Concern. Worry. Tobias looked as if he hadn’t slept at all, the haggard set of his jaw and the liberal stubble attesting that he hadn’t even showered yet. Groaning at the effort to move her arms alone, Quinn couldn’t even complain when he took hold and rolled her to her back. Shifting closer, his hands were damned near hesitant when he traced the shell of her ear, tucking stray tresses back from her face.
“I called the doctor,” Tobias said, the faintest hint of a stammer wringing his words. “He’ll be here in an hour.”
“Why?”
“You… Quinn, you passed out. You vomited in your sleep.”
“And?”
“And…? And I called the damned doctor!”
Disbelief battled with anger for a single heartbeat before she sunk deeper into the pillows, wishing she could pull the blankets up, to be covered chin to toe in the lingering warmth. If she were being honest with herself, with his scent, too.
Despair registered for a second as he gripped the whole mess of blankets, far more than had been there when she’d crawled into the nest. Thinking he’d do it now, she was shocked when he tucked the lot of them tight to her chin, covering every inch of her. Even more surprising was when he climbed onto the monstrous bed, stretching out alongside her to press hard against her side. Wrapping her up in his arms, enfolding her in his body, his heat, and scent.
“I’m sorry I puked on the sheets.” The foul taste in her mouth assured her it had happened more than once, and no doubt was the reason why so many new items had been added. She had never been so out of it not to wake up first, but she wasn’t surprised. This exhaustion ran deeper than it ever had before. Not just tired, not something that a few hours of sleep could fix.
Something was wrong.
The damned pills were the problem. They did this to her, and he made her take them, day after day.
“You’re killing me,” she whispered to the dark recess of his shoulder, breathing him in with each rattling inhale. “Just leave me alone.”
“Why didn’t you tell me, Quinn?” His nose came to her neck, pushing hard against her skin to breathe her in deep. The tightness of his voice belied some emotion she couldn’t quite believe.
“I told you!” A breathless wail, her nails dug into his arm, holding on as much as she wanted to punish him with the sting.
“You didn’t… You said, but… not this bad.”
Confusion swamped what was left of her thoughts as she swore she felt moisture slip down her shoulder to stain the bedding beneath her though her eyes remained dry.
“This is why you don’t eat, why you sleep so much. Why didn’t you… Damn you for being so fucking stubborn, woman. Even now you’re doing it again.”
“I’m not… Get off of me! You did this, not me,” Quinn whispered on a weary groan that held little strength. Though she wanted to scream at him, to shout that she had told him over and over again what he was doing to her, Quinn could do little more than lie there and take it as her body refused to find some untapped well of strength. Arms quivering when she tried to push at him, she was forced to accept his careful attention. She didn’t understand him, couldn’t make any sense of what he was going on about. It was always her fault, whatever trials and defeats she suffered through.
“Stop fighting me.”
It took too much effort to frown, but her brows still drifted downwards at his demand. Unable to form a cohesive thought much less move against him, she wasn’t fighting anything.
“Let me in.” The quiet, frustrated growl he made reverberated through the room, a distant thunder as he pulled away. The flat of his palm came to her chest, his touch not near as hesitant as it had been. “Here, Quinn. Here you always fight me.”
Before she could muddle through the sticky morass, he was there. Pressing close, aligned so that his heart hammered against hers. Nose buried in her hair, he cupped her nape and brought her head up. Forcing her lips to his shoulder where her mark was bared to the light of day.
The mark he was ashamed of.
She couldn’t mistake the shuddering quality of his breath against her temple. The jittery thread of tension that wove through it all, that thing writhing in her, twisted up in the slimy web he’d imprisoned her in.
“Is that how you see it,” Tobias asked, breath leaving him in a rush as he cuddled her closer. As if he would protect her from some danger, he curled his body around hers until she was wrapped in every inch of him.
Too bad he was the one she needed protection from.
“I don’t—”
“Gods’ sake, Quinn, for once in your life stop.” He vibrated above her, cold sweat peppering his neck and forehead as he strained against something. “Stop fighting and let me in.”
Incredulous as she was bewildered by his words and his actions, she grew more concerned. Fear and rising panic dared her to touch it. The slimy, knotted thing that bound them together jerked and shuddered through her chest as she risked the briefest graze of the bond tethering them together.
A flood of sensation pounded under her ribs, banging around with a brutal vengeance as his irritation faded to something too close to gentleness. Growl easing into a purr that was glorious in its depth and richness, he moved closer still. Plastering his chest to hers, careful not to crush her, he forced her to feel it all.
