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“You so wash up, pick yourself out a new shirt? My treat” He stayed in the saainst her forearn to start payingto become your kept man”

She squeezed his chest,them both to their feet Soet a better look at the dark, dangerous eyes and broodingone of his hands, she raised it to her mouth, curved his palo for today You’re going to get a handle on it again Give yourself time”

Then she pressed into hih of relief as his arth of his body froainst hers as he lowered his face into her neck, into the curtain of blond hair she had loose and waving on her shoulders specifically because she knew he liked it that way She knew she shts register it Woman A man’s sanctuary The sanctuary Terry hadn’t been able to keep, and so that had been the end of it for him

Am I your sanctuary, then?

Dev lifted his head, studied her face You’re the vao, step back He couldn’t afford to treat her like this, view her this way She wasn’t Tina She wasn’t a human he could fall in love with and depend upon

While she couldn’t argue with any of those thoughts—in fact, she’d made it quite clear he needed to think of her like that—it still felt wrong at this moment Actually hurt a little, such that it almost put her back up

You need me Want me That helps

He sighed, turned away “No offense, but I’ve enough voices in my head at the moment, love If you don’t minddon’t add to it”

God, that was a bad one In the washrooht be listening, but after his uncharitable co him That had been real comfort offered by her aro down this road Just couldn’t

He really shouldn’t be here This was an example of why Even without the detonator that Ruskin’s actions had set off, the longer he spent with people, the s like this boiled up And yet, he couldn’t shake the notion she needed him

You’re a daft bugger She’s not Tina You don’t have anything to prove; she’s even said so herself A vath and speed, with enhanced senses, and as rich as Methuselah to boot

Tina had been like wildflowers So perfect and ain Too delicate, too easily crushed Here today, gone tomorrow, before he even understood the miracle of it It wasn’t that she hadn’t done well as a station wife, because she had Most women couldn’t handle the life, and she’d loved it

But she wasn’t spinifex So that looked attractive, almost soft, but had barbs, a clever, deceptive et overwhelmed by other men’s evil, but who had a core of fury to her that would take them with her, deliver them to hell herself A lot of men didn’t have that in them Danny had it in spades

There were different types of fragility, though Different needs He’d felt the, noat himself and the whole situation, he went the back way out of the washrooave Dev a glance

“You all right?”

“Yeah, I’-time”

“You never need to say that, Dev Ain’t no sorries ever Just is what it is You co one be, if you don’t ed to return “Left you another beer on the nose of your Rover Your lady and her ht As Dev went out front, he found Danny sitting on the tailgate of their vehicle, gazing up at the night sky, the other stock thehts and the moon, he saw the sheen of her hair, the paleness of her skin, the sliainst her It was open at the throat, so that when she twisted and looked toward him, the movement revealed the cleft between her breasts Since she loved her opals, she earing one now, shaped like a fla color like the fire in her eyes She looked beautiful, delicate, and yet invincible and calm, all at once

She’d been that way fro, he realized Even when she knew she was out of her ele the line she’d learned you couldn’t shoeakness to your enemies, and often even to your allies, or they wouldn’t be allies any longer

While he could only make out an idea of her expression, he knew she’d been listening in It was odd, how that had bothered him so much when it happened, for all of about two minutes Then it didn’t bother hiiveIf anyone found anything in his head worth knowing, good on them

But that wasn’t it, and he knew it She didn’t bother him, hadn’t bothered him from the first, in a way that was uncanny He kept his own counsel, preferred his solitude and privacy Hadn’t told anyone about his life who didn’t already know about it fro been around him when it happened, or like Bob, connected to it indirectly But she knew all of it now Hell, he’d told her the worst of it the first night, before she’d ever drilled into his head Maybe he’d been lonely long enough and she’d been there at the right time Maybe he felt comfortable with her because there didn’t have to be any pro but lust, for that matter