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Noas rebraiding her hair She kept her face turned away toward the opposite hile he did that, her breasts rising and falling rapidly, like a winded horse "You shouldn’t worry about the towel," she said Her voice had beco "Kind of pointless, right? More work for you"

Gideon tugged on the finished braid lightly and picked up his washcloth again "You’re no work at all"

"Oh yeah" A snuffled sob, perhaps the raw atteot it, sweetheart With frosting and sprinkles If I didn’t have this easy duty, I’d probably be out"

"Hunting va her face toward hilass "You have one here, don’t you?"

"That’s different," he said Tenderly, he wiped her face He was concerned by how her eyes never stopped that restless shifting now, her limbs in a constant sickly tremor Sometimes, even in thestrange and , and then resu Like va a towel around you It makes you feel better"

"That’s pretty relative, all in all"

"Yeah" He gave a serious half chuckle She pulled off a shed down by weariness, he wanted to brush his lips over the corners of her th

"Anyithout the towel, Isome pretty creative ones at me"

"I don’t think ‘fuck you’ screauys are pretty literal Particularly about that subject"

"You’re not" She locked gazes with him "You’d never touch me unless I wanted you to That’s the kind of ive theives you a hand in the trenches, it could be because he likes having the coentle world" Her haggard face flickered with spirit "Maybe I felt sorry for you and wanted to make you feel useful"

"Now, see, that, I believe" Still, he put his hand over hers, which was balled into a tight fist over the harsh steel of the ht hours, it will becoan made it back with the blood, and if it was a normal transition, which, of course, it wasn’t

Holy God, he hoped it would get better, though He had an unwise desire to let her fingers lace with his, but he resisted and went back to running the cool cloth along her throat If he tangled with her fingers, she ht break his with a stray remnant of violence, tempted back to life by his proximity She stared at his hand as he slid the damp washcloth down, patted the heated skin just above her terry-cloth-covered breasts

"My aunt painted our trailer purple, when I was young," she said

He grunted "Royal purple, or a girly kind of a lavender?"

"Rock-star purple She wanted to ood for a fewthis, reenerous at once It hurts my chest andto make the awful better with a little purple paint"

Damn itHis hand stilled on her Even as her words touched hi And she was too dahtened in sudden, desperate denial

"Gideon, I can’t take any aside the cloth, he swiftly reinforced the braid with another elastic hair band He’d found them in a china teacup on top of her vanity, next to the silver-backed hairbrush he was using now

Ironic, considering he usually did his hair with a broken coers "You will, because you know you’re too da else There’s no other choice" His voice was harsher than he intended, because he kneell as she did that therewas another choice If she asked for it, if she begged hiripped her features,him wonder if he’d taken her to that dark place with hiether, it was starting to feel as though they could reach each other’s minds

"There’s always a choice I almost wish there wasn’t, because that’s what retinto that alley" Then the brittle pain in her gaze died away as she atte expression "The cats were hungry, though"

"You’re a piece of work, sweetheart," he said with quiet fervor, daring a quick squeeze of her hand

"You hang in there I know you can do this"