Page 21 of His to Keep
“No.” I cut off whatever bullshit objection she was about to come up with. “You’re mine. We’re making it legal, and that’s the end of it, Eilidh. Challenge me on this again and there will be consequences.”
CHAPTER 8
Eilidh
Rolling onto my right side, I try my best to get to sleep. There isn’t a lot of space to maneuver, and I struggle to find a comfortable position. The problem isn’t just that the mattress is too thin or the pillow too soft. It isn’t that the rocking of the train as it moves along the track makes me slightly nauseous. It’s thoughts of the man lying on the bunk beneath me that render me incapable of drifting off. Gio, of course, seems to have had no such issues. He’s been snoring softly for more than an hour now.
I’m still tense after the horrible dinner we shared. The food was better than I expected, and the wine was rich and smooth. It was the atmosphere between Gio and me that soured the meal. Rather than learning more about each other over a pleasant dinner, we barely spoke. Once Gio laid down the law about us getting married, I couldn’t find a thing I wanted to say to him. Well, nothing that wouldn’t have resulted in me getting another spanking.
We finished the meal, paid the bill, and returned to our room. While I indulged in a quick shower, he stripped off his clothes and got into bed, leaving his jeans and sweater lying on the floor. As I picked them up and folded them neatly to put on the table under the window, I hoped that wasn’t a foreshadowing of what’s to come. I have no intention of spending my life tidying up after him.
Closing my eyes, I concentrate on taking slow, deep breaths. I feel myself being pulled down into the darkness. Just as I’m almost there, a noise wakes me. Gio lets out an agonized groan.
“No,” he whimpers. “No, don’t.”
An inhuman cry comes from deep inside him as he thrashes about on the bed. Although he was an asshole earlier, I can’t leave him in the grips of whatever terror has hold of him. My feelings for him are complex, ranging from gratitude for saving me from Jason to intense annoyance for his insistence we marry, but I can’t let him suffer. Apart from anything else, there are people sleeping in the cabins on either side of him and I don’t want to risk him waking other passengers.
Jumping down from the top bunk, I crouch next to him.
“Gio.” I put my hand on his bare shoulder and shake him gently. “Gio, it’s me, Eilidh.”
He gasps as his eyes spring open. He sits up and bangs his head. Cursing, he reaches under his pillow, I’m guessing for a weapon that he won’t find there.
“Gio,” I say calmly. “It’s only me.”
Blinking, he looks at me. “Eilidh?” His expression morphs from confusion to concern. “What’s wrong?”
It’s touching that he’s worried about me when he was the one in distress.
“You were having a nightmare.”
“Was I?”
“You don’t remember?”
He shakes his head. “No.”
“You were pleading with someone.”
He nods like that makes sense. “Yeah, I got shot a few months ago, almost died. It was probably something to do with that.”
I’m surprised he shared that with me. “You were shot?”
“I don’t want to talk about it.”
He can’t open the door and then slam it shut so quickly. Anything that tells me more about this man will be useful for me in working out how to deal with him.
“Well, I do. Tell me what happened.”
As I get up and switch on the light, flooding the space with a harsh yellow glow, Gio swivels around and lowers his feet to the floor. He sits at the edge of the bed, his head bowed. It’s more likely because he doesn’t want to bash himself on the upper bunk than because of some deep emotion he’s experiencing. I crouch in front of him.
“Tell me, Gio.”
“Are you always this bossy?”
“Only at three a.m. when I haven’t had any sleep.”
“You haven’t slept?”
