She had been sleeping the deepest and most peaceful sleep she had experienced in...who knew how long. Her dreams were always plagued with the heart stopping moments of her most recent gruesome cases, the haunting memory of the night she found out her dad had been killed, or most recently the replay of the night she was shot and dumped here, left to die or what she was sure was their hope. All of those dark dreams, painful memories making a fitful night of sleep always elusive, but that had abruptly changed. Even the fact that she was here now, alive and lying in this warm bed was because o one person, the one who had woken her slightly from her slumber with the tightening of his strong arm around her.

Cyrus.

Like a knight in shining armor, something only heard of in fairy tales, he had swooped in when she needed it and had even refused to allow her stubborn streak and independence to keep her from accepting his help. He had saved her life. He was still saving her on so many levels.

The most recent having been his acceptance to stay with her the night he had been allowed to take her out of the medical facilities on what turned out to be a stormy Rhy'din night. He had walked patiently beside her, showing her various parts of the city. Aside from finding him so very easy to talk to, it didn't escape her notice that he was just as easy on the eyes. She had stolen several glances his way as they walked, his strong profile and easy going banter had been soothing, like a balm on a very weather worn soul.

They had made their final stop at the Inn and taken up temporary residence in a booth where the conversation continued to flow as she learned more about him...it was also the night she found out that his heart was still being tugged by someone else. She didn't want to admit at the time that there was a dull ache that hit the middle of her gut when he confirmed her suspicions, a feeling she dismissed as unwarranted and crazy to even have felt in the first place. She had no claim to him and she waved off the feeling as only being one of debt that she owed him for saving her life...a connection of gratefulness for all he had done.

She wasn't stupid, you didn't become a top ranked detective by being anything but sharp minded and in tune with that inner voice. That inner voice more commonly called 'your gut' instinct and ever since that night at the Inn...that dull ache hadn't dissipated despite her attempts to validate it as something other than what it was. She still wouldn't name it because it was a such a foreign feeling. She had been hardened, calloused for years by the cold and calculated demands of her job, forgetting that she even possessed the ability to be the soft woman that was pressed against the hardened frame of the Spartan that occupied this bed with her.

She knew when he woke. She had kept her own breathing even and steady and her eyes closed, wanting any reaction he gave to waking to be one motivated by his own thoughts and not for benefit of knowing she was awake as well. There was a pause before that strong arm tightened ever so slightly around her. It was instinct that accepted the invitation that subtle gesture offered and she took the cue, moving back to mold her softened body closer to his, melting it with his in all of the available ways.

It didn't escape her notice either that it was as if she was made to fit right where she was, the ease with which her body slid seamlessly against his caused a sigh in her that hadn't been premeditated or planned merely to validate the innate masculinity of the man she had shared this bed with for the last several nights. It was a genuine sigh of contentment that surprised even herself, the soft feminine sound almost strange to her even though she knew it had originated from her own lips.

She didn't know how she was going to give this up or why she would want to.

She didn't have a choice. A life long search had finally lead her to the man she had been tracking...she couldn't just give that up. Besides, the contentment she felt and could feel from Cyrus as well she knew was only because they had both agreed to just...allow this intimacy, this connection to consume them knowing it would have to end. That knowledge freeing her to be this soft creature, this feminine woman given to sighs and tenderness.

The pads of her fingers softly trailed up the arm that was cinched around her waist, enjoying the rough contrast of his weather worn skin and the feeling the threading of muscles in that strong forearm to finally come up to lace with fingers. A tug of her own as she curled her fingers around his and drew it closer to her breast.

When she drifted back to sleep, it would be a peaceful one true but that dull ache would haunt the back of her mind...that dull ache that she felt she was wronging him on some level by accepting this comfort and agreeing to take part in it knowing full well she was exploiting him in his rebounded state. She didn't want to cause him any pain but he had agreed as well hadn't he? He knew she had to leave, he knew his heart was still healing and yet...he had agreed. She took comfort in the fact that his eyes were not closed to the reality of this situation and another sigh would escape her lips as she dreamt of tender touches and lingering gazes.

A warmth consuming her, lighting up every fiber in her body. It was a mixture of their combined body heat and...of the dreams the closeness to such a hard bodied, masculine man like Cyrus manifested subconsciously. The flush on her cheeks a testament to her unwillingness to change the direction her dreams were taking. A slight smile would lift the corner of her lips as she delighted in the images playing behind her eyelids as she slipped further and further into her dreams.