She chewed on her bottom lip for a moment. Then nodded. “Okay.”
“You still okay staying here tonight?”
She glanced toward the house and then back to Zander. “You’re really worried about Brantley?”
“I guess…” Fuck. He’d overreacted. He knew that. But he still felt a hell of a lot better with her sitting next to him in the truck than he had with her across town at the B & B even before he’d known Brantley was in town. “I don’t want him messing around over there with Heather and Crystal and the other guests there. If he wants to talk to you, and you’re okay with that, then he can do that away from anyone else.”
She thought about that, then nodded. “You’re right. It’s not fair to wake anyone else up. I’m sorry you got pulled out of bed.”
“I’m not,” he told her honestly, his voice gruff.
He got out of the truck and rounded the front, pulling her door open and scooping her into his arms without giving her another option. She didn’t have shoes on and his driveaway was covered in rocks. That was a good enough reason in his mind.
She didn’t protest. In fact, she seemed to cuddle into him as he carried her into the house. He stopped inside the front door only long enough to lock it. Then he headed up the stairs and to his bedroom.
“I have another bedroom, but no furniture,” he told her, depositing her on his bed. It was unmade and the sheets were still rumpled from where he’d been trying to sleep just before Beau’s call. “Everyone I know has their own beds here in town, so I don’t host guests.”
That included the men that came to town to help with any covert protective actions. They preferred to pretend they were in town to visit family and stayed at the B & B or they slipped into town and stayed out at the bayou cabin they all used as their headquarters. No one needed to crash at Zander’s place.
“I’ll take the couch,” he added.
He’d love to have his eyes on her all night, in more than one way, but he doubted very much that Brantley could climb the outside of his house to get into his bedroom window and that was the only way he’d get to that room with Zander on the couch. If Brantley was even going to try again tonight. Or could find Zander’s house. Both of which were very unlikely.
“I…” Caroline wet her lips. Then she lifted her chin. “I’m not going to put you out of your bed, Zander. You’re trying to protect me. Just…sleep in here.”
Bad, bad, tempting idea.
“I don’t know if that’s such a great idea.”
She rolled her eyes. “We’re both grown adults who are capable of making our own decisions. I trust you. If we decide to sleep in here, in the same bed, together, and only sleep, then that’s what will happen, I’m sure.”
“Trusting a man you just met that much is maybe also not such a great idea.”
“If you wanted to hurt me or…whatever…you could have done it a dozen times already,” she said. “If you have nefarious intentions, you saying you’re going to sleep on the couch doesn’t keep me any safer than you being right here in the bed with me.”
She made some very good points. So he decided to be honest. “I might actually get some sleep if I’m on the couch instead of right here in the bed with you.”
She gave him a little smile. “Or are you going to be lying down there wondering what every bump and squeak is and wondering if I’m sleeping and wondering if I’m wondering what every bump and squeak is?”
He wanted to sleep up here with her. He did. For all those reasons, and more that he didn’t want to go into. “Will you at least wear one of my shirts to sleep in instead of what you’re wearing?”
This time her smile was a little more sly. “Whatever you want.”
The punch of heat in his gut at that little bit of acquiescence was a huge red flag. Still, he crossed to his dresser and pulled a t-shirt from his third drawer. One that was a little big even on him.
“Bathroom is the next door to the right.”
She just grinned as he handed her the shirt and let the sheet fall.
Right. This was the woman who’d changed clothes on Heather’s back porch. He sighed and turned away. And gritted his teeth through the sounds of clothes and sheets rustling and then blue silk hitting the floor by his foot.
“You can turn around now,” Caroline told him.
He did and seeing her in his shirt did absolutely nothing to quell the feelings of wanting to make her his.
Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.
9
Caroline scooted to the opposite side of the bed. “Or is this your side?” she asked as she slipped under the covers.
“It’s…fine.” It was not fine. Her in his bed was not fine.
“So this is your side.” She grinned unapologetically.
“I sleep all over it,” he told her honestly.
She laid on her side, putting her head on his favorite pillow, and tucked her hands under her cheek. Watching him.
Zander accepted his fate.
He was a grown man. So he wasn’t going to pretend this was anything other than what it was. A gorgeous woman he felt very protective—and possessive—of was in his bed. And he was going to sleep next to her. And he hated the idea of any other man sleeping next to her, in the past or the future. And he was just going to have to deal with those feelings. Tonight. And tomorrow. And after she left town.
But for right now, he was going to get in bed.
He lifted the covers on the near side of the bed.
“Really?” she asked.
“What?” He got in bed, hoping like hell the mattress dipping on his side wouldn’t cause her to roll into him.
“In your clothes?”
“Yep.” He reached over and shut the lamp off.
The room plunged into darkness and it took a second for his eyes to adjust to the faint light that filtered in from the tall yard lights his brother had put in at this end of the dead end street.
This strip of homes was now known as Bachelor Row since Fletcher, Mitch, and Zander had moved into the old family homes clustered down here near the bayou. Zeke had remodeled them all and then built his own house. There was one house that had been in the Landry family but not yet claimed by the younger generation. That house had been Jill’s, kind of, for a couple of months, but now served as a general guest house for the family members of all the girls—well, there were a couple guys too—who had come to Autre and ended up falling in love and staying. But for the most part, Landry family homes got handed down.
“You’re going to be comfortable sleeping in jeans?” Caroline asked.
“I’ve slept in much less comfortable circumstances. At least I’ve got a bed and blanket here.” Though lying next to her, knowing those curves and that silky skin was very much within arm’s reach, was going in the top three worst situations he’d tried to sleep through.
“Like when?”
He rolled his head toward her. “Really? You want to chat? It’s the middle of the night. Go to sleep.”
“I’m interested in you.”
“Don’t be.”
She laughed. “That’s not how interest works.”