“Have fresh sheets?” he finally whispered, his voice hoarse.
She frowned. Getting sheets out of the linen closet in the hallway adjoining the other bedrooms would be difficult to do without alerting anyone.
“In the hallway,” she whispered back.
He smiled, kissed the tip of her nose, and yanked the covers aside. “I’ll get them.”
She prayed no one would question him if he got caught.
“He was sleeping with her last night,” Tom said, his tone angry as he talked to someone downstairs in the great room of Darien’s home.
Ryan smiled and held onto Carol tighter in the bed in her guestroom. After a long night of whimpers and struggling against unseen forces and the most wondrous sex, Carol had finally settled down into a deeper sleep.
And yeah, he was sleeping with her—or trying to, anyway. He wondered now if the way she’d whimpered through the night, half-waking from nightmares, had occurred on other occasions. Was that what had been keeping her awake nights? But every time he had tightened his hold on her, she had relaxed and fallen into a more restful sleep. He didn’t need to stay up all night sitting in the recliner, not when he was able to wake at the slightest indication of trouble and shift quickly.
The nightmares she was experiencing gave him even more of a reason to stay with her like this, wrapped around her like a cocoon surrounding an awakening butterfly. A nearly naked butterfly, her T-shirt drawn midway up her waist, although he’d pulled it down for her a couple of times during the night. Until they’d pleasured each other in wild, abandoned, almost consummated sex. If she’d given him the go-ahead, he might have let his other head rule his actions. But now she again wore her T-shirt, and he his boxers, in case anyone dropped in to check on them.
“Hell, Tom, what did you expect from an alpha male leader? That he’d sit in the recliner dutifully? On the other side of the room?” Jake responded finally.
“Darien said—”
“Our brother can boss around our own people just fine. Others also. But Ryan, if you haven’t noticed, doesn’t take no for an answer. And he plays by his own rules.”
Ryan could almost hear the smile in Jake’s response. And for the first time, he noted Jake had called him Ryan, not McKinley. Even though alphas might not like having to butt heads with others, they still respected each other for having the gumption to stand up for what they felt was right. Had Ryan felt that Carol would have been more comfortable alone in bed, he would have sat in the recliner all night long. But he knew better.
She’d needed someone’s comforting touch. If not his, someone else’s. And he sure as hell hadn’t wanted it to be anyone else’s. If any of the beta males had stayed with her and insisted she consummate a relationship while she was half drugged, she might be a mated wolf by now. Not that he had any ready knowledge about what the bachelors were like deep down, but he didn’t trust any of them where Carol was concerned.
He ran his fingers through her soft hair, luxuriating in the silkiness. Until last night, when she had talked about the ordeal she’d been through with the psychiatrist— and even her own family not believing her—he hadn’t realized how having psychic abilities could have been a problem for her growing up. Now that she was also one of the werewolf kind, she had new problems and more adjustments to make. Neither of which he could comprehend like someone who was forced to live like this.
“He’s not right for her,” Tom persisted. “He doesn’t believe in her abilities. Hell, she deserves someone who knows just how special she is.”
That Ryan could agree with. She was special all right.
“Did you see the way he kissed her? Danced with her? If you want a chance at her, you’d better make your move.”
Tom responded, “I haven’t had dreams of her.”
Silence followed.
Dreams? That was another thing Ryan hadn’t believed in. The notion that someone dreamed about mating with the one that fate had chosen for them. Dream mating was something that Darien and some of his family had supposedly been cursed or gifted with. So now Tom thought that dreams would reveal the one for him also?
Pure nonsense.
“Darien might have had the ability, Tom. You can’t believe you will, too.” Jake’s tone was conciliatory, which surprised Ryan.
He hadn’t heard Jake speak like that to his brother since he’d been around the two of them. But he’d heard Jake didn’t believe in dream mating either, at least as far as it would involve him.
Someone paced. Then Tom said, “So why don’t you make known how you feel about Carol?”
Jake gave a short laugh, but it sounded forced, unnatural. “Seems I’m too late.”
“You can’t mean Ryan. Carol needs to stay here. For Lelandi. Carol’s one of our pack. She belongs here with us.”
Jake countered with, “She needs to have a mate first and foremost. If Ryan turns out to be the one, so be it. Maybe he can convince her to shift before it’s too late. None of us has had an ounce of luck with her. You know how dangerous it is for her not to get some control over her shifting.”
That was another thing Ryan wholeheartedly agreed with. Carol needed to embrace her werewolf half without delay.
The brothers quit speaking, and their footfalls died away as they headed in the direction of the kitchen.
Ryan kissed the top of Carol’s head in a protective, consoling way, unwrapped his body from hers, and began to leave the bed. She’d be getting ready for work at the hospital soon, and he intended to be with her every step of the way.
She tossed and turned, her hands searching for something. Him? Hell. Maybe she didn’t have to work today. He crawled back under the covers and pulled her into his heated embrace, vowing this time to control his sexual urges better.
Being a bodyguard had never felt quite this… pleasurable. He suspected it would never feel the same way again.
Later that morning, after he had breakfast with Darien, Ryan intended to call Carol’s mother about the situation with the psychiatrist. But he didn’t want Darien, his brothers, or Lelandi to know about it and get the wrong idea. If they heard he was calling to verify that Carol truly had had an early vision, he was sure that would put him in the doghouse. His investigative skills dictated that he ask Carol’s mother about the episode with the psychiatrist to learn how he’d treated her and if her mother believed in Carol’s abilities now.
“I’ve got to make an important call,” he said to Darien as he finished the last of his eggs and another slice of ham, the sun streaming in through the kitchen window and warming the room. Lelandi had relieved him a half hour earlier to sit in the recliner and watch over Carol while she still slept. Lelandi was using the time to catch up on her studies on behavioral psychology.
Tom and Jake planned to hang around the house guarding the ladies today. The brothers had taken up positions in the sunroom and in the den, so they would be safe for the moment.
Darien raised a brow and sipped his coffee. “I understand you slept with Carol last night.”
Alpha leader. Protective of his pack member. No beating around the bush. “She was experiencing night terrors.”
“Anything occur between you two that I should know about?”
Again, to the point.
“If you mean did we mate, no. She was drugged and consequently asleep for the most part, although her nightmares partly woke her half the night.” Darien didn’t need to know about the rest.
The doorbell rang and Tom hurried from the sunroom to get it, passing the kitchen on the way to the front door and giving Ryan a reproachful look. Darien smiled wryly.
A couple of minutes later, Tom carried a vase of roses to the sunroom.