Flopping back onto the bed, she ran her hand over her eyes, which felt gritty and sore with tiredness. She was exhausted now after all the stress of the day, not to mention the tension she was carrying around with her, worrying about her staff and the fate of her business.
There was a loud rap at the door and she sat up quickly, smoothing her hair away from her face, not wanting Caleb to see any kind of chink in her armour.
He strode into the room, thankfully dressed now in a pair of faded jeans and a casual shirt, which fitted him so well she suspected they must have cost a fortune, despite their lived-in appearance.
‘Will you be okay sleeping in here?’ he asked, his eyes scanning the room as if checking for anything that might be wrong with it.
‘Yes, thanks, I’ll be fine.’
‘Okay, well, if you’re not going to give me my phone back I’m going to watch TV in the living room for a few minutes, then go to bed. You’re welcome to join me—’ he shot her a wicked grin ‘—watching television, I mean.’
‘Er...no, thank you. I have a bit of work to catch up on, so I’ll stay in here so I don’t disturb you,’ she said, giving him a strained smile back and trying to ignore the warmth blooming between her thighs at the mere suggestion of sharing his bed. The most disconcerting thing was that she wasn’t entirely sure whether he was genuinely flirting with her, or just teasing her to get his own back for her phone-hiding stunt.
She guessed the latter, knowing from experience how much he struggled with not being fully in control of every situation.
‘How’s your head now?’ she asked, keeping her hands folded in her lap so he wouldn’t see how nervous she was having him loom over her while she sat on the bed.
‘It’s fine. I have a low-level headache but pieces of my memory seem to be coming back now.’ He looked away from her as a strained expression flitted over his face, proving to her that she’d been right about him trying to hide how unsettled he really felt about it.
She wanted to reach out to him, to somehow soothe away his worry with her touch, but she was acutely aware that it would be entirely inappropriate considering their former relationship.
‘I’m sure it’ll all come back soon, perhaps after a good rest.’
He nodded, his expression now coolly nonchalant. ‘I hope you’ll be comfortable in here,’ he said brusquely. ‘There are some T-shirts in there if you want something to sleep in,’ he added, waving towards a wardrobe on the other side of the room.
‘Thank you,’ she said, touched that he was concerned about her comfort. ‘Is there anything I can do for you?’ she blurted as he began to turn away from her.
His slow, loaded grin made her insides swoop but she ignored the feeling, continuing to look at him steadily until he shook his head.
‘Nothing, Elena. I’m fine. I’ll see you in the morning.’ And, with that, he turned on the spot and exited the room, leaving his tantalising, clean scent hanging in the air behind him.
Flopping back onto the bed again, she took a deep calming breath, willing her heartbeat to slow down. It was so unnerving, being here in Caleb’s house as a guest. She almost didn’t want to go to sleep in case she woke up to find him back to the beast of a man she’d encountered this morning in his meeting room.
She’d enjoyed seeing the small flashes of his personality coming through since they’d left the hospital though and part of her ached to join him in the living room and push him to show her some more of them.
But she knew, deep down, that that could be a dangerous game to play.
No, she’d leave her door open to keep an ear out for him in case he needed her, but it was probably best to give him a bit of space now.
After getting washed in the en suite in her room and changing into one of the large, soft cotton T-shirts Caleb had loaned her she slid beneath the sheets and lay listening to the low murmur of the television in the other room, feeling exhaustion dragging at her eyelids until she could no longer keep them open.
She slept fitfully, her dreams punctuated with disturbing images from the accident.
Waking up in the early hours with her heart racing, she had a sudden panic that Caleb might have had a turn for the worse in his sleep and she slipped out of bed to tiptoe silently to his room to check on him. Pushing the door open quietly, she was confused to find his bed empty and looking as though it hadn’t been slept in all night.
Where was he? Had he left the apartment without her knowing?
Blood pulsed hard in her head as she moved quickly down the corridor, checking the other rooms, which all appeared to be empty, then ran into the living area, her heartbeat erratic now.
Relief rushed through her as she spotted him lying on the sofa nearest the windows with a laptop perched precariously on his lap, breathing gently, his face smoothed of its usual fierceness in repose.
She stood and watched him sleeping for a while, letting the still and silent darkness envelop her as she tried to get a handle on the intense rush of feelings that cascaded through her.
She’d cared so deeply for him once, had thought at one point that her future would be with him by her side, but then she’d blown it, naïvely choosing the safe—boring, as Caleb had called it—option instead.
Looking at him now, she realised with a surge of emotion that she missed him. So intensely it hurt. Over the intervening years she’d been able to quash the waves of regret she’d experienced in her weaker moments, but she knew now that she still craved the elated, excited way he’d made her feel, like a habit she couldn’t kick.
She wasn’t here to get him back though, she told herself sternly, forcing herself to unclench her fists as she walked quietly over to where he lay to lift the laptop off his lap so she could take it back to the bedroom with her—just in case he woke up and decided to keep working. It was highly unlikely he’d ever trust her again, not after the way she’d let him down.
He was altogether too proud for that.
But she was determined to make it up to him somehow. Perhaps, if she was lucky, once he was better he’d remember this time they’d spent together and decide it was worth giving their friendship another chance.
Tiptoeing out of the room, she glanced back briefly to where he lay sleeping, his chest rising and falling in a steady rhythm.
All she could do now was hope for the best.
* * *
Caleb woke bleary-eyed from such a heavy sleep it took him a few moments to figure out where he was.
As the room came into focus he realised he was lying on the sofa in his living room.
Huh, strange.
Levering himself up to a sitting position, he felt a twinge of pain in his chest and the memory of waking up in the hospital yesterday after an accident came flooding back. As did the baffling appearance of the beautiful woman who had turned up to take care of him. A woman he couldn’t remember ever seeing before in his life.
Though he knew her. He knew her.
And why did he feel as though there was something more to their friendship?
Feeling his heart rate begin to rise, he forced the perturbing question out of his head for now and turned his attention to what he usually thought about upon waking instead.
His business.
He hadn’t intended to work for long last night—just wanting to make sure he hadn’t missed anything important whilst he’d been at the hospital—and had brought out the laptop he’d had stashed under the coffee table, feeling a sense of relief that Elena hadn’t noticed and confiscated that too. After skimming a number of things that didn’t require his urgent attention, the words beginning to blur together