Page 26 of Savage

Donna scowled, wondering why his initial thought was that she would say no. Well, the more she thought about it the more obvious that part became but she wasn’t entirely opposed to the idea. Still, she wanted to know why he thought this was a good idea.

“Tell me why? I don’t mean convince me. I mean give me your reasons.”

“The first is that it will be more comfortable. For you and me both. On top of that, both nights so far, I’ve woken up to you shivering and curling up in a little ball. If we’re in the bags together, we’ll share body heat, and you won’t be so cold. Not to mention that we can pull the sleeping bag all the way up to our necks or over our heads to stay that much warmer instead of my tucking mine under my arms to pull you close and hold on to you.”

Donna stared at him for a moment, then blinked but still couldn’t put her thoughts into words. She hadn’t known that he’d noticed that she’d gotten cold. Was that why she’d woken up next to him that first morning?

This morning hadn’t been a surprise as she remembered him dragging her over there before they fell asleep. But she had assumed that she’d made her way across the empty space on her own the night before. She felt like she’d been over these things before, but couldn’t be sure. She’d heard women talk about pregnancy brain. Was this what they meant?

She turned and looked at him, tempted to agree, but still wary. “I don’t know.”

“I’ll sleep in the sweatpants I brought, and you can wear anything you like, but please not jeans. Only because neither of us will be comfortable.”

She watched him for a moment, her mind spinning with possibilities.

“You think about that for a minute or however long you need. I’m going to take my things and go visit the bathroom.” He released her hand, moved over to his bag, pulled a small, zippered bag out and went to the door. “If you decide you’re okay with it, and you want to, you can rearrange the beds or you can wait for me to come back, and I’ll help.”

She watched as he left, zipping the tent closed behind him, then sat where she was for maybe a minute, debating his offer. Then it popped into her head. What the decision boiled down to at its most basic.

Did she trust him?

That answer was instant. She wasn’t entirely sure why but over the last couple of days she’d decided she did trust him. With everything. Plus, she couldn’t count the number of times she’d wanted to close the distance between them and kiss him.

She was still blown away that he didn’t seem to care that she was pregnant or that there was no chance it was his. While it would have been nice to say it hadn’t changed the way he’d treated her, that wasn’t entirely true. If someone had asked her before she told him, she would have said he couldn’t have treated her better, but she would have been proven wrong.

Now he wasn’t just helping her and making sure she was safe, but he was taking care of her. She pushed herself up off the sleeping mat and got to work as she told herself she could, and previously had, do worse in choosing which men to pursue.

She might be proven wrong in the end, but she didn’t think she would be. Her gut, and something more, told her Savage was special.

23

“You’recrashingearly,”Sackettsaid as Savage stepped out of the bathroom into the common area of the bunkhouse. Several of the unattached brothers and prospects had set up some kind of tournament on one of the gaming devices hooked to the TV in the corner. They were taking turns at a first-person shooter game Savage had seen before but couldn’t name.

They appeared to be working in teams, at least for now, from the chatter between them. They encouraged each other, gave directions, and seemed to be battling a common foe. Savage seemed to be waiting for his turn.

“Yeah. Donna’s tired after today and wants to go to bed.”

“And you’re going with her?” Sackett waggled his brows suggesting he knew why Savage was going to call it a night with her.

“I’m going with her. Have a good night with all this.” He waved a hand toward the TV, and the men clustered around yelling at the screen. He didn’t bother to try to tell his brother that there was nothing between him and Donna but that he was caring for her. They wouldn’t believe him even if he did, and he had hopes that there would be more. Maybe not for a while, until she was comfortable with him, but she seemed to be more relaxed, more at ease with him every day.

He made his way out of the bunkhouse and back to the tent, wondering what he’d find when he got there. How had she decided? There was no point in speculating, he knew but he had nothing else to occupy his mind. Well, other than thoughts of her that wouldn’t help making her more comfortable, so he steered his mind away from those.

He reached the tent, unzipped it, and paused, still standing outside, his head poked through the doorway.

“Oh, good. I really think we’ll be more comfortable and sleep better that way,” he said when he saw she’d put the mats together, opened one sleeping bag at the bottom and the other on top.

“I think they’re supposed to zip together, but I can’t make it work.” She knelt on the bags near the middle of the bottom, her hands on the zipper and frustration clear in her face.

“Let me try. Do you need to make a trip to the bathroom before we lay down?”

“Yeah, but I wanted to get this done first.”

He kicked his boots off as he stepped inside, then picked them up and set them in the corner so they wouldn’t track dirt in. “Let me take a look.” He stepped past her and put away his hygiene bag before moving to take her place near the foot of the bedroll she’d created.

She moved, letting him take her place. He bent to see if he could figure out what was wrong. Before he had a chance to get a good look, her shuffling around behind him caught his attention.

“What is it, babe?” He looked up and twisted around to watch her for a moment. He wanted to see her face and body language.

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