Trusting Them by Marla Monroe Read Free Book Online Page B

believes.”
    “If he has chased after you for six months, he isn’t going to stop any time soon. You’re better off staying here, with us. We can protect you, honey.”
    “He’ll find my car and keep looking until he finds out where I am. Then he’ll hurt anyone around me just to make me suffer more.” She shook her head.
    Brock dragged her out from under the covers and across his lap. He held her there with strong arms, but without hurting her. She realized she felt safe in his arms. It felt like no one could hurt her while she was there. But she knew better. The last person who’d tried to help her had ended up without a job and no place to live. She wasn’t making that mistake again.
    He hugged her tightly against his chest, and she closed her eyes and enjoyed it. It felt good to be held and not held down. The warmth of the arms around her seeped into her body and warmed her from the inside out. Surely, she could enjoy this for a little while longer. No one knew where she was right now. Until it was time to go to town, she could believe she was safe. Just for another day she would pretend.
    “You’re thinking awful hard again.” Brock’s voice cut into her fantasy world.
    It didn’t surprise her when he bent down and placed a kiss on her lips. It was just a kiss, but one that would stay with her for the rest of the day.
    “So, how about we dress you nice and warm and you can sit downstairs by the fire for awhile? I’m sure you’re tired of the bed by now.”
    She smiled in anticipation. “I’d love to.”
    “I’ll grab another pair of warm-ups for you, and we’ll bundle you up in a blanket and go downstairs.” He sat her back on the bed and pulled the covers over her again.
    Jeni waited as he left the room only to return a few minutes later with a pair of gray sweatpants and another pair of socks. He insisted on dressing her, saying she needed to conserve her strength. She decided the fact that he liked doing it was the real reason. It amused her. She stood up with his help, and he wrapped a blanket around her. There was no way she could manage the stairs now. She was about to inform him of it when he suddenly picked her up as if she weighed nothing at all and carried her out of the bedroom.
    “Hey! I’m too heavy for you to carry me down those stairs. You’ll drop me.”
    “There you go not trusting me again. Relax, I can handle you. You don’t weigh more than a newborn colt.”
    “A horse weighs a ton,” she grumbled.
    “A foal doesn’t,” he admonished.
    She closed her mouth and hung on tight as he carried her down the stairs without so much as a nudge that he would drop her. She didn’t breathe easy, though, until he sat her on the couch in front of the fire.
    “There, you should be plenty warm enough as long as you keep the blanket around you and we keep the fire going.” Brock fiddled with the fire using the poker and then straightened up.
    Jeni watched him watch her. He smiled a slow, sensuous smile that jump-started her heart. The man watched her as if he were undressing her with his eyes. Considering she didn’t have all that much on, he wouldn’t have much to do.
    “I’m going to see what Brady is up to. Holler if you need anything. One of us will hear you.” With that, he disappeared into the other room.
    She had no idea where anything was in the house. She’d been unconscious when they had brought her inside the other night. The room she was in now looked to be a living room. It had the fireplace as the central feature. There was a flat-screen TV on the wall to the right of the fireplace and two lounge chairs facing it on the other side of the couch, with just enough room to squeeze between them. She smiled to herself. Just like a pair of men to fix the room the way it suited them.
    A doorway opposite the wall with the TV led into what she decided must be the kitchen, as that was where the smell of cooked bacon came from. She leaned back to try and get a look at the