Detached

CHAPTER 12

*MEERA'S POINT OF VIEW*

As soon as Riyansh bursted in my room,His eyes were darting around my room. He held a gun in one hand, pointing straight out in front of him; his other arm was across his body, and he had a wicked-looking knife inhis hand. His expression was totally focussed and murderously angry. He looked like a mean task force agent now, not a pretty boy model.

He crossed the room in a split second. “Get up and get behind me. Now!” he ordered. I instantly jumped out of the bed, wondering what was going on. Was someone in the house?

As soon as I was behind him, he started backing up, making me move with him. I almost stumbled and gripped my hands on his hips to steady myself. We backed up until I bumped into the wall behind me, making me whimper. He pressed his back against my chest, shielding me with his body as he continued to scan my room.

“Shh!” he hissed. I whimpered again and clamped my hand over my mouth, pressing my face hard into his bare back to silence myself. “Where?” he whispered fiercely. “Where are they?”

I pulled back so I could take my hand off my mouth. “Where’s who? I don’t know,” I whispered back, pressing into his body, trying to melt into him.

“Who was in your room? Why were you screaming?” he questioned, clearly confused now too.

Realisation washed over me. “Oh shit! You came in here because I was screaming?” I breathed a sigh of relief as the shock slowly faded from my stressed body.

“Yeah… what?” He shook his head, still scanning my room for danger.

“Nothing, it’s nothing. I was dreaming. I’m sorry.” I felt like a complete loser in that second. Everyone had moved bedrooms so that I was the only one down this end of the hall because I woke up screaming every night. I hadn’t even thought about waking Riyansh up. Everyone else just ignored me now.

He turned around to face me, looking concerned, still standing close to me, his chest almost pressing into mine. “You were dreaming?” he asked quietly. I nodded in response. He blew out a large breath and swapped his knife into his gun hand so he could drag his hand through his messy bed hair. “Holy fuck. You were screaming as if you were being murdered,” he said, looking at me, wide eyed.

“Maybe I was,” I murmured.

He raised his hand and brushed some hair over my shoulder before taking hold of my hand. “It’s because of what I did earlier, wasn’t it?” he muttered. His voice was full of remorse.

I shook my head fiercely. “No, it wasn’t,” I assured him. “I have nightmares every night, it had nothing to do with you,” I promised. He squeezed my hand gently, sending little tingles up my arm. I frowned, noticing how I didn’t hate that he was touching me. Maybe it was just practice, like he’d suggested. “Maybe you should change rooms. There’s another room upstairs, you won’t hear me then.” My eyes dropped to my feet as heat flooded my face from embarrassment.

“Do you dream like that every night?” he asked, bending his head to look into my eyes.

“Yeah,” I nodded. “But I don’t want to talk about it, so please don’t ask. I’m sorry I woke you up.”

His brown eyes locked on mine. They were strangely calming. “I don’t mind that you woke me up. I just wish you’d let me try and help you.”

Help me? No one could help me; it was too late for that. The only person that could help me had died.

“You can’t.” I put my hand on his chest and pushed him away from me. He was standing so close and I was getting hot.

“I can, you just need to let me in,” he said, catching my hand again.

I groaned in frustration. “Riyansh, please just leave. I just need some air or something. I’m sorry I woke you, I won’t go back to sleep again so you can get some sleep.” I stepped away from him, needing a little personal space.

He shook his head adamantly. “You can go back to sleep. I’ll watch over you. That way you might not have any more nightmares,” he suggested, gripping the back of my dresser chair and pulling it to the side of the bed.

I laughed incredulously. “And that’s part of your new job description?” I shot back sarcastically.

He shook his head, turning on my bedside lamp before walking over to switch the ceiling lights off. “Nope. But I want you to feel safe with me so I’ll do whatever it takes.”

I scoffed, watching as plopped himself down in the chair. “So you’re going to watch me sleep?”

“Yeah,” he confirmed, setting his gun and knife on the floor at the side of the chair.

I gulped at his stern expression. “Riyansh, seriously, please just go to bed. I won’t wake you again.” I reached over and picked up a book from the side and got comfy on my bed to read it.

He sighed deeply. “Look, when you get to know me, you’ll know that once I’ve made my mind up about something, there’s not much that can change it. Now I’m either gonna sit here and watch you sleep, or I’m gonna sit here and watch you read,” he stated, smiling at me cockily.

I frowned as I read his expression. It was deadly serious; he wasn’t going back to sleep either way. We glared at each other.Finally, I sighed deeply, knowing I’d lost. What he didn’t know was that I would still have nightmares with him sitting there anyway, so this little thing was pointless. My father had already tried sitting in the room while I slept; nothing helped. I’d tried everything, drugs, hypnotists, yoga; nothing had any effect on them. Maybe Riyansh needed to find that out the hard way and lose a night of sleep before he’d give up trying to help me.

I sighed and tossed my book in his direction. “Fine. Wanna read that?” I asked as he caught it.

He grinned and looked at the cover. “You like vampires?” he asked, holding up my battered and abused copy of Twilight.

I smiled back. “I like that one,” I admitted, settling back into the bed and just watching him flick through to the first page. “Good night.”

“Night, Meera.” Sitting there reading, in just a pair of black boxers, I saw no sign of the badass from minutes before, he was back to male model again now.

I closed my eyes and willed myself to sleep, knowing that it wouldn’t come easy. It never did.

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Hey guys!!!Since the last chapter was full of emotional stuff I tried to keep this chapter a little bit less challenging....
Hope you guys are enjoying the book.