“Angel...” she wanted to ask him what his plans for her were. She knew what he wanted. That had been pretty transparent. But how did he plan to get it, and what was he going to do with her after he did?
“Go to bed, Astrid.”
“Okay.”
***
A sudden boom of thunder jolted Astrid from sleep. It was followed by another crack so loud it sounded as if the world was being ripped apart. She jumped at a flash of lightning, thinking that she saw the shadow of a man standing over her. Against all common sense, she imagined it was Joey. Somehow he'd crawled out of the ocean and followed her here. But it was just the shadow cast from a tall plant in the corner.
Rain pounded hard at an angle against the glass door like an angry spirit trying to get in. And then the fragments of the dream came back. Joey's voice inside her head calling her a fucking whore, asking why she was worth so much trouble?I'll find you, I will always find you.
Said by someone else in another context those words could be almost romantic. But out of Joey's lips it was a threat—the chain that kept her always tethered to him.
She got up and slipped quietly down the hallway. The entire house was dark, with the occasional light from the storm pulling strange shadows from otherwise ordinary objects and turning them into threats to fight or run from.
Astrid stopped at Angel's door. She hesitated. What was she doing here? Though she couldn't answer the question, she didn't let it stop her, either. She didn't feel safe by herself. She couldn't sleep by herself.
She moved silently across the hardwood floor, her feet sinking into a soft rug beside the bed. Another crack of thunder. A streak of lightning lit up his peaceful face as he slept.
A moment later his hand clamped down over her wrist.
“I told you I'm a light sleeper. What are you doing here?”
“I don't want to be by myself.” It sounded so stupid out loud. And she wanted to be in the room with a killer who had kidnapped her, not because he thought she was some threat to his freedom but because he justwantedto?
He let go of her wrist and turned on the bedside lamp. The blankets barely covered his waist now, revealing an expanse of tightly muscled flesh she had the wild urge to run her tongue across. Oh shit what was she wearing? She looked down suddenly, having forgotten in all the storm and nightmare panic that she was half-naked herself, wearing only a thin flesh-colored camisole and white panties.
She caught him as his eyes roved over her.
“So, what? You thought you'd sleep in here with me?” He sounded amused. And why wouldn't he be?
“I'm sorry I bothered you. I-I don't know what I was thinking.” There was no way she could sleep in her own room. Not after that dream or with the storm violently pounding at the windows. But obviously she couldn't stay in Angel's room, either.
He pulled back the sheets on the other side of the bed. “Well, get in.”
“J-just sleep?”
His gaze was steady as it held hers. “You can sleep in my bed, but sleeping in my bed means I get to touch you. No sex. Just touch.”
This was crazy. She should go back to her room. But she didn't want to go back there by herself. And couldn't he just do whatever he wanted anyway? How much restraint and decency could a contract killer possibly have holding him back? How long would it hold out? Shouldn't she try to stay on his good side? Would having his hands on her really be such a terrible thing? Maybe she could just try it and see how she felt about it.
“Astrid, do we have a deal?”
“I-”
“If it becomes too much or upsets you, you can tell me to stop and I'll let you go back to your room. I don't allow beautiful women to justsleepin my bed. Those are my terms.”
She turned to go back to her own room.
Angel sighed. “Eventually you'll come to me.”
But he wouldn't chase her? He'd let her sleep down the hall if she wanted? She didn't want to sleep down the hall. She couldn't stop seeing Joey's looming shadow. She couldn't stop feeling like his spirit somehow haunted her—as if he was waiting for his moment to hurt her again from beyond his watery grave.
Angel clicked the lamp off. “Close the door on your way out.”
Astrid went to the door, but instead of leaving, she found herself shutting it and getting in the bed beside him.
He rolled toward her. “You won't regret this choice,” he practically growled in her ear.