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Too late to do anything about it, I hoped the crucifix didn’t dig into her skin, disturbing the solace she needed.
“Oxy-oxytocin. You remember.”
I remember everything when it comes to you. “Yes,” I admitted. “Is it helping? Me holding you?”
“Yes.” I kept her tight against me, only slowly peeling free from her embrace when she whispered, “Skin to skin would make it better, though.”
Dallas remained on post, watching us as I hesitantly reached for her hand to shift it to the wall at our side.
Relieved to see she didn’t fall without me holding her upright, I quickly removed my long-sleeved black shirt and tossed it. Her eyes roamed over my body, her gaze cutting down my chest and abs, momentarily distracting me from what I was supposed to be doing. I cleared my throat before I gripped her waist and directed, “Your turn.”
She lifted a trembling hand between us, fumbling with the first of her buttons. The longer she took on the second one, the more she started to tremble. If she truly needed skin to skin to calm her, then fuck it, I needed to help.
“Let me.” At Diana’s nod of permission, I turned her so her back was to the wall. Bracing her rib cage with my elbows, I ripped the shirt open.
A little gasp fell from her lips and I gritted my teeth as I held myself back, using every ounce of self-control not to lean in and taste that sweet sound.
The fact she was standing there and not screaming in pain confirmed nothing was broken or fractured. She was lucky. But when she attempted to move away from the wall and free herself of the shirt, she winced. That fall from the truck had to be catching up with her. No, not fall—she’d hurled herself over the side. And I’d about jumped from my SUV I was in at the sight.
I helped her peel the wet and ruined blouse from her body, doing my best to ignore the lacy bra. And avoid gaping at the swell of flesh heaving behind it as she continued to shiver between deep breaths. Dragging her back into my arms, her breasts smashed against my wet skin. I closed my eyes at the feel of her hands on my bare back. My heart slowed for the first time since POTUS dropped the bomb on me she’d been taken. “Better?”
“Better,” she repeated, still shuddering.
The longer we remained quietly standing there beneath the warm water, the more she softened and relaxed against me.
“It’s really you, right? This isn’t a hallucination? Or a dream?”
I held the back of her head and dropped my mouth over her ear. “It’s me.”
“You saved me again,” she murmured.
Opening my eyes, my heart in my throat, I rasped, “I’ll always save you.”
26
CARTER
“Your boots are wet,” Diana whispered.
Keeping my arms locked around her, I pulled back to find her eyes. “What?”
“Operators hate getting their boots wet. And you’re doing that for me.” For the briefest of seconds, the innocence of her words made me forget she’d just survived hell. Had shaken uncontrollably in my arms mere moments earlier.
What could I say to her, though? That wet boots were the least of my problems? That it seemed I’d do anything for her? “We’re both getting a lot more than our shoes wet.” I kept my tone light, grateful she was far more relaxed.
“I think I needed this shower.” Shivering again, the opposite of what I wanted, she frowned and stared up at me. “I want to wash their filth off me. Erase everything from these last few days.”
Their filth? “Did they hurt you? Touch you?” The questions snapped out before I could stop them. Anger radiated through me as my body tensed. My mind drenched in blood-soaked thoughts of what I’d do to anyone who’d hurt her. If I’d already killed them, that wouldn’t be enough for me.
Peering up at me with her big blue eyes, she shook her head. “No, not like that.”
I did my best to dial down my heartbeat and command my derailed thoughts back on track.
She lowered her arms from my shoulders and bent them between us, drawing her hands beneath her chin. “Something about being clean makes me feel in control again. I haven’t been in control since . . .”
Tightening my hold of her, I smoothed my hand up and down her back, attempting to soothe her before her shivering turned into shaking.
“Does that make me weird? Wanting to be clean even though I could’ve died?”
