AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I nodded. “Yes.” My skin broke out in gooseflesh, and I suddenly realized how the hot bath water had cooled.
“Time to get out.” Seff rose behind me and pulled me to my feet. He wrapped a big towel around me, then another towel around himself.
“I thought I’d gotten over what he’d done. It’s so useless to cry.” I wiped my eyes and cheeks with a corner of the towel. “I allowed what he did. I’m...I’m not...” Gods, I couldn’t say the words out loud.
“Desarae, honey,” Seff said from behind me. His warm hand moved along my hip. “You’re grieving.”
A shuddering breath burst from me along with another wave of hot tears. “There are empty places inside me, Seff. Empty places that can’t be filled.”
“I know, darlin’.” His lips traced kisses over my shoulder. “You’regrieving. And I don’t think it’s only because you lost almost everyone you’ve known.” His big, warm hand slipped inside my towel and splayed over my lower abdomen. “There’s an emptiness right here. The potential to feel a precious life growing inside was stolen from you.” His arm pulled me closer as he set his chin on my shoulder. “Even if Tillman had given his seed to create a child, that child would always have been yours. Someone with a blood connection to you no one else has ever had. He wasted that miracle.”
Sniffling, I nodded as I walked into the bedroom.
We were quiet for a few moments as my tears stopped and my frantic breathing calmed. Seff used my towel to me off, then held the robe up for me to slip on.
“How long did you stay after that?” he asked as he quickly and efficiently dried himself before folding back the covers and getting into the king-sized bed.
“Until he fell asleep.”
I slipped the robe off, tossed it to a chair, and slid under the covers. Seff stretched out his arm, and I laid my head on his chest, snuggling my body as close as I could get before I went on.
“He’d taken my phone and fiddled with the engine on my car, so I stole his car.”
Seff snorted, his emotions filling me with a sense of rightness as his fingers traced little patterns on my hip. The knotted tension in my stomach eased.
“I went to the only other wolf I trusted, Kindra. She hated Till. She never asked why I left. Never asked how long I’d planned on staying. She took his car to a grocery store parking lot and left it there.”
“I’m glad you had somewhere to go.”
“Kindra’s the wolf who owns and operates the tattoo place. She’s also an artist. She designed my tattoo and her mate, Xavier, did all the work.” I smiled. “And so you know, there was nothing sexual between her mate and me. Though...” I tilted my head to the side and gave Seff a flirty look. “Kindra said she was jealous of my perfect breasts.”
Seff growled. “And they are perfect.” He pushed me onto my back, linked his fingers through mine, and raised it above my head, exposing my naked torso. His dark eyes followed the path his index finger took as it traced the lacy lines on the inside of my forearm, down over my collarbone to the swell of my breast.
“I love finding all the hidden words.”
“What hidden words?”
“You didn’t know?”
“No. I knew she’d added the twins’ names because she asked me how to spell them. What other words have you found?”
“Roll over.”
His fingertip slowly traced a swirling line along my shoulder blade. He pressed a soft kiss over the spot.
“Kind.”
He traced another, longer word over the middle of my back. Another kiss.
“Survivor.”
The next word ran from the top edge of my hip to the top of my thigh. He nipped my bare bottom as his long hair tickled my sensitive skin. His deep, guttural growl made me shiver all over when he spoke.
“Courageous.”
He moved up to the back of my neck.
“And this one,” he whispered in my ear. “Worthy.”
