“Sorry, I got lost in memories,” I said, slipping the necklace over my head and tucking it into my shirt before shutting the box. I picked up the clothes and rose, turning to face him. “I had a couple shirts and a jacket, but they smell like attic. Let me wash them for you.”
Hugh was in no hurry to leave. He lifted the lid on the ornate box my grandmother had given me.
“Was this your mother’s wedding dress?” he asked.
“My grandmother’s,” I corrected. I didn’t like that this stranger was getting personal and I hated that every time I looked at his tattoos, I wanted to trace them with my fingers. It was official. I was losing my mind, and this man needed to go.
I cleared my throat and toughened my resolve. Another couple of hours and Hugh would be gone like a bad memory. “I only had one of Teddy’s boxes up here. The rest are in storage. This box is just stuff I found after moving out all of his things.”
“The memories you didn’t want to see every day?” Hugh asked.
“Something like that,” I said, swallowing around the forming lump in my throat. I was having a hard time resolving the stranger in front of me as the man in my dreams. The magnetic pull from him was even stronger in person. He was a beautiful danger and I needed to keep my distance.
I started to head for the stairs when Hugh’s hand landed on my arm. He turned me to face him and lifted my chin with the crook of his finger. “He loved you very much.”
I shook my head. “Am I supposed to believe that he told the criminal he was sharing a cell with about his love life?”
Hugh’s gaze softened. “It wasn’t in his words. It was in the way he spoke about you. The look in his eye while remembering. He did love you, make no mistake about it.”
His words implied feelings I refused to entertain.
I stepped out of his hold, descended the stairs, and headed into the laundry room to move his jeans out of the dryer. I folded them before starting a new load of Teddy’s clothes.
Hugh appeared behind me. His arms trapped me against the machine, his words hot in my ear. “I promised to keep you safe, even if that means from yourself.”
He removed the gun from beneath my shirt. His warm fingers touched my skin, and I held my breath as my heart hammered in my chest. I stilled myself from moving closer into the warmth of his touch like a moth to a flame.
He didn’t bother trying to hide his curiosity. He leaned over me, his nose in my hair and inhaled. “He said you smelled like sunny days on the beach, but I disagree. I think it’s more like a rainy lazy afternoon in bed.”
He reached for the folded jeans and stepped back. I hauled in a shaky breath.
I lowered my head, not ready to look him in the eye. What the hell did that say about me that a simple touch against my skin from a stranger had turned me on?
“I’ll put the gun under your mattress so you can reach it quickly. I can’t have you shooting your pretty little ass off.”
A string of curses left my lips as I followed Hugh up to my bedroom. A place where we shouldn’t be together. It was too dangerous. He was too seductive.
I stopped just inside the doorframe, fighting the urge to move closer and make good on those sexual dreams we’d once shared.
No, no, no. Not going to happen.
Hugh checked the chamber. “You have six shots. Don’t waste them.”
He slid the gun beneath the bed and glanced up at the windows. His lips twisted at the corners. “You sleep during the day?”
“I prefer it that way.”
He nodded and walked toward the door. “It’s better that you’re awake to fight the monsters at night.”
He had no idea what monsters I was hiding from. If he had, he would have kissed me in the laundry room. One kiss, and it would have sealed our fates for good. There wouldn’t have been any walking away, not for him and notfromhim. One kiss would have given me a taste that I’d compare all men against and crave even more.
One kiss like what we’d shared in my astral state and I’d be fighting for more than my life. I’d be fighting for my heart.
A slow shudder racked my body as Hugh left my room and headed for the bathroom. I plopped down onto my bed, thankful that I’d dodged that bullet.
