Page 50 of Savage Escape

Caden could hardly breathe with Nathan’s weight on top of her. But she didn’t care. His heat was soaking into her. His heartbeat was thumping against her palm. He was alive. They were alive.

“You’re safe.” It was a slurred chant he kept whispering into her hair. “You’re safe.” Nathan’s muscles relaxed on top of her and almost immediately his breathing evened out.

Caden relaxed her tense muscles and allowed herself to melt into Nathan and the soft mattress under her. She could sleep. Sure, there was a shit-ton of things that needed doing, escape routes that had to be planned, and six brothers she didn’t know if she could trust.

Trust.

Fuck. She was thinking of the word trust, like it meant something to her. Sure, it applied to Nathan, but that was different.

Caden couldn’t believe how casually she was considering trusting them just because they were Nathan’s brothers. What the fuck was wrong with her?

She’d deal with that later, though. She didn’t have the energy enough to care either way. Besides, she was armed now. Should they prove untrustworthy, she would be able to defend herself. The adrenaline she was running on was depleted. Exhaustionand bone-deep relief had her now, and she allowed herself to be pulled under.

“Wait.” An annoying tap on her cheek. “Wait, don’t pass out yet.” Reid. Caden grunted and opened her eyes. If she could’ve punched him, she would have, but her arms were trapped under Nathan’s body. “Are you allergic to anything? Is there anything I should know before administering drugs?”

“No. Go away.” Caden tried for a menacing growl, but she was too tired. She was out before she was even halfway to making her face do the thing that scared people.

17

NATHAN

Nathan didn’t want to wake up. He was warm and safe and holding Caden. Not just holding, butcuddling. He’d even go so far as to say they were snuggling. Not one-sided half-assed snuggling, but the kind of snuggling that had two consenting adults and full-on participation. It was enough to pretend he didn’t feel Reid poking him in the face and go back to sleep.

“Nathan, I can tell that you are awake. Stop pretending.” If goddamn Reid and his goddamn social ineptitude woke her up, Nathan was going to kill him. “You were never very good at playing possum.”

Did the man not see that he was cuddling Caden Quinn, thief extraordinaire and quintessential badass? Two pre-qualifiers he’d never known he’d had for potential life partners.

His brothers, the same ones who also loved human contact and feeling a warm body snuggled all nicely against them but pretended like they didn’t need it, gave him hell about it. He was as human and needy and comfort-seeking as the next guy (the next guy being any one of his emotionally stunted brothers). He could not care less what those insecure jack-wagons thought.Nathan loved cuddling, and he didn’t care who knew it. Be it animal or human, Nathan cuddled. He cuddled hard.

“Nathan.” Voice impatient and bordering on annoyed, Reid poked him harder in the face. Nathan continued to pretend he didn’t exist and reveled in the feel of Caden cuddled up to him.

For Caden, he knew it was different. From what he’d learned about her, she’d been conditioned not to ever want human contact. Contact meant getting hit. And being the badass that she was, pretended not to need it, much like his brothers. She did, however, enjoy it.

The way she was clinging to him like he was going to up and float away was a testament to that fact. Her legs were wrapped around his waist and her good arm was twined around his bicep. Her face was pushed into his chest. Even in sleep, when she was supposed to be relaxed, her fingers dug into his flesh like ten little anchors.

“Nathan.” It was an annoyed huff, followed by a couple more pokes.

Nathan didn’t want to wake up. He didn’t want to stop snuggling, and dammit, didn’t he deserve a nap after the shitastical week he’d had? The face poking got more insistent and hard. Why wasn’t he allowed to sleep? Reid had already patched him up. There was no reason he should be waking up.

“What?” Nathan didn’t open his eyes, wanting to keep the illusion of being asleep for a little bit longer.

“Nate.” Another poke. “Nate.”

Still not opening his eyes, Nathan shifted to swat at the infuriating finger. White hot searing pain ripped down his back and arm and reminded the former soldier that he was sporting two shiny new bullet holes. The drugs had worn off, and he was now officially awake. His empty stomach churned and rolled. Cold sweat broke out all over his skin and sent tiny shivers down his spine.

“Goddammit Reid! What the hell do you want?” It came out less angry and more pathetic than he was aiming for.

“I want you to get off of her,” Reid snapped, all impatient, like Nathan should be able to read his mind.

Nathan tensed, instinctively going into battle mode and squaring his position on top of the sleeping woman. No goddamn way was he getting off of her. She was cuddling him. Holding him like he was important to her. He wasn’t letting her go. They’d have to pry his dead goddamn body off of her.

“What? You gonna kick my ass for providing medical care?” He could practically hear Reid rolling his eyes.

Unfortunately, Nathan was evolved enough to realize that he couldn’t drag her off to his cave and keep her all to himself, like the Neanderthal part of his brain was telling him to do. It was a nice scenario to play out in his head and maybe later when they were both fully recovered, but he had to be reasonable about things. She needed medical attention and she probably couldn’t breathe too well with his entire body weight on top of her.

Still though, Nathan had to reassure himself that his brother wasn’t telling him that he couldn’t have her. He wasn’t. Reid was just doing his job. It was almost embarrassing how long it took to convince himself to relax his guard. The man eventually got a grip enough to carefully extract himself from their tangled limbs.

“Careful, don’t rip your stitches again. And if either of you take out your IVs again, I will keep you both in medical comas forever.”

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