Page 40 of Only Her (K2 Team)
“You going to stand there and stare at me all night?”
“Oh, you’re awake.” She started toward him.
“Go to bed, Riley. Turn off the lamp on your way.” He kept his back to her.
If she had to guess, she’d say he was embarrassed that she’d seen him having a nightmare. She hesitated, wanting to comfort him. He pulled up the afghan, covering his beautiful body, and buried his head under the pillow. Fine, she could take a hint. She switched off the light, and stomped back to bed, making as much noise on her wood floors as possible. Pissy, she knew, but he’d been there for her when she needed him, so why couldn’t she return the favor? She left the door open so she could hear if he called out again.
Although her head still hurt, the pain had eased significantly, and she didn’t feel as out of it as she had the day before. Even so, no matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t go back to sleep, and finally gave up, letting her mind do what it wanted, which was to think about Cody.
Was she making a mistake wanting to be with him? Maybe his problems were too deep for her. Her biggest worry was that she didn’t know how to help him. She could clip an animal’s toenails, set a broken leg, treat pretty much any ailment, but delving into the mindset of a man having nightmares from his past was out of her league.
And who washer? He’d called out, begging someone not to hurt “her.” Was it a woman he’d had a relationship with, someone he’d loved? Still loved? All questions she had no answers for, and if he had them, she doubted he’d share. More than anything, she wanted to know about the “her” that was haunting his dreams.
It was impossible to fall back asleep, and as light from the rising sun crept through the sides of the blinds, she gave up trying. Two of her cats had returned to the bed, Merlin in his usual place at her feet, and Pelli curled up next to her neck. Arthur was missing. When she sat up, the kitten opened one eye, blinked at her, then stuck his head under his tail and went back to sleep. Merlin’s attention was on the open doorway, where Cody was visible. Riley peered out and found her missing cat. Arthur was snuggled between the two dogs, all three fast asleep.
“Silly boy,” she murmured.
She went into the bathroom, flipped on the light, eyed herself in the mirror, and gasped at the rat’s nest that was her hair. She’d washed the bottom half when she’d showered after returning home, but hadn’t wanted to get shampoo in her wound. Along with the mess that was her hair, there were purple bags under her eyes.
“You look like crap, my friend,” she told her reflection. She turned on the water to let it warm up, then returned to her bedroom to get clean clothes.
Feeling much better after cleaning the rest of the blood out of her hair, she came out of the bathroom, and as she smelled coffee and bacon, her stomach rumbled. When she followed the aroma to the kitchen, the first thing she saw was her cats eating their breakfast while Sally and Pretty Girl sat to the side, avidly watching. The second thing to catch her eye was Cody, wearing only his jeans, standing at her stove with his back to her, and she paused, captivated by the way the muscles in his back and shoulders flexed as he worked.
“Your coffee’s on the table and breakfast is almost ready. Sit.”
She saluted him.
“I saw that.”
He had eyes in the back of his head? Then she noticed he was looking at her kitchen window where a fuzzy image of her was reflected back. “Sneaky,” she said, heading for the cup of coffee. “I didn’t know I had bacon and eggs.”
“You didn’t, but I did.”
“Well, thank you.” He still hadn’t looked at her directly, and his tone was brusque. She stirred cream and sugar into the coffee while trying to think of how to bring up his nightmare. It was driving her crazy wondering who his mysteriousherwas.
“Eat,” he said, shoving a plate in front of her.
If he wanted her to forget his existence—which she thought was exactly what he was aiming for—then he needed to put on a shirt. “Aren’t you going to eat?” He stood with his back to the counter, leaning against it, his hands stuck into the front pocket of his jeans, his gaze fixed on her as if waiting for her to obey his every command. And wasn’t he just the sexiest thing ever in his shirtless, bad boy bossy mode?
“Ate already.”
Okay. That conversation was effectively shut down. Fine. She’d just go right to exactly what she wanted to know. “Last night, you said, ‘Please don’t hurt her.’ Who’s her?”
Caramel-colored eyes flared, then his gaze flicked from her to her cats, then to his dogs. “Apparently someone I can’t remember,” he said so quietly that she had to run his words through her head a second time to decipher them.
“You’re having nightmares about someone you can’t remember? Were you hurt or something?”
He lifted from the counter, his body expanding in a way that had her blinking her eyes in awe—and not just a little lust—and said, “I don’t know, all right! Eat your breakfast. I’ll be across the street if you need me.” With a hand signal to his dogs, he walked out with the two canines on his heels.
“What just happened?” she asked her cats, but none of them seemed to have an answer as all three were busy with their after-breakfast baths.
And the strange thing was, she wanted Cody more than ever. He was a wounded warrior, and whether he knew it or not, he needed her. So, how to make him see that? Unless there was a woman he loved so much that he still dreamed about her out there somewhere. Had he lost her somehow? If so, that would change everything.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
At his front door, Cody stopped and hung his head. Just because he was embarrassed that Riley had seen him lose it because of a nightmare didn’t make it okay for him to talk to her the way he had. The coffee and food he’d downed sat like a fat clump of dirt in his stomach.
He was an idiot. He let Sally and Pretty Girl into the house, told them to stay, then headed back to Riley’s. Not only was an apology in order, but he’d left Riley alone. As he stepped up to her front door, he heard a sound coming from the side of the house. When he went around the corner of her carport and saw her heading for her car, keys in hand, he blocked her with his body.
