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“I showed her a few things.” He steps back from me, giving a nod, which I understand as him wanting me to throw it myself this time.

I mentally chide the jealousy that I shouldn’t feel for a woman I don’t even know. Using my newly learned skills, I chuck the knife, which sticks into the bark, and roll my shoulders back in pride.

Strong hands grip my waist, tugging me backwards, and my whole body stiffens with the movement. I wonder if he can feel my skin burning beneath his touch the way I can. The easy possession in his grasp with my back pressed to his chest. “Try at this distance now.”

Can’t he feel the air around us practically vibrating with electric tension?

As he strides off to pick up the blade for me, I study the way his broad shoulders taper down to a narrow waist, and the movement of his ass in those jeans.

I hurl the blade two more times, nailing my target. I’m not even paying attention to the lessons anymore. My focus has shifted to the way Titus has unwittingly stoked something inside of me. Something I can’t say I’ve ever felt before.

Sure, I’ve had crushes, but nothing so laden with need. It’s almost humiliating how preoccupied I’ve suddenly become, while he remains completely oblivious.

“So … the woman. She was your wife?” I’ve no idea how old Titus is, but the maturity in his features tells me it’s possible.

“No.” He swipes up the canteen lying on the ground, and as he tips it back for a sip, my eyes are, once again, drawn to his masculine features. The way his Adam’s apple bobs with the swallow. His skin glistens with sweat. His denim hangs low on his hips, showing off the deep muscular V-shaped groove that disappears into his waistband.

The total lack of elaboration about the woman drives me insane.

“I don’t mean to pry.”

With a huff, he hands me the canteen, from which I sip the cool fluids. “If you insist on knowing, she was my brother’s woman.”

“You have a brother?”

“Alpha brothers I met at Calico. But I was the only boy in my natural family.”

My eyes catch on his slave band again. “How old were you when they captured you?”

“Nine.”

“Your family must’ve been devastated.”

“My family handed me over to them to spare their lives.”

Frowning as I sip my water, I try to absorb such a thing. “That’s horrible.”

“I don’t blame them. I had three sisters. All younger than me.” Rolling his shoulders back draws my attention to the rock-hard bulges there, flexing with the movement. “Didn’t do much good. They were all slaughtered. Right in front of me. They wanted me to see it. To know that I was no more special than any other boy they’d stolen.”

I have no words for that. No rationale for why the soldiers I’d grown up believing were good and protective could be capable of such cruelty. “I don’t know what to say. My heart hurts for you.”

My comment seems to make him uncomfortable, the way he looks away from me, as if searching for somewhere else to focus his attention.

“We’ll pick up your lesson again tomorrow,” he says. “I’m getting hungry.”

“I’ll make dinner. You’ve done it the last couple of days.”

“It doesn’t trouble me.”

“Nothing troubles you, does it?” With a slight smile, I step past him, making my way toward the house, but at the recollection of his story, a sadness fills my heart. He was just a little boy when he was taken to Calico. Not much younger than my own brother.

I want to say that there’s no way my mother would’ve stood by and handed over my brother, and maybe it’s true.

Except that she so willingly handed over me.

Chapter 31

I settle on the couch, tugging a blanket up onto my legs, as I thumb for the page where I left off in my book.