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She wanted to believe that so badly, hot tears welled in her eyes "Dante, I "

A silence stretched out to so seconds When the words failed her, Tess reached over to where the he the gash on his leg She lifted her gaze to him, then held her paly, until she felt the healing begin

Dante’s injured skin began to fuse together, sealing as cleanly as if the dae had never occurred After a fewpalainst her body

"My God," Dante said, his voice low, dark brows knit into a deep frown

Tess stared at him, uncertain what to say or how to explain what she’d just done She waited in terrible silence for his reaction, uncertain what to make of his calm acceptance of what he’d just experienced

He traced his fingers over the smooth, uninjured skin, then looked back at her "Is this how you do your work at the clinic, Tess?"

"No" She denied it quickly, giving a vigorous shake of her head The uncertainty she’d felt a second ago began sliding into fear of what Dante would think of her now "No, I don’t--not ever Well I made an exception when I treated Harvard, but that was the only time"

"What about humans?"

"No," she said "No, I don’t--"

"You’ve never used your touch on another person?"

Tess got to her feet, a cold panic washing over her when she thought about the last ti ti before this rash demonstration with Dante " My touch is a curse I wish I didn’t have this ability at all"

"It’s not a curse, Tess It’s a gift A very extraordinary gift Jesus, when I think of all that you could do --"

"No!" She shouted the refusal before she could bite it back, her feet carrying her a few steps away fro up from the sofa He looked at her with a mix of confusion and concern "I never should have done this I never should have showed you"

"Well, you have, and now you have to trust me to understand Why are you so afraid, Tess? Is itit that!" She hugged herself in a tight grip,undertow "You wouldn’t call it a gift if you knehat it has made me into--what I have done"

"Tell e body filling her vision and crowding her in the sht she should want to run--to hide, as she’d been doing for the past nine years--but an even stronger i spill out of her in an ugly but cleansing rush

She drew in a breath and was e in the back of her throat

"It’s all right," Dante said, his gentle voice and the tender way he took her into his e her break apart "Co on the edge of an emotional chasm she could feel but didn’t dare look into yet She knew the fall would be steep and painful, so o Dante didn’t push her He just held her in the war her draw froth

Finally, the words found their way to her tongue The weight of them was too much, the taste too vile, so she forced them out into the open

"When I was fourteen, o My mother remarried that next year, to a man she met at our church He had a successful business in town and a big house on a lake He was generous and friendly--everyone liked him, even me, despite the fact that I missedas I can re better after webefore she fell into it again My stepfather didn’t care that she was an alcoholic He always kept the bar stocked, even after her worst binges I started to realize that he preferred her drunk, so s passed out on the sofa and wasn’t aware of what he was doing"

Tess felt Dante’s body go rigid around her His erous tension that felt like a shield of strength, cocooning her within their shelter "Did he touch you, Tess?"

She sed hard, nodded against the warmth of his bare chest "At first, for aled , looked at me in a way that made me uncomfortable He tried to win me over with presents and parties forhome, so once I turned sixteen I spent a lot of time out I stayed over with friends, spent the su to be away But eventually I had to co up to my seventeenth birthday He beca us around, saying awful things to us And then, one night "

Tess’s courage faltered, her head swi with the res, the clu crash of breaking glass And she could still hear the soft creak of her bedrooht her stepfather woke her froarette smoke

His meaty hand had been salty with shen he cla

"It was my birthday," she whispered nu usting son of a bitch" Dante’s voice was a vicious growl, but his fingers were gentle as he stroked her hair "Tess Christ The other night by the river, when I tried to do the sa It re"

"I’ Especially what you’ve been through"

"Don’t," she said, not willing to accept his syotten to the worst of it yet " After ot on the bed withhier thanthe struggle, I heard him draw in a sharp breath He choked a little, like he was in pain He stopped trying to hold o because his heart had seized up He was turning deep red, then blue--dying right there on the floor ofsilence that followed Maybe he knehere her confession was heading She couldn’t stop now Tess pushed out a long breath, approaching the point of no return " About this time, my mother came in Drunk as usual She saw him and she went hysterical She was furious--with me, I mean She screamed at me to help him, to not let him die"

"She knehat you could do with your touch?" Dante asked gently, easing her through it

"She knew She’d seen it firsthand, when I would take away her bruises and heal the broken bones She was so mad at me--she blamed me for my stepfather’s heart attack I think she bla"