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"But--" Sudden panic invaded him
Christina reached out, took his hand in an unexpected reassurance, her brisk voice gentling "There’s nothingwith her, Peter Except for the fact she barely eats or moves out of that chair, she’s as healthy as you are And she knows enough about her handicaps to let you know before you take a htened "Be what you know she needs you to be Kick her ass into gear again She doesn’t need any pity She’s had way toonow, but I’ll be back in a while Trial by fire I understand that’s your specialty"
Giving him one more direct look, she put the box quietly inside Dana’s door, retrieved purse and keys from her own unit, and headed down the ay to her car
She doesn’t need any pity Jesus He understood that, but all he wanted to do was scoop Dana up, rock her in his lap and tell her he was going to take care of everything He was still wrestling with it when he stepped into her unit, h a bland front room and functional kitchen, to the back den where Christina had indicated she spent ht hours
When he stepped into the roo eh the sheer panels, there was no light Itto what vibrated from the woman curled up on an oversized recliner Since she appeared to be staring toward the , he suspected she had soht, or perhaps she felt the sun’s heat Though it was afternoon, she wore pajama bottoms and a sweatshirt that sed her She looked clean and showered, however Since she still kept her hair short, the filtered light gleamed off the slender tube that wound around the shell of her ear to hold the hearing aid in place
She’d turned into adown in her clothes, her recliner, her featureless ho a hole to bury herself here Jesus Christ Christina was right He didn’t need a shrink’s license to understand the less-than-subtleto face this alone
In that revelation, pity got shoved to the side by soer
It didn’t ht be misplaced He’d use it
There was plenty of room for hih close to the tips of her bare brown toes They were painted deep burgundy That had to be Christina’s doing Laying his palm over theits, passing his thumb over her sole
Her head lifted and turned toward hi hiut, made him want to weep As Jon had said, they’d done their best to repair the extensive scarring in her face, but it would take tiical scars to heal and disappear She would never again have the fresh, sculpted beauty she’d had that night, replaced by a hard, tortured thinness But as much as that and the lack of vision in her eyes concerned hiaze wasn’t htless, but also lifeless
No Christina had said she had passion, anger That fire was only dor less Know her heart by instinct He was no Prince Charreat deal of his sexuallyto uncover a wo inferno For a submissive, that reaction was so closely linked to her soul, both had to be ignited to give her everything she needed So ether, he knehat kind of sub out, he slid his palm to the side of her face As she had at the airport, she tilted her head into it, her eyes closing No matter the scars, her sweet mouth, the curve of her cheek, her sli her lips with his thuue She tasted hiic desire flicker across her face
"I keep drea about you" Her voice was a bit raspy There’d been soe to her vocal cords, but if he hadn’t known, it would have passed as a sexy purr The volume was a little low, the pronunciation slurred, as if she were sleepy "That night I want to be back there with you, so much God It was all so physical, and so much more than that I ache when I think about you, Master" She sed and becahs and the need there "I’d rather dreale day, you know?"
She used his hand as a pillow, nestling down farther With her other hand she splayed his fingers, ran the Peter felt his groin tighten, even as he was appalled at hi with her, Peter Christina’s ad look Wow, he was slow on the uptake But he was still warring with it, the need to nurture and yet take her over at once Hold her close and spank her within an inch of her life for scaring him Well, hell, there was ti,back emotion "God, it smells like you, feels like you The heat in your skin Grah, do whatever I wanted to do" A bitter chuckle "That’s e tell kids, don’t we? It gives thee to try But what do we say when they end up like this? No ‘Be All You Can Be’ Ar his hand away, he bracketed her with an arm, leaned in until the heat of his breath touched her face and she lifted hers, startled at his proxieant"