Rhys by Adrienne Bell Page B

you always tell the truth?” she asked.
    “No,” he said, slowly shaking his head. “One time my sister-in-law asked if I liked her little white fluff ball dog, and I said yes.”
    Her sweet laugh came easier this time. “I think you might be forgiven for that one terrible sin.”
    That one, maybe, but there were thousands of others that Rhys knew there would be no absolution from.
    He tried not to dwell on those memories as Tessa leaned deeper into his chest.
    “All right, Mr. All-Knowing,” she said with a deep sigh. “So can you tell me when I’ll be able to sleep through the night again?”
    He opened his mouth, but she held up a single finger to stop him.
    “And I should let you know that if you say in time again I will find that knife your friend left behind.”
    He felt that unfamiliar pull at the corner of his lips again.
    “When you’re no longer scared that you won’t,” he answered.
    Her shoulders fell as she sighed. “So…never.”
    Rhys drew in a deep breath. He knew a way to make it easier.
    “Do you want me to stay here with you until you fall asleep?”
    Tessa went completely still in his arms. Rhys could almost feel the battle raging inside her. They were practically strangers. They’d only known each other for twenty-four hours, but somehow the connection between them was real.
    She trusted him enough to be alone with him, to let him watch over her, to break down in his arms. Holding her while she drifted off wasn’t all that different.
    At least that was what Rhys told himself.
    “You wouldn’t mind?” She asked the question so timidly that he barely caught the words.
    “I wouldn’t have offered otherwise.”
    He stretched out on the mattress and spooned her body against his. She fit against him perfectly, her legs molding around his, her back against his chest, his arm slung against the deep curve of her waist.
    “Thank you.” Her voice was serious as she laid her head down on his arm. There was no laughter now, no quips. “It’ll only be for tonight.”
    “I’ll be here for however long you need,” he said.
    Rhys didn’t close his eyes as the minutes began to tick by. He kept them open, listening to the rhythmic sound of Tessa’s breath slowing down as sleep overtook her. Her body relaxed as well, and she melted against him.
    Rhys knew he was supposed to be doing this for her peace of mind. She trusted him to hold her demons at bay while she slept, but he’d be lying if he said that being with her was a burden.
    Rhys had been with his share of women. He might not have had Mason’s charm, or Jake’s magnetism. He’d never fallen into the kind of serious relationship that Carter found himself entangled in currently, but he had never lacked for attention.
    He didn’t hold any illusions of what most of the women who sought him out were attracted to. They were turned on by his cold detachment. They liked the sense of danger. They wanted to flirt with the darkness laying just below the surface.
    But they never stayed too long, never dug too deep.
    He couldn’t blame them. One-night stands were for one thing only, the exchange of pleasure, and Rhys had certainly given and taken his fair share of that.
    But nothing he had ever done with that long line of strangers had ever been as intimate as the feel of Tessa in his arms right now. Even fully clothed, her body—small and warm and languid— stirred him. Not just his cock—though that was hard enough to shame him if she were to wake up—but something deeper.
    The truth was, he wanted this closeness as much as she did.
    Wanted to cradle the one person that looked at him like he was a human being. Who was neither drawn to nor repulsed by his callous exterior. He wanted to hold the woman that had reached out to him earlier. The one who saw something more in him.
    He might be doing this under the pretense of helping Tessa, but if he were honest, he’d have to admit that he needed this just as much as she did.

 
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