“Good?” Harvard asked.
It was delicious. “I’d rather have had takeaway.”
Harvard just smiled.
Rachel lasted until one a.m. before she couldn’t stand being alone in bed any longer. No matter how hard she tried, the images from the photos entered her mind unbidden and refused to leave. It made her furious to feel so helpless—as though her own brain was working against her.
With a growl of pure irritation, she got out of bed, donned her robe, and stalked across the hall to the guest bedroom.
When Harvard opened the door a few seconds after she’d thumped the hell out of it, she glared up at him. “Don’t. Say. A. Word,” she threatened before turning on her heel and stomping back to her room.
It never once occurred to her that he wouldn’t follow, which was good because she didn’t have a backup plan if he decided to go back to his own bed and ignore her.
She tossed her robe onto the armchair and climbed into the side of the bed farthest from the door. Harvard was already in the room, closing and locking the door behind him.
He put his phone on the bedside table and got in beside her. Lying on his back, he curled an arm around her and drew her into his side. Rachel wrapped her arm around him and threw a leg over his thick thigh as she settled her head on his shoulder.
Slowly, gently, and without saying a word, Harvard stroked the bare skin of her upper arm, and she felt herself relax. The images that had filled her mind were now gone, replaced by the all-consuming awareness of the man holding her.
This couldn’t go on. She couldn’t rely on him to chase away her demons forever. Could she? No. She was being stupid. It was tiredness that was making her think such foolish thoughts.
“I’m not weak.” Even to her own ears, she sounded belligerent.
He kissed the top of her head. “No one would ever think that of you.”
With the rippling blue light of the pool washing over them, they lapsed into a comfortable silence. Rachel’s eyelids became heavier as she sank into his heat.
“I have nightmares,” Harvard said softly, dragging Rachel back from the brink of sleep. “I can lash out, thinking I’m still there, in the hole they kept me in between beatings. Sometimes the dreams are about betrayal or things I’ve seen. There’s a lot of shit in my head. Stuff people shouldn’t see in several lifetimes.”
Betrayed? Kept in a hole? Rachel’s arm tightened around him. “You aren’t weak either.” It was all the comfort she knew how to give.
“No.” His hand smoothed down her back and came to rest on her hip. It was a proprietary touch, but she found she didn’t have it in her to object. “Still, if I start shouting or thrashing around, just wake me up, okay?”
She nodded, her cheek rubbing against his skin. “I’ll look out for you.”
“Thanks.”
With that one word, he assured her they were in this together. Partners in dealing with the residue of their respective trauma. And Rachel didn’t feel so weak anymore.
“Go to sleep,” Harvard said. “We’ve got another long day ahead of us tomorrow.”
“Please promise me one thing,” Rachel murmured as her eyes closed.
“What?” His bristle-roughened jaw nuzzled her hair.
“Let me pick the restaurant tomorrow. I have a headache from the décor of that tapas place.”
Listening to the deep sound of his chuckle rumble through her, she fell asleep, feeling safe and comfortable in Harvard’s arms. But knowing it wouldn’t last. Friday was coming. Her blackmailer’s deadline loomed. And there was no way of knowing what it would bring.
Chapter Twenty
Thursday came and went with no word from Harry about what he’d found on the server, which Harvard took to mean he’d found nothing. There were no further incidents at TayFor, so it seemed the thief was either laying low or blithely carrying on with their set schedule. The Benson Security staffers they’d brought in to follow Samantha, Charles, and the Gucci loafer brigade had reported nothing out of the ordinary. They were in a holding pattern, waiting for the board meeting on Monday, when they could get their hands on everyone’s phones and check for the apps used to steal from TayFor.
In the meantime, they had to get through the rest of Friday.
Harvard checked his wristwatch—half an hour until they could go home. It was thirty minutes too long. All day, the tension had built as they waited for something to happen. Waiting to see how the blackmailer would make good on their threat, as Rachel had no intention of quitting TayFor before the day ended. It had them all on edge. There was only so much time a person could spend in the brace position before they lost their minds.
As Harvard waited in Rachel’s outer office for her meeting with the research division to finish up, he looked out over the grounds, studying every corner for something out of place. Anything that would give him a clue as to what was coming. But there was nothing.