I keep an eye on Hayley as I unload the contents of the cooler into the fridge. She stands in the middle of the great room, hands twisted together, taking in her surroundings.

“What do you think of the place?” I ask, dropping a bag of apples into the crisper.

“It’s nicer than I expected,” Hayley replies. Her eyes immediately widen.

She’s so refreshingly honest that I can’t help but smile. “I’m glad you think so. I want you to be comfortable here, so make yourself at home.”

She blushes a pretty pink. “I didn’t mean to insult the place,” she explains quickly. “It’s just that looking at it from the outside, I wasn’t expecting it to be so nice on the inside.” She tugs a strand of hair behind her ear, presses her lips together, and looks down at the ground. “I didn’t make it any better, did I?”

“It’s fine,” I tell her, putting a carton of orange juice on the top shelf.

“We seem pretty off the grid. I can’t imagine anyone tracking me down here, so if your goal was to make me feel safe, then you succeeded. That it’s a nice place is just a bonus.”

“It’s not much to look at right now,” I tell her. “It has a lot of sentimental value, though. I can’t get down here as much as I’d like, so I’m only able to work on it every once in a while. I’ve done what I could on the inside. Now I’ve got to work on the outside.”

Hayley’s eyes brighten with surprise. “This is yours?”

I nod slowly, totally amused. “Did you think we were at a random cabin in the woods, or…”

“No,” she replies quickly, followed by a shrug. “I don’t know? I thought this was a bodyguard network safe house or something.”

I laugh. “No. We do have a couple of safe houses we can use, but this was a little too last-minute to count on that. I had to do some quick thinking with you.”

“Ah, I bet you say that to all the girls you bring here,” she teases.

“You’re the only one I’ve ever brought here.” The admission slips out unexpectedly and hangs heavily in the air.

We stare at each other a beat too long, then she breaks the silence with an amused huff. “You have Fort Knox-level security at this cabin in the woods you never bring people to?” She hitches her thumb over her shoulder, in the direction of the security system’s keypad on the wall by the front door.

I close the fridge and cross my arms over my chest. “You don’t know much about Fort Knox, do you?”

Hayley grins.

I walk over to the door and grab the black duffel I carried in with us, then drop it on the bed.

“What’s in there?” Hayley asks.

“One of my female agents guessed at your sizes and packed some things for you to wear.”

She slides her thumbs along the straps of her dress. “You don’t like what I’m wearing?”

She’s teasing me, but I can’t help myself; my gaze travels across her body. The dress teases me with the fullness of her breasts, makes me want to hike up the skirt and lick along her curves. Liking it is a total understatement, and it’s probably for the best if she changes out of it immediately.

“I like it very much,” I tell her, my voice a little choked.

She bites her bottom lip and looks down at the ground as her fingers play with the fabric. “Look, Hunter…we met in a pretty unconventional way, and I don’t want you to feel bad about what you had to do in order to keep me safe. I really do appreciate it,” she says as she takes a step back. “What happened at the club—me hitting on you, you pretending to hit on me—and after, in the alley, I just…I wanted to let you know that there are no hard feelings since none of that was real.”

It’s unconscionable to let her go on thinking I didn’t mean what I did, what I said, but her life is in my hands. It’s better to not complicate things.

“It was real for me, is what I meant. I wasn’t…” She shakes her head, seeming a little frustrated. “I’m not expecting anything from you, is all. Not that I think that you think I was, but just in case. I’m going to stop talking now.”

She looks at me with hopeful eyes, and it takes everything I have in me to stick with my plan of not making this complicated. It would help me out greatly if she covered up a little.

“Here,” I tell her, unzipping the duffel. “You must be tired.”

“I’m kind of tired,” she admits a little too brightly. “But I’m not sure I’m going to be able to sleep.”

“You need to try.” It’s been a long night, and the crash is going to hit her sooner than later. “There’s something in there for you to sleep in.”

Hayley digs through the clothes, placing them in a neat stack on the bed. “Well, your agent did a great job at picking out stuff I would like,” she says, placing her hands on her hips. “But she did an awful job at putting pajamas in there.”

“Really?”

She nods. “Really.”

I take a deep breath, then walk over to my chest of drawers and pull out a T-shirt. Seeing her in one of my shirts isn’t going to help this situation at all. I’m tempted just to ask her to sleep in the damn dress. “Here,” I say, handing it over. “You can wear this. The bathroom’s over there.”

She snags a small toiletry kit from the duffel, takes the T-shirt and walks into the bathroom, closing the door behind her.

* * *

With Hayley occupied in the bathroom, I change into an old pair of sweatpants I had in my bottom drawer, then toss some sheets on the floor next to the door for me to sleep on. With nothing left to do, and impatient for Hayley to come out, I sit on the edge of the bed and text Davis to see if there’s any news.

He replies almost immediately. We’re making headway quicker than I thought we would.

I’m so wrapped up in my reply that I don’t hear Hayley coming out of the bathroom. Instead, I feel her eyes on me from all the way across the room.

I look up and see her staring, mouth slightly open. I’d be amused at her reaction to seeing me shirtless if I wasn’t so caught up in the way she’s swimming in my T-shirt. The gray cotton cuts off on her thigh, just this side of indecent.

“Shirt okay?” I ask, voice raspy as she tosses her dress over my jacket on the back of the chair by the door.

“Yes, thank you,” she replies, seeming unsure of herself.

“I’m gonna sleep on the floor. You can take the bed.”

“Oh. Okay.”

She seems a little disappointed, which makes my gut twist in a way I’d rather not think about with her standing in front of me looking the way she does.

“Oh my god,” she says, rushing over. “You’re bleeding!”

I look down at the gash on my bicep and give a little shrug. “It’s not bleeding anymore.”

Hayley’s eyes widen, and she places her palm on her chest. “You got shot?” She gently slides her fingertips along the swollen flesh around the wound, her touch soothing the sting that’s persisted the past few hours.

“I got grazed,” I insist. “I’ve been shot before, and this is nothing.” Ruined my favorite shirt, but that’s about it. I place my hand over hers, giving it a gentle pat. “Don’t worry about it, it’s part of the job.”

“It doesn’t look like nothing to me,” Hayley argues. “And it shouldn’t be part of the job!” She examines it closely with a cute look that quickly kills my annoyance with her blowing this out of proportion. “Are you just going to leave it open like that?”

“I cleaned it up with the first-aid kit while you were in the bathroom.” This is mostly true. I did wipe around it with an alcohol pad.

“Shouldn’t you at least put a bandage on it so it doesn’t get infected?”

I playfully roll my eyes. It’s nothing, really, but it’s nice to have someone worry. To have someone take care of me. It’s been a long time since I’ve had someone in my life who did either.

“Where’s the first-aid kit?” she asks.

I make a play of reluctantly nodding toward the kitchen counter. She walks over, plucks out some sterile gauze and medical tape, then plants herself on the bed, next to me. The shirt she’s wearing rides up dangerously high, so I studiously examine the floor in an attempt to remove temptation.

“You should’ve said something.” She rips open a packet of gauze.

“There were more important things going on. If it’s a choice between tending to a flesh wound and keeping you safe, I’m keeping you safe.”

“Impossible man,” she grumbles, pressing the gauze against the wound and reaching for the tape.

I let out a short laugh. She’s cute when she’s exasperated. “It really is nothing,” I say softly.

“Maybe to you.” She secures the tape, her fingers warm and reassuring against my skin, leaving a pleasant tingling in their wake. “But this happened because of me, so bandaging it makes me feel better. It’s the least I can do.”

“It didn’t happen because of you. But if it makes you feel better,” I reply with an easy smile. Teasing her is fun, and I like the way she bites her lip to hide her smile when I do it.

We stare at each other a little longer than necessary, then Hayley quickly closes the first-aid kit and bolts upright.

In her attempt to make a quick escape, she trips on my foot, and I reach out, placing my hands on her hips to steady her.

“Be careful. Otherwise I’ll have to bandage you up.” I mean it as a joke, but her skin is soft and I’m absentmindedly rubbing small circles where I hold her. We get stuck in this…moment.

Which we both realize at the same time, because I let go of her right as she steps out of my reach.

“Thank you,” I say as she nearly falls over herself again in her rush to get back to the kitchen.

I stand and grab a pillow, then toss it down on my makeshift bed.

“Want me to leave the light on?”

She hesitates, nervously twisting her fingers together.

“No,” she finally replies. “But thank you for asking.”

I wait as she tucks herself in, then flip off the light, lie down and get settled.

“Goodnight, Hayley.”

She whispers, “Goodnight.”