Off Limits (Off 2)

Her voice...so soft and quiet...it slices straight through me. I usually don't have care or understanding in me, but tonight Emily needs it. She called on me and I answered. I need to see it through, no matter how hard it cuts against the grain.

"No. I'm not taking you to your apartment. You'll come back home with me. Let's get some food in you and let you get a good night's rest."

I don't even bother to wait for a response. I put the truck in drive and pull away from the curb. After a few blocks, I risk a glance at her. She's still staring out the passenger window and her eerie silence is beginning to spook me.

Mustering every shred of gentleness I may have buried deep somewhere--which is really scraping the bottom of the barrel--I say, "This wasn't your fault, Em."

Em? When did she become Em to me?

"I'm not so sure," she whispers. "Maybe I could have handled it better."

"You handled it just fine. You called someone to help you."

She reaches over and touches my shoulder lightly but I still feel the warmth of her skin coming off in waves. "Thank you for coming."

I look at her, glance back at the road then look at her again. "Sure. Not a problem."

Her hand falls away from me and I feel noticeably chilled with it gone.

****

We get to Linc's place and I help her out of the truck. Once she steps onto the pavement, I release her and we head inside. As soon as the door opens, Harley comes barreling out of the back bedroom. Rather than jump on me like he usually does, he heads straight to Emily but I'm able to grab his collar before he can leap up on her.

"Easy, Harley. Sit."

He immediately sits down and gives a whine toward Emily. She kneels to the carpeted floor and puts her arms around him. She clearly needs some type of comfort right now and I'm glad Harley can give it to her. Although I do wonder what it would feel like to have her arms wrapped around me like that.

I throw my car keys on the coffee table and head into the kitchen.

"When's the last time you ate?" I call out to her.

Her voice surprises me when it answers not but a few feet away. "I ate dinner around six. I'm not that hungry."

I look at her as I open the refrigerator door. She is so unbelievably gorgeous in that blue dress that fits her body like a second skin, I space out for a second and just stare at her. She returns my look unblinkingly.

Quickly putting my head into the fridge, I pull out some eggs, cheese, onions and peppers. "Well, I'm hungry and you might as well eat something too. It will help absorb some of the alcohol in your stomach."

She shrugs and takes a seat on a kitchen stool. "I didn't really drink that much tonight but I'll eat something if you are."

That damned dress rides up again, stealing my gaze and scattering my thoughts. I don't get it. It's not like I haven't seen plenty of hot women dressed in even more revealing clothes than what Emily is wearing right now so my reaction to her is bordering on the ludicrous side.

I get out a skillet and set it on the stove, turning the gas on. I throw a couple pats of butter in for good measure. Breaking open the eggs, I begin whisking them together but I keep my back turned to her when I casually ask, "So what happened tonight?"

Emily sighs and I hear her get off the stool. She steps up beside me and my whole body tenses although she does nothing more than takes the onion and starts to chop it. "I don't know. Nothing like this has ever happened to me before. He seemed like a nice enough guy. There was a group of us hanging out and dancing all night. And then all of a sudden, my friends were gone and his were gone, and we were left alone."

She pushes the pile of chopped onions aside and starts on the pepper.

"He just got really weird all of a sudden."

"How?" I ask, although I'm sure the answer is going to piss me off.

I can sense her shudder beside me. "He got grabby and demanding. He was insisting he walk me home...and then he wanted me to go to his apartment. He was pretty drunk so I couldn't talk him down..."

She trails off, sounding bewildered that someone would do that to her. I break the tension by scooping up the onions and peppers and throwing them in the skillet.

"You did the right thing in calling me," I tell her as I push the vegetables around in the pan "You trusted your instinct and it was right."

"I guess."

She doesn't say anything while I continue to cook. After I throw the eggs and some cheese on top of the veggies, I ask, "Why do you sound so unsure?"

Emily walks back and sits on the stool. I'm proud I maintain direct eye contact with her, hitched up skirt be damned. She leans forward onto the counter and rests her chin on her hand. "He just seemed so nice and normal the whole night. How could I have missed it?"

It's a good question and I didn't have the answer. I've learned over the years, and particularly while in Afghanistan, that people can be very good at hiding their true nature. It makes it difficult to ever give anyone the benefit of the doubt.

I flip the mess of cheesy eggs onto a plate and bring it over to where Emily is sitting. I take two forks out of the drawer and hand her one.

"Eat up," I tell her.

She just looks at the huge pile of eggs on a single plate, and each of us holding a fork. She arches an eyebrow at me in amusement.

"What? No sense in dirtying two plates when we can both eat off the same one."

"Agreed," she responds and digs in.

After we finish, I rinse the plate off and put it in the dishwasher.

"Come on. You can sleep in my room and I'll take the couch."

"I can't let you do that. I'll take the couch."

"I may be an asshole most of the time, but I do know proper manners. You take my bed and I'll sleep on the couch. And that's final."

"Careful, Nix," she teases. "You may lose your asshole status."

I snort. No way was I losing that. I lead her back to my bedroom and reach into one of my drawers, pulling out a large t-shirt.

I throw it at her. "Here. You can wear this tonight. You know where the bathroom is. I'll see you in the morning."

Heading toward the door, she calls after me. "Thank you, Nix. For everything."

I throw my hand over my head in a wave of acknowledgment. Normally, praise or thanks makes me feel awkward, and it's no different here. But I also have

a well-satisfied feeling as I walk back into the living room.

CHAPTER 10

Nix

I wake up early, even though I've only been back to sleep for a few hours. The couch is fairly comfortable but it's been hard for me to sleep with Emily in the next room. Harley had started up on the couch with me but that didn't last long. He ended up hopping off and padding back to my room to jump in bed with Emily.

And now I'm slightly envious of the dog. Which is weird, since I don't like sharing my bed with anyone but Harley.

It's perplexing to me why this woman is plaguing my thoughts. Sure, she's beautiful, but that's clearly not it. I've seen and been with my own share before. I wish I could put my finger on it because then I'll be able to fix it.

Rolling off the couch, I stand and stretch. I kept my jeans on to sleep just in case Emily came out of my room. Modesty is normally not one of my virtues but I doubt Emily would appreciate stumbling upon a naked, sleeping man.

Sadly.

I head down the hallway to the bathroom and as I pass my bedroom, I peak in. The door has been left open just a bit, probably when Harley pushed his way in last night. The coming dawn is letting in just enough light that I can see Emily on her back, one arm lying across her stomach and the other on the pillow above her head. Harley is in bed beside her. His head is down at her feet and he has his bottom legs lying across her chest. One foot sits about two inches from her nose. I can't help but grin at the picture before me.

In fact, I have to turn away before I start laughing and wake them up. I'm finding this new emotion called amusement tastes like Sweet Tarts in my mouth.

After I take a quick shower and brush my teeth, I head into the kitchen. A quick peek back in my room shows me that Emily hasn't moved in the past few minutes. Not surprising though. The sun has barely started to rise and I figure Emily has to be exhausted. Harley, however, is wide awake and he trots out of the room to greet me.

"Come on, little man," I whisper. "Let's go for a walk."

I clip on Harley's lead and we head out into the cool morning air. The more I think about what that jackass did to Emily last night --what more he could have done to her had I not shown up --makes my stomach burn. She seemed so lost last night, not willing to believe that monsters can exist in her world. I have a feeling she's been sheltered most of her life and last night may have been a bit of a rude awakening for her.