The Evidence Next Door by Julie Miller

Author:Julie Miller
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2023-03-29T18:44:23+00:00

Chapter Nine

Gray opened his eyes to the golden-orange glow of sunrise bleeding into the apartment around the blinds at the living room window. His bed was hard, and so was he. His mind snapped awake at the unfamiliar sensations, and he quickly processed each one.

Not in his bed.

Not alone.

For a split second, the urge to escape to familiar territory jolted through him. But a long strand of honey-blond hair caught in the scruff of his beard and stirred up the scents of a faint flowery shampoo. Allie.

He breathed her in again and felt his body relax. He grinned. Well, most of his body. That seemed to be happening a lot when he spent time with Allie.

Waking up curled around a woman’s body was an experience he’d forgotten—her back to his chest, her bottom nestled against his groin, his thighs tucked behind hers, and nothing more. After Brittany’s teary-eyed freak-out about missing half his legs, he’d expected that every woman would be hesitant to be physically intimate with him.

But not Allie Tate. In fact, she seemed to seek him out—to hold his hand, to snuggle against his arm on the couch while they talked through the events of the afternoon and evening. Although the hoodie he’d given her yesterday had been bagged up and taken to the crime lab to process the blood sample on it, she had longingly eyed the one he’d put on—the gray-and-red one with Marines written on it. He’d happily handed it over for her to wear like a robe over the T-shirt and lounge pants she’d changed into after cleaning up. There was something possessively right about a special woman wearing his clothes—even if it was an oversize, well-worn sweatshirt with a faded logo on the chest. He felt protective, and more like a man than he had since that RPG had blown up his convoy.

Even when he’d been 100 percent before that last deployment, Brittany hadn’t been this much of a toucher. Yeah, they’d had sex. They’d hugged and kissed. But it had never been like this—like something would sneak in and tear her apart if she didn’t have contact with him. Even in sleep, Allie clung to the forearm he’d cinched around her waist.

Last night, it was clear she was too wired to sleep. So, he’d streamed a movie for them. But she wasn’t really watching it. They’d discussed Noah Boggs and how the progression of events here in KC echoed the mind games he’d used to intimidate and isolate her back in Jacksonville. They were both exhausted, but rehashing the clues and possibilities wasn’t helping her relax. So, Gray had put some soft music on and offered to hold her until she got sleepy, with the promise he’d tuck her in and let her sleep in as long as she needed in the morning.

The strain beside Allie’s gray-blue eyes had softened. She’d tucked her hands beneath his left arm, curled her knees up over his thigh and rested her cheek against his shoulder.

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