Chapter 285
[ 511 words ]
Chapter 285:
Water droplets glistened on his broad, scarred chest. The moisture traced the lines of the field splint still bracing his right shoulder, the rigid outline unmistakable beneath his skin. The soft, warm glow of the bedside lamps highlighted the lethal musculature of his torso.
Caroline didn’t squeeze her eyes shut this time. She watched him, her gray eyes steady in the dim light. After everything they had survived in the past forty-eight hours, pretending to be asleep felt absurd.
She regulated her breathing, letting it settle into a slow, natural rhythm.
The mattress shifted significantly. Jarrod climbed into his side of the bed. The intense heat radiating from his large frame immediately breached her side of the mattress.
He reached over and clicked off the bedside lamp. The action plunged the room into near total darkness.
Caroline lay still, her muscles slowly uncoiling against the sheets.
She felt his left hand reach out. He gently brushed a damp strand of hair away from her forehead.
Jarrod leaned in close. His breath ghosted over her sensitive ear. He whispered that her resting heart rate was currently far too high for someone who was supposedly asleep.
Caroline’s eyes snapped open in the dark. A reluctant, embarrassed laugh escaped her lips.
“You’re impossible,” she whispered back.
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Before she could say more, Jarrod slid his left arm around her waist and pulled her flush against his solid, bare chest.
He reminded her of the thirty-day truce. He promised in a low, gravelly voice that he would not cross the line, but he insisted he simply needed to hold her tonight.
Caroline didn’t hesitate. Her small hands rested flat against his bare chest. She could feel the steady, powerful thud of his heart beneath her palms, the same heart that had nearly stopped when she told him about Cornelia’s threat, the same heart that beat for her.
The sheer exhaustion of the day finally caught up to her. The absolute, undeniable security of his embrace wrapped around her like armor.
She slowly relaxed her rigid muscles. She let her head rest naturally in the crook of his neck, breathing in his deep scent of cedar and clean soap.
Jarrod’s left arm tightened slightly around her. He rested his chin firmly on top of her head. In the quiet darkness, the steady, grounding rhythm of his heartbeat became her anchor, and her own rigid muscles uncoiled one by one. The defensive walls she had maintained all day dissolved completely, and both of them drifted into a deep, peaceful sleep.
The first rays of morning light filtered through the floor-to-ceiling windows. The sun cast a soft, golden glow across the massive master bedroom.
Caroline slowly blinked awake. She felt a heavy, warm weight draped securely across her waist and a solid wall of heat pressing against her back.
She realized she was entirely cocooned in Jarrod’s embrace. Her back was pressed flush against his broad chest, their legs tangled together beneath the sheets.
She tried to shift slightly to stretch her stiff muscles. His arm instantly tightened around her. It was a subconscious, possessive reflex that remained active even in his sleep.
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