossed and turned for a long while before sleep finally claimed her. She’d expected nightmares of lions and bears coming for her in the darkness, and those pushed at her, true, but all the dangers faded the moment a lone figure appeared on the horizon.
Was it any wonder he intruded in her dreams, too? He pushed and prodded her in real life. Of course he had a starring role in her dreams.
She shivered as she remembered his hands on her in the real world. Professional. As professional as one could be patting someone down who'd just tried to slip them some drugs. His thick, husky voice was better suited to late nights in the dark, with slick skin and sliding hands, than a bright living room and a body search. Her dreams had been more than willing to fill in the gaps between reality and imagination.
Lilah swung out of bed and stretched. Her body complained, muscles taut. Too bad her aches and pains came from the real world horrors and not nighttime delights.
She trudged after the too-chipper man, then stopped as she hit the living room. Shock erased all hopes for a cup of coffee before the day kicked into gear.
“What happened to your face?” she asked bluntly.
Sickly yellow and green bruises colored Seth’s face. Which would have been fine if they were days out from the attack in her apartment instead of a handful of hours.
He stared at her before shaking himself. “What?”
Unease prickled up the back of her neck, but she stepped closer anyway. “You look almost healed.”
Seth swept past her and down the hall. The bathroom light flicked on, then right back off. “This is nothing,” he said gruffly as he stomped back into the living room. “Just normal healing.”
And yet, he refused to meet her eyes.
Not a shifter, he claimed. Even if she’d been mistaken about the gold in his eyes the night before, there was no denying that he’d healed extraordinarily fast.
Then again, if he was a shifter, wouldn’t a few bruises completely disappear overnight?
Lilah eyed Mr. Not-a-shifter warily while he replaced the chair he’d moved into the bedroom. He looked as uncomfortable as she felt, with shoulders tight and tense as he did a final pass.
“Are you ready to go?” he asked.
Seconds ticked down and she didn't know which way to turn. He'd saved her life. That added to the scales in his favor. He'd seen right through her attempt to get clear of him and the whole sucky situation. That, too, proved he wasn't a slouch in the protection department.
Lilah pressed her lips together and silently followed him back into his truck.
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