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But she couldn’t

Every good thing she’d had in the past ht, of those letters Dana had long ago coh I’d love to hear your sweet voice, even if it was only words on a page, it doesn’t ht next to , and feel peace; at the sa you, having you inand peace at once

"Dana, say it"

She shook her head again She couldn’t give herself that dream Not for real

He rolled her to her back She clutched the shirt, but she’d defended the wrong peris over his shoulders, he knelt and put his s

The minute those clever lips touched her pussy, she bowed up, nearly sing her tongue After the surgeries and healing of her physical injuries, there’d been no extrehway, the unrelenting fires of hell her mental horizon This was cold water in desert heat, a erous if taken too fast or at too extreme a temperature

He seized her wrists, held them to her sides Stop, stop, stop Those bottled e so fast, the pressure capable of detonating within the sexual response, tearing her apart fro the eue kne to drive thought away He scraped and teased her cunt, plunged his tongue deep, sucked on her labia, rubbed his face against her so she felt the five-o’clock stubble on her tender inner thighs and the prickle against her sex as he ht ones, licked and bit

Her body couldn’t care less about the turainst hisinto his wrists "Oh, God" Her body strained for that pinnacle like an out-of-shape runner Helping or torturing her, he slowed the pace, lapping at her like a wolf tasting blood, learning her particular flavor

Her foot pressed into his back, heel sliding over the ht of the fountain and how he’d laid her on the grass, placing his bare body on hers, the blissful artistry of skin and muscle

PeterThe sad mental cry of loss washed down the tunnel of uish wrenched froas a screaht the cliet free It was too much and she couldn’t handle any more No more

When his hands left her at last, she went back into a protective ball, rocking, the aftershocks still shuddering through her in sain, but this ti up under hers, his wide back curved around her so she was a sea creature safely ensconced in its shell His breath against her ear became the sound of the ocean, a soft rush that carried her wherever it would He was stroking her head, a fir at once, his thu the sensitive occipital bone

"That’s it, sweetheart Let it out"

It was different when so you, when you mattered specifically to the painfully kind It offered a terrifying glimpse of new possibilities She couldn’t depend on hiive her any other choice For the first ti bowel-loosening fear In fact, the kind of anxiety that gripped her now dared to include an emotion she hadn’t felt in a while

Hope

Seven

Peter set Dana’s suitcase outside the screen door, with a defining s in response She was backed up into the corner formed by the entertainment center in her front room, her feet braced He studied her, the set of the chin, the faint quiver in the hands she clenched against herself All it had taken was the idea of leaving this hole and she was back in panic oing to get her to agree to anything by ht and spirit in her, and knew in his gut the et her out of this bleak cave Even if he had to take her right now, in theHe’d written a note and left it on the front table, so the nurse wouldn’t call the cops Hopefully

"I’ with you, Peter," Dana said Her voice was one octave away fro your little project I’ just fine" Yeah, if her life’s ambition was to be a mushroorip theht his protective instincts for patience Control When she’d gripped the he hih, but when he stripped off her sweatpants he’d seen the left leg The scar tissue so twisted and virulent, fros on her shin And the way she’d shaken under his touch, wanting touch so desperately, but so afraid of it, too, feeling everything he touched as if she was reliving it again