Page 84 of Becoming Family

“Did you get in trouble?” Maybe the question was stupid but Tabitha knew the way of the world. Abusers not only got away with their cruelty but came out unscathed when they drove their victims to return violence.

“No.” Hobbs shook his head. “The police were used to coming out to our place for my father’s bullshit. They knew the score. He actually spent some time in jail for that one. After that, he was in and out for the rest of his life. Spent the last chunk of his years in for manslaughter after he caused a car accident by driving drunk. Killed an old lady out shopping for her grandkids’ birthday party. They let him out on compassionate release when he got full-blown dementia and was going to die soon. And then he finally did. And I got to watch it happen. I was literally looking at him when he took his last breath. He looked right in my eye and spoke to me. Said the same words he did on the night of the Fourth. Asked if I was going to shoot him.”

Tabitha blinked at him in silence. She had no words, so she slid her arms around Hobbs’s waist and laid her head on his chest, squeezing him tight. She expected him to remain limp, but his arms went around her and he squeezed back, hard.

“Gemma never came back,” Hobbs whispered above her head. “A neighbor around the corner took her in. I saw her walking Gemma on a pink leash one day, from across the street. Gemma looked well-fed and happy. She saw me and started wagging her tail really hard. She was pulling toward me. But I... I turned around and walked away.” Hobbs’s voice broke a little bit. “A lot of good things actually came out of that night. My father got put away for a while. Victor never touched alcohol again. I decided I was going to join the marines as soon as I was old enough and nobody was ever going to hurt me again. But that dog has stuck with me all my life. I can’t get her out of my head. The way she pulled toward me. And I walked away. But I knew she was safer with that woman than she was with me. I still feel like I abandoned her. Is that crazy?”

Tabitha felt Trinity’s weight against her legs. “No,” she said. “Sometimes I think Trinity’s the only reason I made it through the last year. Semper Fit helped, too, but—” Tabitha raised her head and looked into Hobbs’s sad eyes “—without Trinity I’m not sure I’d have been able to put myself back together. So if you’re crazy, I’m crazy.”

Hobbs traced the side of her face with his fingertips. “Crap. I’m in trouble.”

They laughed together, until that died off, the necessary humor ceding to the heaviness of Hobbs’s story. There was nothing for a moment but the sound of the snow pattering in the trees. “I guess you need to get home,” Tabitha finally said. “Watch over your sister.”

“Actually.” Hobbs’s voice changed, lifting up, like he was ready to put his past away, at least for tonight. “Victor gave me this.” He drew a key out of his jacket pocket. “We switched for the night. I’m in his cabin. He’s staying with Hannah.”

“Oh.”

Hobbs shrugged. “He said it was easier this way. I’m already here. He’s already there. Why come all the way back?”

“Makes total sense.”

Hobbs nodded at something over Tabitha’s shoulder. She turned and saw that one of the cabins was directly behind her, just off the path, nestled in the trees. The porch light was on, showing off the rustic logs that made up the walls. “It’s right there,” he said. They stared at each other a moment before Hobbs tried a smile. It was a much more tentative smile than Tabitha had ever seen him wear. “Do you want to come in and get warm?”

At some point, Victor had layered logs in the fireplace. All it needed was a flame to get going. Hobbs silently thanked his brother as he lit the paper beneath the logs and watched the sparks catch. From the corner of his eye, Hobbs could see Tabitha shed her coat and wander around the small cabin, which had just two rooms: the main space, with couch, table and lamp in one corner and a bed in the other, the fireplace, equidistant from both, and a bathroom with toilet, sink and shower. Victor had left little sign of his occupancy, other than a toothbrush and razor in the bathroom and duffel bag on the floor by the bed.

As soon as the flames grew, Hobbs replaced the grate and Trinity cozied up on the rug right in front of the blaze. Hobbs ran a hand down her back, her vest removed and tossed next to Tabitha’s coat. Just as he was about to stand, he felt hands on his shoulders. The touch was light, but it rooted him to the spot. Tabitha’s body pressed against him as she massaged his upper traps, her fingers and thumbs working over the soreness and fatigue, her palms sliding down over his shoulders and back again. Hobbs closed his eyes as she moved up the back of his neck, into his hair. His relaxation slowly ceded to a deep, primal stirring. He turned, without rising, and buried his face in her midriff, inhaling the scent of her skin, feeling the damp of the melted snow.

Her fingers stroked through his hair, tender, fluttering. Hobbs turned his face up. The light from the fire danced over her face, highlighting her smooth skin and glossy curls. Her hair looked damp, her skin dewy.

Hobbs pulled Tabitha down, against him, into his arms, the warmth and sweetness of her radiating all around, like the fire had lit her from the inside out. It made him dizzy, intoxicated. She straddled his lap, her arms going around his neck.

The stirring in Hobbs’s body grew, his breath quickening with his pulse. “Listen. I don’t want you to think I set all this up. That I only invited you in here so that you’d sleep with me.”

“I don’t know which I prefer.” Tabitha’s voice was light and innocent. “That all of this was some kind of serendipity, or that you wanted me so much you really did set it up.”

Hobbs nuzzled into her neck, kissing along her jawline. “The fact that I want you is not in question.” Tabitha’s legs tightened deliciously around his hips. “It’s never been in question. I’m just not used to someone getting to me like you do. I don’t know what to do with it.”

Tabitha’s slender fingers undid the buttons on his shirt, pushing the fabric open. “You can’t hold back this time.” She leaned in close, stopping just short of kissing him. “Don’t close up on me, Chris.”

Hobbs rose and took her with him. He brushed the damp curls from her forehead and leaned in to kiss her temple. Then her cheek. By the time he made it to her lips, her body was trembling. She tasted sweet, like snow and lip gloss. “I don’t think I can anymore,” he admitted, his voice coming out rough. Just the thought of being inside her made Hobbs want to tear her clothes off, but he forced himself to slow down, calm his hammering heart. But as his own movements slowed, Tabitha’s quickened, her hands impatient, her lips greedy against his.

She had him undressed and on his back on the bed before Hobbs realized she was still wearing her underwear, a lacy white set that glowed against her skin. As beautiful as she looked, Hobbs only gave the undergarments a moment in the spotlight before he reached behind her back and undid her bra. The silky panties were pressed right against him, making him throb so much he prayed for stamina. As though sensing his struggle, Tabitha released him and rid herself of the rest of her clothing, which joined the pile on the floor. She lay back on the bed and grabbed his hand, pulling him toward her.

Hobbs rested on his knees a moment, resisting, so he could take a moment to admire Tabitha, naked, warm, glowing in the flickering light. He expelled a long breath as he took in the woman in front of him, bare on this rickety bed in an old cabin buried in the woods. It was like finding a rose growing in the weeds out back.

“Chris,” she whispered.

The word was as quiet as the snow, whishing into the trees. It also tore through him like a wildfire.

“What did you mean when you said kissing me wasn’t what you expected?”

Hobbs almost laughed. There went that brain of hers again, never letting up. But laughter wouldn’t come. “When I kissed you on your birthday,” Hobbs said, “it felt like you got a peek at something I didn’t have a chance to hide. Like you saw me before the curtain fell.” He cleared his throat. “It was really uncomfortable. But...also really amazing.”

Tabitha regarded him with sultry silence. After a while she whispered, “Well, what are you waiting for?”

Hobbs’s eyes changed, went from unguarded to completely renegade, a hearth fire that had conflagrated outside its assigned space, dark magic that had broken the protective warding and rolled out, gathering her in, smothering her. He drew her against him, hard, his lips once again seeking hers, their hands a fumbling mess. He suddenly pulled back. “Wait,” he gasped. “This should be gentle. I’m messing this up. Hold on, Tabby, and let me wind down a sec.”

Tabitha reached for him. “I don’t want to wait,” she said. “I want you now.”

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