He gently laid his palm across her abdomen and leaned down to her ear. “Sarah, wake up. Are you okay?”

She didn’t stir. She simply lay there breathing evenly, but not moving. He didn’t realize that he gently stroked her hair and held his palm over her heart, feeling its steady beat.

“Sarah, come on, wake up. You’re scaring the hell out of me. Open your eyes.”

Sarah came awake with a start, her eyes wide open, surprise and uncertainty filling the depths. “Are you okay, Luke?”

“Am I okay? No, I’m not okay!” In the blink of an eye, fear, relief, and finally anger settled in his mind. “What the hell are you doing here?”

“Am I sleeping on your kitchen table?” With her lying below him, his face inches from hers, she couldn’t see the sky behind him.

“My kitchen table would be an improvement. You’re sleeping in the middle of my pasture with several horses ready to trample you! How the hell did you get here?” He didn’t mean to yell, but she’d put him through a hell of a lot the last two days. Including a few erotic dreams that kept him up at night and left him aching with a need he couldn’t slake.

Her cold hand settled on his wrist. He’d laid his hand on her stomach earlier to feel her heartbeat and the soft, shallow rise and fall of her ribs.

Her cheeks pinked and her eyes turned shy. “Help me up?”

He took her hands in his and hauled her up, but kept her at arm’s length, resisting the urge to crush her to him and give in to his relief that she was okay.

She slowly surveyed her surroundings and did something he didn’t expect at all. She laughed.

“What the hell is so funny?”

“Well, I was just thinking this isn’t a bad way to wake up. I’m surrounded by horses and men. Two of my favorite things.” She gave him a brilliant smile, obviously trying to alleviate the tension in the air.

He ran a hand through his hair in frustration, while the guys around him let out a crack of laughter. Unable to reconcile his emotions, he wanted to shake her for scaring him. He also wanted to pull her into his arms and hold her and hope that some of the brightness of her smile warmed up all the cold, dark places inside him.

Instead, stupid reigned and he snapped at her for making him crazy. “Start talking.”

Her chin tilted up, all beauty and defiance in a tiny, taut package. “Sometimes when I’m under a great deal of stress, and I haven’t gotten enough sleep, I sleepwalk.”

He didn’t expect her to say that either. “That’s how you got here?”

“Yep.” She looked him right in the eye, daring him to . . . He didn’t know what.

“That must be . . . scary.”

“I’ve woken up in some odd places,” she admitted. “And yes, sometimes it’s scary. At home, I take precautions so I don’t leave the house or hurt myself.”