strength not to call her back. She missed me?
Truth of it was, a part of me missed Wyoming . . . and her. When I moved there, I’d been running from New York. All these years later and I’d run right back here.
Running. Always running.
I rolled to my other side and tossed back to the same position. Would I ever find the place where I belonged?
All I wanted was to be accepted. I’d never had it here. Sure, my family loved me, but my mother’s abandonment had caused this deep rooted sense of unsettledness. Made me question if anybody really wanted me around. The last year had only cemented that insecurity.
I was sick of living with a shadow of doubt constantly hanging over my head. Problem was, I didn’t know how to get out from under it.
“Holt?” Baker’s roughened voice broke through the darkness.
I rolled over. Light from the hallway spilled in, her shadowy figure huddled in the doorway.
I sat up straight, on alert. “Everything okay?”
“I can’t sleep.” She rocked back on her heels, eyes trained on the floor before they found mine. The turbulence in them made something inside me ache. She was begging for me to make it better, and this was her way of doing it.
I slid over and pulled the covers back. “I can’t, either.” She scurried across the floor before she lost her nerve. “Wait,” I said when she was at the edge of the mattress. “I, uh, can you give me a sec?”
Her shoulders deflated. “I can go.”
“No.” I reached for her hand when she turned to leave. “Hang on. Figure you probably wouldn’t appreciate that I’m naked under here.”
She appeared amused. “When are you not naked?”
I tilted my head as if considering. “Fair point.” I lifted my chin toward the dresser. “Problem is, my sweats are over there.”
Even in the dim light her amusement was visible. “Are you getting shy now?”
“Maybe a little,” I teased, easing out from under the covers. Shit. I still had come all over my stomach. I swiped a shirt off the floor and discreetly cleaned it off as best I could.
I felt her eyes on me, slightly embarrassed that she probably could see the evidence of what I’d been up to. Couldn’t help it. She did this to me.
Baker crawled into bed, and I made the mistake of looking over at her. The sight of her there in my T-shirt had my body at full attention again.
What the hell? She turned me on. No point in hiding it.
I tossed the shirt on the floor and stalked to the chest of drawers, pulling out a pair of old sweatpants.
“I need some water. You want some?”
“Yeah.” I swore I heard disappointment in her voice now that I had some clothes on. Or maybe I just wanted to.
I hurried to the kitchen, rinsed off the rest of the mess on my stomach, and returned to the bedroom. Baker was propped against the headboard. A little more of her hair had worked loose from the knot it was pulled in.
This was where I wanted her.
My steps faltered at the thought. I shoved down the truth and forced the cocky swagger to the surface that I’d learned as a disguise.
Her eyes were all-knowing when they met mine.
She saw me.
She saw everything. Hopefully she didn’t hear everything too.
I unscrewed the cap on the water bottle and passed it to her. She took a drink, but I guzzled most of the liquid when she gave it back to me.
“Lights on or off?” I motioned toward the hallway.
“On.”
I rounded the foot of the bed and slid in beside her. “Come here.”
She hesitated, eyeing me warily before she crawled into my arms. I settled her head against my chest and stroked her hair, the finest silk between my fingers. Her breath was warm on my skin and when she slung her arm around me, something right clicked into place. Something I’d never felt.
“Want to talk about it?” I asked against the top of her head.
“No.” She clung to me a little tighter. I didn’t want her to hurt, but it gave me inordinate pleasure to know when she needed someone she’d come to me.
I kissed her hair and ran my hand up and down her spine. She sighed, her body already growing heavy with sleep.
“Holt?”
“Yeah, Easy?”
“Maybe we should forget the boundaries.”
Chapter Seven
Baker
“Baker.”
The sleep-roughened voice that spoke my name made me want to stay in my dream. I was in strong arms. Safe. Content.
“Baker.”
A soft kiss pressed to