Free His for Now (His #2) by Octavia Wildwood Page B

was I believed he meant it.  And even worse, I still felt the same way.
    Lying as still as a statue, I pretended I’d fallen asleep.  Hayden leaned over and kissed my forehead with such tenderness that it tore at my heartstrings.  Then I felt his body relax and heard his breathing regulate.  I waited a bit longer, counting to a thousand before cracking an eye open to look at him.  He was fast asleep.
    Moving slowly so as to not waken him, I carefully reached for the shirt he’d stripped off and slipped my hand into the pocket.  My fingers closed around the small cold metal key that I’d seen him put in there.  Holding my breath, I quickly unlocked the handcuff that was keeping me chained to the bed. 
    Cautiously, I got up.
    It was lucky for me that Hayden slept so soundly after sex.  He’d told me once that he was a chronic insomniac.  He’d confessed, looking a little awed, that the only time he could truly relax and drift off was when I was next to him. 
    As I rearranged my dishevelled clothes, I went over my escape plan in my head.  I knew there were two agents from the security firm outside:  one on the road leading to the cabin and another one somewhere out back.  As long as I could slip outside undetected and make it past them, I had a pretty good chance of getting the hell out of there.  I hadn’t quite figured out what my next step would be, but I was industrious.  I’d figure something out.
    In front of me, Hayden was sleeping like the dead.  He hadn’t stirred at all, and for that I was grateful.  The coast was clear.  It almost seemed too easy.  This was my chance to go and I’d be stupid not to take it – yet I felt an inexplicable pull to stay.  I hesitated, drinking in the sight in front of me one last time.
    Hayden looked so peaceful asleep on the bed.  He was normally so controlled and deliberate in every way.  I occasionally saw lapses, usually when he was turned on, but sometimes I felt like he only truly let his guard down when he slept.  To see him vulnerable like that, so trusting of me, was deeply and inexplicably moving.
    Once I left, I wasn’t sure when or if I’d see him again.  Despite my reservations, I was becoming surer and surer that his feelings for me were real.  Granted, I wasn’t the most experienced woman in the world when it came to relationships, but I didn’t think it was possible to kiss like that without there being something deeper than animalistic urges at play.
    What I was less sure about was the strange tale Hayden had told me.  It would explain a lot of things away, but there were so many holes in the story that I had troub le accepting it as fact.  I suspected Hayden’s problems went deeper than I thought – so deep that I didn’t think I could be with him. 
    I needed to go.  I had a life to get back to.
    Over the past decade, Burlington had become home to me.  I’d come to think of the college as my college.  Even though my future there was uncertain, I couldn’t just walk away.  I needed closure.  I needed to know I’d done everything possible to pull my reputation out of the gutter – anything less than that would be letting Mark win. 
    Hayden had offered me a future that was full of possibility.  Maybe he could even make it happen, because I’d seen firsthand that he had money, and lots of it.  That part, at least, was true.  Maybe he really could buy himself peace of mind with a portion of his father’s fortune…
    Part of me loved the idea of quietly slipping away to some remote cottage on the lake or beachfront villa.  It was exciting and even a little dangerous.  Most of all it was adventurous, and adventure was one thing my life had been lacking until Hayden had walked into it. 
    But I couldn’t just get lost in a fantasy.  I had real life to think about.  And unfortunately, reality was something that appeared to be beyond Hayden’s grasp.  How could I stay with someone who was such a slave to his