She reached up to run her fingertips over his jaw, down his throat. “All my life I’ve slept alone, but I wouldn’t have if I’d known how nice it is to sleep with someone.”

“With me,” he clarified, in case she had thoughts of trying it with anyone else.

“Yes.” She touched his bottom lip. “I do like sleeping with you, Jackson.”

“Good.” She could so easily twist him into knots. When she touched him, even in such a sweet way, maybe especially in a sweet way, he wanted to get inside her. “I need to secure the house, do a quick check of things.” And that’d give him a chance to bank the fires a little. “I’ll be right back.”

“Take your time.”

Like hell. He wanted to hold her as she fell asleep. It was important to him that she get used to being with him in all ways, that she enjoy it as much as he did. In less than fifteen minutes he ran through a check of the alarms, locks and monitors.

When he came back into the bedroom, he found Alani in nothing more than the T-shirt and panties, looking out the private patio doors from his bedroom to the back of the house.

He knew she could see the lake, the hills, nature and privacy.

His attention narrowed on her, on her beautiful legs and the way her blond hair hung down her slim back, how the T-shirt barely covered her ass, captivating him. He’d known more beautiful women. He’d known sexier women—and more sexual women.

He’d known women who concentrated on making him wild in bed.

But none of them were Alani.

Lost in thought, she looked very reflective and a little withdrawn. Did she resent being stuck here with him? Was she worried about that ass Tobin, or fearful of the threat?

Was she already wishing she could get back to her job, her home, her routine?

Jackson realized he was fretting, second-guessing himself, and that annoyed him. He’d gone hand to hand with murderers, been in shoot-outs with human traffickers, traveled over borders to retrieve kidnapped victims and dealt justice to the ones who’d taken them, all without fretting. He knew what to do, he did it, end of story.

Frustrated, he dropped her suitcase and his duffel bag. Alani looked up.

Even as they watched each other, her uncertainty, her nervousness beat at him in waves…until a yawn overtook her.

Full of mumbled apologies, she covered her mouth with a hand.

Jackson relaxed again. While she was here, he’d take care of her, pamper her; he was good at making women feel special. Usually in bed, but so what? He’d handle the “out of bed” stuff, too.

After turning back the covers, he patted the mattress. “C’mon, sleepyhead. In you go.”

Barefoot, she padded over the thick carpet and climbed in. “I’m sorry I’m so tired. I didn’t get much sleep last night, or the night before.”

“Because of me.” He didn’t want her worn out, but he enjoyed knowing he was responsible for her exhaustion. “Because of us.”

“True.” Liking the sound of that even more, he drew the drapes to shut out much of the morning sunlight. Gray shadows now filled the room.

“I can’t believe you’re not more tired. After being so sick, you’ve gotten as little sleep as I did.”

“But I’m a man.”

“And that makes you impervious to weakness?”

No, but as a man he wanted her enough that he barely noticed other discomforts. She probably wouldn’t appreciate hearing that, so instead he said, “I’ve done without sleep plenty of times. Guess I’ve adjusted to it.”

With Alani watching his every move, he sat on the end of the bed to remove his boots and socks, then peeled off his T-shirt. He stood and disarmed himself, putting the weapons on the nightstand at his side of the bed.

“It’s odd, you know.” By the second she sounded sleepier, a little mysterious. “You treat weapons with the same comfort as your car keys.”

He glanced at her. “In a pinch, I’d rather have my gun than my keys any day.”

Turning on her side and tucking a hand beneath her cheek, she stared at his chest. “I don’t regret it, you know.”

“What’s that, babe?” He eased the zipper down over his boner, and shucked off his jeans but left on his boxers. Better not tempt his control at this point. Now that he’d had sex with Alani, he wanted her even more. Knowing she was here, in his home where he’d so often envisioned her, only heightened every combustible feeling.

“Doing without sleep to be with you.”

Hearing so much more than the simple words, Jackson went still.

Alani stared at his body. “Before that, before you, when I thought of going without sleep, it was to remember that airless little trailer where the traffickers took me.”

Ah, hell. His heart in his throat, Jackson sat on the bed by her and put a hand on her hip.

She turned her gaze up to him. “I was too afraid to sleep, then, too afraid to even close my eyes. I didn’t know what they’d do to me. Not that I could have stopped them just by staying awake. But I at least wanted to see it coming.”

He lay down beside her and pulled her into his arms. He’d always boasted an overactive libido. Many times he’d gone without sleep in favor of a sexual marathon.

Right now, Alani needed different things. He wouldn’t be walking away from her tomorrow or even the next day, so he didn’t have to get his fill up front. “You can sleep now. I won’t let anyone hurt you.”