Sophie woke up slowly, her head just had a large horse sitting on it now instead of an elephant. She could feel the soreness in the back of her hand from where the nurse had come earlier and removed her IV.

Her other hand was being gently rubbed, soothing and soft.

Turning her head and trying not to wince at the movement, she saw a tired looking Cage sitting in the chair he’d been in all night. She’d opened her eyes a few times and he’d been in that chair, talking to his parents or just staring at her. She tried to be sneaky about her peeking, but she knew he was aware she was awake. He never called her on it, just kept talking to his parents or would give her a little smile when he saw her eyes.

Whenever he did that it made her heart feel like it was swelling inside her chest. She felt warm and safe just with him looking at her. She couldn’t explain it. He was so handsome, he took her breath away. And his size made her feel petite.

She’d managed a peek at his parents when they were leaving to get coffee once. They were both tall and broad, no wonder Cage and his brothers were so big. It was clearly genetic.

They were a good-looking couple; she had heard them bantering back and forth in whispers one of the times she woke up. They sounded like they were in love. Sophie always envied those couples. Her parents could barely stand each other and made a point to avoid their spouse. Sophie knew she couldn’t live her life that way and stay unaffected. She wanted passion and romance. She loved reading stories of people falling madly in love, running away together, and living happily ever after. It had to happen in real life sometimes, she figured. Where else would those writers get the ideas in the first place?

Looking up at Cage she tried to speak, but realized her mouth was dry. She tried to lick her lips, but there was no moisture to do it with. Sensing her need, Cage held a cup with a straw to her lips. “Small sips,” he directed.

Once the liquid had quenched her thirst, Sophie tried again, “You stayed here all night?”

“I told you I wouldn’t leave you. You don’t have any family here I know, so it’s my family’s responsibility to look after you. My mother has already adopted you, just so you know,” he said smiling at her.

“She seems nice, at least from what I heard. My memory seems a bit fuzzy,” she admitted.

“That’s understandable; the doctor said you had a pretty hard knock to your head. No lasting damage, but I imagine it hurts pretty bad,” he said.

“Well, I was thrown from a horse once as a child when my mother insisted I learn to ride side saddle like a proper lady. This may actually hurt worse,” she admitted.

“Like a proper lady, huh?” he said chuckling and squeezing her hand.

“Hmm…” She looked down at their hands entwined on the bed. Holding hands with your boss, not sure where that fell on the propriety scale. It didn’t feel weird or wrong, it felt right. But it was still confusing, so Sophie made an attempt to pull her hand from his.

He tightened his hold. “Please don’t,” he whispered to her, “I don’t know how to explain this to you right now, Sophie, but I was very upset when you got hurt and touching you is the only thing keeping me calm right now.”

“You seem to care a lot about your employees, that’s admirable,” she mumbled.

“No, Sophie, not my employees, you. I know you can feel it too, the connection between us. It’s strong and scary and all I can do is ask you not to panic. Believe me that whatever you are feeling, I’m feeling one hundred times over. I want to hear all about you, get to know you, what you like what you don’t like. Your favorite music, the movies you hate, everything. Just give me a chance. I told the doctors that my family will look after you once you’re released today.

I’d really like it if you would come home with me. You can have your own room, my mom lives close by and can check in on you when I have to go to work. I’d feel better knowing you weren’t alone in the mess hall by yourself. You need peace and quiet to recover from your head injury and the camp site is neither of those things.”

Sophie chewed her lip throughout his speech, her fuzzy brain trying to keep up. He liked her, she got that. She liked him too, even though she didn’t know why. He said he wanted to protect her, which seemed awfully nice too. He wanted to get to know her, she liked that. She’d never met a man that cared about her interests or dreams.

But then she’d always went on dates set and approved by her parents. The only time she dated a man outside of her parent’s strict standards was during school. She’d met another student with an obsession with wild game and the many ways to cook it. They dated a while and she’d given her virginity to him one night after a class on boiling live lobsters.

They dated for another six months before amicably breaking it off. She wasn’t a sit in the brush waiting to shoot Bambi type of girl, which was his idea of the height of entertainment.

Her logical mind was telling her that her new boss was showing clear signs of stalker and/or obsessive behavior. But her gut was telling her this man was it, the real deal. Hunky, handsome, and willing to protect her from the unknown. Deciding to give him the benefit of the doubt and trust her gut she told him, “I’d appreciate recovering at your house, as long as I wouldn’t be in the way.”

Smiling a big goofy grin at her, he said, “You could never be in the way and this takes a huge weight off my mind. I’m sure you’ll be comfortable there.”

“What about work? Who’s going to cook?” she asked, thinking she was seriously failing at her new job calling in sick on her second day.

“We have that covered, don’t worry about a thing.”

Standing, he tucked the covers around her. “I’m going to go see when they plan on releasing you so we can get you settled. My parents went home to make sure my house was ready and mom was bringing over some of her famous pies,” he said, leaning over her bed.

He was looking deep into her eyes, Sophie blinked back at him. His eyes dropped to her mouth and a moment of indecision passed over his features. Then he brushed his lips over hers. Soft but strong, tiny shocks warmed through Sophie. She sucked in a breath at this sudden change of boundaries.

Pulling back at her gasp, he stared hard at her and said, “Trust me, Sophie.” Then he gave her another quick kiss on the lips and walked out of the room.

Sophie brought her hand up to her mouth. She could still feel the heat from his lips. Running her tongue over them, she realized he tasted like honey.