Page 42 of Threat of Danger
“I’m sleeping in Mom’s room. He’s sleeping in mine.” She decided to do that because she felt that putting a stranger her mother never met into her mother’s bed would be weird.
On second thought, she added, “How do you know we haven’t slept together already?”
“I can tell.”
Would it be too rude to hit him with a throw pillow?“You’re annoying.”
“You used to idolize me.”
“I guess I grew smarter.”
“And even more beautiful.”
“Don’t do that.”
“No compliments?”
She shook her head. “Like I said, I don’t want to be here. And I don’t want to like you again. I don’t even want to be friends.”
“Because of the past?”
“Yes.”
“I’m sorry.”
He was apologizing?Now?And if he was ...thatwas it?
Moisture sprang into Jess’s eyes, completely out of character, catching her off guard. She was horrified at the thought that she might cry in front of Derek.No way. Not going to happen.
She sucked the tears back through sheer willpower.
“You don’t owe me an apology. There was nothing you could have done.” She shot to her feet. “I’m going to bed.”
He captured her wrist and looked up at her. “Stay. We’ll talk about something else.”
She yanked her hand away. “I can’t.”
And there, she’d just admitted to Derek that the past still haunted her. Did that make her pitiful and weak?Dammit.Damn the whole trip that made her this way. This wasnotwho she was.
She wasn’t Taylorville Jess.
She was Hollywood Jess, kick-ass stuntwoman at the top of her game. She didn’t cry, and she didn’t shy away from difficulties. The past had no power over her. She’d come here in strength, in full armor against the pain and fears of her past, and she was going to leave in strength. The visit—whether three days or three weeks—simply wasn’t allowed to touch her. She wouldn’t let it.
“Good night.” She headed up the stairs, maybe a little fast, but at least not at a run.
“Don’t let the sugar fairies bite,” Derek called after her.
Her heart rate didn’t return to normal until after she had the room’s door closed behind her. She didn’t stay up to wish Eliot good night. She couldn’t handle either of the men right now. She wanted to sleep, and wanted to be back to her strong self when she woke in the morning.
She went to sleep in her mother’s bed, a strange finish to a strange day.
Except sleep wouldn’t come. Jess tossed and turned. She thought about Eliot in her old room, in her old bed; then she thought about Derek downstairs on the lumpy sofa. She hoped he got a crick in his neck.
She squeezed her eyes shut.Sleep.
I missed you, Derek had said.
Sleep, dammit!
