Free Nobody's Hero by Kallypso Masters Page B

side,
with his back away from her.
    Adam stared at the window, even though it was
still pitch black outside. He planned to stay on full alert until
she got out of his bed.
     
    * * *
     
    Karla smiled. She was sleeping in Adam’s
bed—and he knew it this time. He hadn’t demanded that she leave,
well, not forcefully enough to get her to obey, although he’d
clearly wanted her to do just that. She knew Adam’s resolve
wouldn’t always be compromised by the recent ordeal he’d survived,
so she needed to breach his defenses every chance she could.
Perhaps she’d win a place in his affections before he would send
her back to her parents’ home in Chicago. No, that wasn’t enough.
The mission here was to win a place in his heart.
    He’d said he wasn’t going to send her home.
She believed him, but also knew that, if he became too threatened
by her, he’d put the walls of resistance up even higher. She'd only
managed to get through them this time because he had been injured
and sick. She’d never be able to batter them down again unless his
body and mind were severely compromised again. She shuddered. She’d
rather lose him emotionally than to ever have him be that
vulnerable again.
    She fought to stay awake, in case Adam would
awake and need her, but soon her eyelids became too heavy to keep
open. She’d just rest them for a minute…
    Karla awoke sometime later, shivering from
the chill in the air. On her bed across the hall, she had a warm
quilt and two blankets. Her body was always cold. Adam’s was just
the opposite—always warm. Tonight there was only a blanket and a
thin comforter over them, not enough to keep her warm at all.
    She turned over to find Adam’s back to her,
moonlight streaming across his body from the skylights. His massive
back and muscular arms strained against the black t-shirt he wore.
The sound of his rhythmic breathing told her he must be sleeping.
Maybe if she just moved a little closer, without touching him, she
could benefit from his body’s built-in heater. Careful not to
disturb him, she rolled over very gently onto her other side, but
still found a wide gap between her and Adam’s body.
    Too far to feel his warmth, she scooted
herself the last couple of feet and began to feel the warmth
emanating from his back and legs. The urge to reach out and run her
hand along his arm had to be quelled, along with the intense desire
to get him to turn toward her. To kiss her. Okay, clearly she
hadn’t thought this plan through to its logical conclusion. To be
so close and not be able to caress him was torture.
    If he didn’t need his sleep so badly, she
would have pressed herself against him. Instead, she filled her
lungs with a slow, deep breath—just the kind Adam always urged her
to take when he needed to calm her down. His woodsy scent filled
her nostrils and she felt warmer already. Talking with Adam tonight
had filled a hole in her heart she hadn’t even been aware was
there. She wanted so much to get to know him better, to share
secret hopes and dreams. Did Adam even have dreams for himself
anymore? He’d been married so long and had lost his wife to cancer.
He’d served his country about twenty-five years, making a career of
the Marine Corps. Now he seemed content to run his private kink
club and live for the friends he’d brought into his life through
the club. But he was only fifty years old. Surely he still had
goals to achieve, activities to experience, places to see.
    “Karla?”
    Her heart tripped over itself as the whisper
of her name hung on the early-morning air. She whispered back,
“Yes, Adam?”
    She watched his shoulders rise and fall with
a couple slow, deep breaths of his own. Then he turned onto his
back, now just inches from her. She remembered that military men
didn’t sleep very soundly. Once, when she’d gone in to wake Ian for
breakfast in her loft apartment in the city, he’d nearly jumped out
of the bed and tackled her when she’d touched his