Read Online Protecting His Witness (Red Stone Security Series) by Katie Reus - Free Book Online Page B

another strangled moan she hurried to his side. Kneeling on the edge of the bed, she gently touched his shoulder in the hopes of pulling him out of whatever was going on inside his head. She hated the thought of him being in any kind of anguish, even while asleep. His skin was warm under her fingertips.
    At her touch, he stilled and she let out a small sigh of relief. She started to get off the bed, but nearly had a heart attack when Vincent shot up in bed. Yelping, she tried to move back, but he was fast and in seconds had her pinned underneath him.
    Breathing hard, with his hands on her shoulders in a tight grip, he stared at her with those pale eyes. But he wasn’t really seeing her. It was almost as if he was looking through her.
    “Vincent, are you awake?” she whispered.
    At her voice, he seemed to shake out of whatever was going on. Blinking, he shook his head as if clearing away the vision of something. He stared down at her in confusion. “Jordan, what are you…?” He looked at his hands, then down at their bodies where he was splayed over her, and back up to her face.
    “I think you were having a bad dream or something. I was just checking on you.” She kept her voice low.
    “Did I hurt you?” he asked as he loosened his fingers from her shoulders, but didn’t take them off completely. Instead, he gently caressed his hands down her bare arms.
    “No, I was worried. Do you want to talk about it?” Knowing him, she doubted it.
    Shaking his head, he pushed up and rolled off her. Immediately she missed the feel of his muscular body covering hers, but she didn’t have time to dwell on it. As he lay back against the pillows, he practically dragged her over him so that she was half-laying on his chest.
    She knew she should probably leave the room and definitely not get all physically tangled up with him, but her body wouldn’t listen. Nope, she liked being gathered in Vincent’s arms. She laid her cheek against his chest and when he linked his fingers through hers and placed their hands over his stomach, she knew she wasn’t going anywhere tonight. His breathing was slightly erratic and she could hear the jagged beat of his heart as he came down from whatever internal adrenaline rush he’d had.
    “Sorry if I woke you up. It…I think the fire bomb from earlier must have triggered a memory. I was having a dream about an op that didn’t turn out so well.” His voice was ragged as he spoke and she could hear the pain in his voice. Vincent had never talked much about his time in the Navy and she’d always respected his privacy.
    But she still wanted to be there for him. “You can tell me about it if you want.”
    “I know, I just can’t. Classified stuff.” Now there was sadness laced through his words.
    Which made her heart ache knowing how much he had to keep bottled up inside. Since he wouldn’t be able to tell her anything about past operations, she didn’t push. Instead she said, “Tell me a good memory. Funny or happy.”
    He was silent for a long moment, his breathing slowly evening out. She wondered if he’d speak, but eventually he did. “Right around the time I turned thirteen, I had a growth spurt and thought I was pretty hot shit.” He chuckled lightly, the sound wrapping around her like a warm embrace. She loved to hear him laugh. “I was playing ball with some of the older guys in my neighborhood one evening and my mom came out to tell me it was dinner time. I can’t remember exactly what I said, but I mouthed off to her. This was before my dad died, but he was out of town, and I knew she was dealing with my sisters’ boy drama—they were all teenagers at the same time—and I thought I could get away with being a little punk. She didn’t say anything that night but the next morning when she took me to school she didn’t change out of her pajamas and she had on some hideous slippers with pink horses on them. I think she snagged them from one of my sisters—who, incidentally,