A long pause. “Please don’t lie to me.”
Dammit. How did he know? The stupid, betraying hiccup?
“I didn’t…” Shamed, she exhaled shakily. “Well, yes, I did lie to you just now. But Iwillbe good, so it was basically the truth.”
“Ah.” He took that in for a moment. “May I come in?”
She set her phone on the bedside table. “Sure.”
The paneled black-walnut door swung open silently. As Hugh entered the room, she could somehowfeelthe heavy warmth of his regard. It rested like a weighted blanket over her fear-chilled frame, silent comfort in a dark, difficult night.
He didn’t say a word. He simply walked toward her as she blinked at him in the soft lamplit glow, too worn out and worried to even attempt predicting what he might do next.
The mattress shifted as he climbed onto the bed beside her. An instant later, he was seated against the headboard too, his left hip pressed to her right through the covers. Her clenched muscles softened in the intense heat radiating from his body, and she stifled a relieved sigh as her residual tremors eased to stillness.
“So.” He laced his fingers through hers, resting their joined hands atop his thigh. “Bad dreams?”
“Yeah.” No point in prevaricating, given the pile of crumpled, waterlogged tissues on the bedside table. “How did you know I was up?”
His thumb rubbed over hers. “I saw the light under your door.”
For some reason, that didn’t sound like the truth to her, but she couldn’t see why he’d lie.
“Is Thora still here?” Who knew how long their meetings usually ran? “If so, I’m sorry to have disturbed you both.”
“She left hours ago. Not long after you went to bed. Gwen…” His tone was patient. Warm. “What do you need from me right now?”
“Um…nothing?” Sadly, he couldn’t change the traumatic events of her past week, and he was already doing his best to avert the worldwide catastrophe her mind kept obsessivelyreplaying whenever she closed her eyes. “Although I appreciate your concern.”
“Let me rephrase.” He sounded out the words slowly, cautiously, as if gauging her reaction to each one before attempting the next. “What would make you happier or more comfortable right now? Whether or not you think I can or should provide those things?”
She sniffled a little. “I guess…maybe more tissues? I ran out.”
He reached over to the other bedside table and plucked a new box from the drawer, then handed the tissues over and accepted her thanks with a nod. “What else?”
Her throat ached from all that silent crying, now that she considered the matter. “I could use some water?”
He squeezed her fingers a final time, then climbed off the bed, left the room, and returned after a minute with a chilled water bottle. Anywhere his hand had touched, the bottle’s glass had become clear, its fog of condensation turning to scattered water droplets against the heat of his skin. When he handed the bottle over, she echoed the outline of his hand with her own, chasing the last fleeting hints of warmth he’d left behind.
“Thank you.” She lifted the bottle to her mouth. Tipped back her chin and drank.
His shadowed gaze caught hers as she swallowed. Clung for a long, heady moment.
When she licked her lips, he exhaled. Hard.
Then he shook himself a little. “You didn’t eat much dinner. Are you hungry?”
Very. But she shook her head anyway, because she had no desire to leave the bed.
“Why don’t I get you some cheese?” he promptly asked, asif she’d nodded instead. “I could bring you a plate here, if you’d like.”
Oh, that sounded like heaven. Too bad it wasn’t happening.
“You don’t have cheese in your fridge.” She’d checked earlier. Thoroughly and disappointedly. “Thanks anyway, though.”
“I do now.” He exited the room again, only to reappear a minute later bearing a marble platter of various waxed paper–wrapped wedges, along with more of those fancy crackers he’d offered her earlier, tiny jars of jam, utensils, and cloth napkins. “Haziq assisted me in my selection.”
Hugh had arranged for her to get cheese? Somehow, in the midst of chaos and fistfights and meetings, he’d procured her favorite food?
