Page 58 of Control

He closed the distance between our bodies and pulled me into his arms. “I am not going to let anyone hurt you, babe.Especially not after I just had the best date of my whole life. I can promise you that.”

Ty’s tone was so confident, and the way he held his body was the same. Either he was just that good at hiding it, or he was telling me the truth. I didn’t think he was the kind of guy who’d lie to me, particularly when it came to something like this.

“Did I make a mistake?”

He tipped his head to the side and eyed me curiously. “What do you mean?”

I shook my head, feeling the worry creep in. “I was so insistent about doing this story, about finding out the truth of what happened to Annie. And Yasmine. Would I have been better off listening to my boss and sitting this one out?”

Ty reached his hand up to the side of my face, where he cupped my cheek. “You didn’t make a mistake. You did what you felt was right. I don’t blame you or fault you for it. I’d have done the same thing. And if nothing else, you were smart about it. You recognized there’s a threat, and you came to Harper Security Ops to ask me for help. What you choose to do from here on out is entirely up to you, but you should know that I’m more than prepared to stand by you and protect you if you choose to continue.”

A rush of air left my lungs, my head dropping forward until it hit his chest. Ty wrapped his arms around me and hugged me. “I don’t know what I want to do. I’ve never felt like this. For so long, I thought I was tough. In my career field, I expected danger every once in a while. But now? Now, I’m not so sure I’m up for this.”

I loved the feeling of his hand stroking up and down my back. “You don’t need to make a decision tonight. Give yourself some time. Take the night, get some rest, and you can think about what you want to do tomorrow morning.”

He was right.

I was far too emotional now to decide what the best course of action was moving forward. The best thing I could do was trust him to keep me safe, get some rest, and consider my options in the morning.

“Okay, Ty. I’ll worry about it in the morning.”

In a move I hadn’t been expecting, Ty pressed a soft kiss to the top of my head. Warmth moved through me, the final lingering bits of trembling muscles settling down. “Good. How about you get yourself dressed and ready for bed? I’m going to run back downstairs to grab us both some water and lock everything up. Do you want or need anything else?”

I didn’t want him to leave, but I had to be reasonable. He’d given me a task to do. If I knew anything about Ty, I was sure he’d go as fast as he could and return before I had even finished getting myself ready. Pulling my head back from his chest, I tipped my chin up to look at him. “Water is fine.”

He smiled at me, pressed a soft kiss to my forehead, and released me. A moment later, I was still standing where he left me in the middle of his bedroom. We still hadn’t discussed sleeping arrangements, but after getting a tour, I’d only noticed the single bed in his bedroom.

Snapping myself out of it, I grabbed my bag with my clothes and toiletries and made my way into the bathroom. After I changed into my pajamas—a pair of waffle-knit leggings and a loose-fitting, matching cotton long-sleeved shirt—I brushed my teeth and washed the makeup from my face. And sure enough, by the time I emerged from the bathroom, Ty had returned with two glasses of water.

His eyes raked over me from head to toe and back again, a smile tugging at the corners of his mouth. “You look adorably comfortable.”

I glanced down at my PJs momentarily and said, “I get cold at night.”

He moved toward me and kissed my cheek tenderly. “Noted. I’m going to change and brush my teeth. I’ll be out in a minute. Why don’t you climb into bed, and I’ll be right there?”

Ty didn’t wait for me to respond before he disappeared into the bathroom. I guess he didn’t plan to have a discussion about sleeping arrangements. He’d already decided we were both going to be spending the night in his bed.

I didn’t mind. I wanted to be where he was. I just wished the first time I spent the night in his bed, it wasn’t because we’d been forced there. Ty was too good of a man to make me feel like I was an inconvenience, but I wondered if this situation was pushing us together in ways that he wasn’t ready for just yet.

Glancing at the nightstands on either side of the bed, I guessed the left side of the bed was Ty’s usual side, so I walked around to the right side of it, pulled the blanket back, and sat on the edge to remove my walking boot. Then I swung my legs in and waited.

When the bathroom door opened, my eyes went in that direction. Ty was wearing a pair of sweats and no shirt. My mouth watered at the sight of him half naked, and when I finally lifted my gaze to his, he revealed, “I’m a hot sleeper.”

I gave him a nod, but my mouth was too dry to respond. Needing a distraction, I turned and reached for the glass of water to take a sip.

Whether Ty understood the reaction I was having to seeing him like that or not, I didn’t know. But he didn’t make things much easier on me when he moved toward the bed, pulled the blanket back on his side, and slid in beside me.

How was it possible that not even an hour ago I was ready to drag this man into my house and right to my bed, where I wanted to strip us out of our clothes, but now I felt so nervous just sitting beside him?

It was the bed.

It had to be the bed.

I licked my lips, swallowed down the nerves, and said, “I’m sorry about this.”

“About what, exactly?”

“I’m sorry that my decision to continue with this story has led to this,” I explained. “Now you need to share your bed with me, and I never meant to become an inconvenience.”

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