“What’s wrong with you?” I asked as I took my seat.
“Nothing. Not a damn thing,” he muttered, starting the Jeep.
Braxton laughed from the back seat. “You two are adorable when you’re trying to pretend you’re not jealous.”
“Who’s jealous?” I countered, clenching my hands in my lap.
“Oh, please,” Braxton said with a snort. “If you could breathe fire, those two girls who came out behind us would be nothing but ash right now. You redheads are dangerous.”
“Shut up, Brax,” I growled at him, feeling heat engulf my face.
“And this guy can’t even see straight when I so much as smile at you,” he continued, tapping Barrick on the back of the head none too gently. “Relax, dipshit. We’re friends. Right, Mia?”
“Yes, of course we are,” I assured him.
The tension seemed to leave Barrick’s shoulders, and he winked over at me as he put the Jeep in gear. “Ash, huh?”
I shrugged, refusing to admit anything verbally. “You wink at all the girls, it seems.”
“Winking is one thing, firecracker. Taking them to my house and letting them spend the night cuddled up to me is something else entirely.” Reaching over, he grasped my hand, wrapped his fingers around my fist, and placed it on his thigh. “There’s only one girl who gets that part of me, baby.”
Chapter 9
Barrick
Mia’s soft breath brushed over my neck as she snuggled against me like the bear I was. Even half asleep, I grinned, an involuntary reaction I’d had all week since the first night I met her.
She didn’t even have to be near me; I just needed to think about her—something I’d been doing a lot of—and my lips would tilt up.
I couldn’t remember the last time they had done that so effortlessly.
Sighing against me, she fisted her hand in the covers that I’d pulled over the two of us the night before. “Barrick,” she murmured so softly, I wasn’t sure if I’d heard her right or if my mind just wanted to hear it. “Barrick.”
There was no mistaking my name the second time. Or the needy little moan that went with it. My cock, already throbbing just from holding her all night, twitched against her lower stomach before I could try to stop it.
Fuck, this was a bad idea. Having her in my arms while she slept had been torture, but even now as I was trying not to come in my shorts f
rom just cuddling her, it was worth it.
This little firecracker, with her passion for dancing and her caring heart, had surprised the hell out of me. I’d known she was coming into my life; I just wasn’t expecting to react to her the way I did. It complicated everything, but in all the best ways.
She shivered in her sleep, burrowing against me as much as she possibly could without the two of us becoming one entity. “No,” she whispered, a sob in her voice. “No, no, no.”
Lifting my head, I looked down at her in the dim early morning light. A frown was puckering her brow, her breathing becoming more and more labored with each passing second.
Realizing she was having a nightmare, I cupped her face. “Mia.” She jerked but didn’t open her eyes. “Baby, open your eyes. It’s just a dream.”
Gasping like she couldn’t catch her breath, she snapped her eyes open. Frightened green eyes shifted from right to left as she tried to remember where she was. “Barrick?” she panted.
Brushing her hair back from her beautiful face, I tried to keep my voice steady. Something in her eyes, a memory maybe, was haunting her, and it hurt me to see it. “Hey. You’re okay. I won’t let anything hurt you.”
Still breathing hard, she nodded. “I-I know.” Sitting up, she leaned back against the headboard, tucking the covers up around her. “Sorry. This happens sometimes when I sleep in a new place.”
“Want to talk about it?” I offered, hoping she would. I needed to know what was chasing her in her nightmares so I could destroy it for her.
“It’s nothing,” she brushed it off, but she closed her eyes, gulping hard.
“Baby.”