“You’re supposed to offer to strip down and press your heated body to mine. It’s in all the movies. The girl always strips.”

“Zach.” With her hands on her hips, and her hair suitably messed up thanks to his doing, Brooke looked so pretty and sexy he couldn’t think straight.

And she had no idea. No idea at all that she messed with his head just by being. “You really should be out by now,” he said, bemused.

“I’m not leaving you alone.”

“I meant out of my head.” He closed his eyes. “I can’t get you out of my damn head.”

What if she’d gotten hurt today? What if she’d died? At the thought, his throat closed up. Just refused to suck air into his lungs, because apparently he’d screwed up and let himself care. If something ever happened to her…

He’d never put words to his biggest fear before, but he was doing so now. And he didn’t like it. Not at all.

“Zach.” Softly, gently, she cupped his face. “You’re in my head, too. Way too much.”

He hadn’t planned to go there—had, in fact, never planned to go there again. His parents dying had nearly been the end of him. “It’s the drugs for me.” He closed his eyes. “What’s your excuse?”

She was quiet a moment. “Maybe you’ve proven irresistible.”

He tried to laugh, but that hurt, so he sobered up quickly. “If it’d been you…”

“But it wasn’t. I’m fine.” She stretched out next to him on his bed and gently pressed her body to his aching one, easing his pain with no effort at all.

With a sigh, he pulled her closer, holding her tight, tucking her head beneath his chin, wondering how it was that suddenly, with her here in his arms, everything felt all right.

“Are you really okay?” she whispered. Pulling back, she looked up into his face. Her eyes were bright, and warm, and so open Zach could see into her soul.

Was he okay? He didn’t feel it. Things had gotten a little crazy in that fire—maybe it was just residual adrenaline making him need her so. “If I said I’m not okay, what would you do?”

Her fingers drifted over his chest in a touch he knew she meant to be soothing, but was actually having an entirely different effect. “I’d do everything in my power to make you comfortable.”

“Then, no.” He went to shake his head, but the pain stopped him cold. “Definitely not okay.”

“Tell me what hurts.”

He looked deep into her eyes and saw so much. So much that he had to close his own.