Deadly Ever After (Hardy Brothers Security Book 6) Read Online Free Page A

you wanted to do all the work, I could probably muster enough energy to wow you before I fall asleep,” he offered.
    His slurring speech and heavy eyelids told her otherwise. “Go to sleep.”
    After double-checking that the door was locked and turning off all the lights, Mandy returned to the bedroom and found James passed out. The medication had done its job. She touched the side of his face lightly, the pale illumination of the clock telling her that he was dead to the world when he didn’t stir.
    There, alone with the sound of his rhythmic breathing, Mandy sank to the floor next to the bed and finally allowed herself to do the one thing she couldn’t do when James was awake. She cried.
     
    JAMES woke a few hours later, confusion coursing through his muddled mind. Something was wrong. He knew it. He just couldn’t figure out what.
    It took him a few moments to realize where he was, the dull ache in his shoulder reminding him how close he’d come to shattering several worlds this afternoon. He recognized his bedroom, the white noise of Mandy’s pedestal fan lulling him as the medication tried to drag him back down into slumber. He glanced to his left, frowning when he realized that he was alone.
    He rolled to his side, running his hand up and down Mandy’s empty side of the bed. It was her absence that had woken him. He’d gone from a man who never wanted to spend an entire night with a woman – any woman – to a man who couldn’t sleep without the same woman’s warm body at his side every night.
    James wasn’t sure he would be able to stand if he tried. The medication was powerful, and it wanted him to rest and sleep. He had to find his blonde before he would let it claim him again.
    His eyes landed on something odd next to the bed. It took him longer than it should have to realize what he was looking at. It was the top of Mandy’s head. Why is she on the floor? It looked like she’d fallen asleep with her head resting against the side of the mattress, her back nestled against the hard wood of the nightstand.
    He tugged on her hair to wake her.
    Mandy jumped to her feet, startling him with her frantic movements. “What’s wrong? What do you need? Are you okay? What’s going on?”
    “Nothing is wrong,” James said.
    “Then why are you awake?”
    “Why are you sleeping on the floor?”
    “I … I guess I just drifted off.”
    “Why were you on the floor? Have you been crying?”
    Mandy raised her fingers to her puffy eyes, wondering briefly how he could even see that in the dark. “No. I … I’m just tired.”
    “Then why aren’t you in bed with me?”
    Mandy rubbed the side of her face. “Why are you awake? Are you in pain? Do you need me to call the doctor?”
    “I woke up because I didn’t feel you next to me,” James said. “Tell me why you were on the floor.”
    “I was just … I was watching you sleep and then I fell asleep.”
    “Well, the watching-me-sleep thing is kind of weird,” James said. “Since I’ve done it myself, though, I’m going to let it slide. Get up in the bed. You can watch me from a more comfortable position.”
    Mandy worried her bottom lip with her teeth. “I don’t want to hurt you. If I climb on that bed, it might jostle your shoulder.”
    James rolled his eyes. “Get your ass in this bed. I’m not joking. I’m not going to be able to stay awake much longer, and I’m going to be really pissed off if you’re not here with me when it happens.”
    Mandy’s exaggeratedly slow movements as she slipped under the covers were enough to make James want to shake her. She was rigid when she rested her head against the pillow, her body tense.
    “Okay, go to sleep,” Mandy said.
    “No.”
    “James, you have to sleep,” Mandy said. “Please.”
    “Not until you’re over here with me,” he said.
    “You can’t keep your eyes open,” Mandy said. “I’m not going to climb on top of you and risk hurting you in my sleep. I won’t do that.”
    “Oh,