AllFreeNovel
Share Us
But then he realized it wasn’t lost time he felt.
He was lonely.
Once he saw it, its weight crashed down on him in a rush.Jesus Christ, he was lonely. Enough so it hurt. Across his shoulders, in his gut, everywhere.
He staggered to the counter and grabbed his phone.I need you, he texted.
Kelsey came back at once.I’m coming. Right now.
~oOo~
Fifteen minutes later, she and her dog were at his door. They lived about fifteen minutes apart. She’d dropped everything, grabbed Mr. D, and come to him.
Dex stood in the doorway, embarrassed and feeling like a pussy. But Kelsey didn’t even ask to be let in. She simply stepped up and came in, making him back up to give her room. Barely taking the time to unclip Mr. D from his leash, she wrapped her arms around Dex and held him snugly.
“I’m here,” she whispered when he set his head on her shoulder and sank into her embrace.
It was like the need he’d expressed had activated a ‘savior’ setting in her gentle personality.
That wasn’t right. ‘Savior’ was always an active setting in Kelsey’s programming. He’d first felt something real for her because she’d saved Lennie. She’d done more than simply heal him; she’d saved him, giving that pitiful, traumatized pup love and kindness as well.
And she’d done the same for Dex.
“Do you want to talk?” she asked, combing her fingers through his hair in slow, soothing strokes.
He shook his head. Setting aside the powerful truth that hecould nottell her about Bulls’ business, especially that sort of business, talking out what he’d done today wouldn’t erase it or ease it.
And he didn’t regret the work he’d done. It was necessary. It was deserved. He believed that wholeheartedly—and that was something he couldn’t consistently say about similar work he’d done as a Raider.
The thing that rode him so hard after a job like that wasn’t guilt. He’d done a job that needed to be done, that no one else in the club had the knowledge or skill to do as well.
What rode him was the way his brothers looked at him, that blend of admiration and horror. The way that look silently screamedpsycho.Thatwas what he had to try to scrub off.
“What do you need?” Kelsey asked against his ear.
“You,” he said, and it was true. “I just need to hold you.”
“Okay. Why don’t we go sit down, and I’ll hold you as long as you need.”
Dex nodded and let her push him back. She took his hand and led him through his own house, through a sea of curious dogs, to the living room.
He hadn’t turned any lights on in this room, but the hall light shone enough to navigate by. She settled on the sofa and pulled him down to sit with her.
When, with gently steady pressure, she urged him to put his head in her lap like a child, he let her. As he settled there, she stroked his head again.
Almost instantly, he began to relax. Darkness peeled from his shoulders in layers, and he could finally take a full breath.
The dogs gathered around them, lying at their sides on the sofa and under their feet before it.
Surrounded and soothed by those he loved best, Dex fell asleep.
