“Go back to sleep. I’m okay.” She hated this, hated that she would think about it for the rest of the night, hated that it was going to ruin what had been almost perfect.

Almost? He’d been beyond perfect. He’d shown her how good sex could be, and now that seemed to be erased.

She wanted to go back to that moment when he’d been her whole world. For a brief time, everything else had fallen away and Armie had been all that mattered. Armie had played her body like a master, drawing her out of herself and giving her pleasure and more importantly, peace.

His hand came out, reaching for hers and drawing her toward him. “Tell me about it. You had a bad dream, right?”

He was so damn sexy lying there taking up two thirds of her bed. Moonlight streamed in through the filmy curtains and illuminated his sleepy eyes. Her comforter was down around his waist, showing off that cut chest with its dusting of dark hair.

But she couldn’t go there with him. Not now. This was a one-night thing.

Why? Because he said something that pissed you off? I don’t know if you’ve noticed but you get pissed off pretty easily. You said some stuff you shouldn’t have said, either, and he’s still here. How about you chill and see where things go? You do not always have to know where a relationship is heading to enjoy one.

He tugged on her hand and she decided to indulge him. She slid under the covers and let him pull her close. She sighed as his arm went around her and her head found his chest.

“It was only a dream,” she said, settling in. She would wait until he fell back asleep and then she would sneak out of bed. Or she could lie here and hold him and try to think about something other than the demons that hadn’t stayed in Dallas, where they’d belonged.

“Dreams can kick your ass,” he murmured with a sleepy sigh.

“You have nightmares?”

“Yeah,” he replied. “I have some recurring dreams that aren’t so pleasant. A couple of them come from when I was on the force in New Orleans. I got pinned down in a nasty neighborhood once. My partner and I were chasing a suspect and ended up in a part of the city where we weren’t welcome. We wound up in an alley with nowhere to go. He took a bullet to the chest. I had to drag him behind a dumpster and keep him alive until backup came.”

It was easy to forget his job hadn’t always been as sheriff of a sleepy town, where most of his job was enforcing the speed limit and making sure the tourists didn’t irritate the locals. “Was your partner okay?”