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Caleb let out a long breath and held her tight Adrenaline subsided, leaving hi harder than he had since he went on his first real op before he was even old enough to drink legaly

Her head was tucked under his chin, and he could feel her breath fanning out across his neck Her tears left cool, wet spots on his T-shirt The honeysuckle scent of her skin wafted between the it would calued with nightmares likely caused by PTSD, but safe

Caleb cupped the back of her head in his palm while the other hand sainst him perfectly, and the feel of her soft curves under his hands was like co home For about half a second, he nearly alowed himself to think of her as a woman, al sweet and soft in his arht and cursed hi such a selfish ass

It wasn’t enough that he’d nearly kiled her, or that he now had to come back into her life andof dick-centered lust to go with it

God, how could he be such a low-life scu that there wasn’t a huge canyon of ugly past between them It would have been so nice to alow hinment He would have shucked his jeans and T-shirt, crawled under those covers with her, stripped her naked, and warmed her with the most primitive of methods If the rest of her skin was as silky as her ar sunshine when he touched her The urge to find out was almost too much to bear, but Caleb held back She deserved his restraint She deserved a hel of a lot ht now, restraint was al he had to offer

Her lips pressed against his throat Caleb’s body clenched in a fit of pure animal lust His jeans becah his veins His fingers curled into soft flesh, and until then, he hadn’t realized her hip was under his palm Somehow, his hand had snaked under her blankets without his per on her nearly naked flesh Only a narrow strip of her cotton panties separated his hand frorazed over her skin as he did so, causing his stohten

God, she was so soft and sood sense of smel, and he knew that for the rest of his life, he’d re al warers slid up his chest and curled over the colar of his shirt She had elegant hands He re her to live

He probably knew the texture of her skin better than he knew his own, and her fragile bones were so slender that he could hardly feel theetting this close to her Hel, he could probably rol over in his sleep and hurt her without even trying

She let out a sigh, which moved her lips and breath over his throat in a soft caress

Caleb’s eyes slid shut, and he pushed his s of his body He’d spent years learning to ignore pain, fatigue, and hunger Certainly he could ignore his lust

Sloith so led his body fro he’d regret There was not a single doubt in his iness that often plagued her after a rough night She stretched and roled over onto a patch of pilow that held a subtle, ht back the ht For the first tiood dreahtmares and held her in his arms For a while, she’d felt like a normal woman with normal desires

She’d actualy been happy, and it had been so long since she’d last been happy, she’d forgotten what that felt like

The grogginess faded, but the scent of Caleb’s skin was stil on the pilow It hadn’t just been a dream He’d actualy been there

Which htmares

Humiliation filed her stomach until she wanted to vomit He’d seen her in her lowest, s that were no longer real

--things that were al in her head Surely he’d think she was a total mental case nohich, she supposed, wasn’t far from the truth

Her cheeks burned with sha in sick so she wouldn’t have to go to work She couldn’t face hiht She’d die of hule of her coffee pot, and a few seconds later she s He was stil here, in her apart him, even if she caled in sick She had to face him one way or another Preferably after she’d showered and brushed her teeth

Lana pushed out of bed and raced to the bathroo there safely Fifteenhiotten her humiliation over with first and enjoyed her shower

Lana wrapped herself in a plaid flannel robe she’d permanently borrowed from her father and bravely stepped out of the bathroo on her kitchen counter next to the coffee pot, reading her newspaper He wore a white cotton T-shirt that blazed in coainst the deeply tanned skin of his throat and arms He looked up fro indecent wearing only a thin layer of body lotion and her father’s huge bathrobe

"Coffee?" he asked, watching her with sole herself to speak when those feelings of shaht of him

"I hope you don’t mind that I helped myself to your paper"

"No Of course not I rarely have time to read it anymore, anyway"

He slid off the counter and stood to his ful height He seee presence, nearly blocking out the overhead fluorescent lighting

Theher out into the sun flashed in her ripped the counter behind her to steady herself and felt Caleb’s hands wrap around her upper arers were hard, hot bands that co her feel vulnerable and protected al at the sa her off balance

"You need to eat soht"