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An instant later, the door to our room was kicked in. I tried to process what was happening, but all I could make sense of was that the heavy weight was gone as were the cruel fingers. I curled myself into a ball and squeezed my eyes closed even tighter in the hopes of finally reaching the quiet place.
Miraculously, I managed it because within a minute or so, I no longer heard the sound of flesh striking flesh or grunts of pain.
It was quiet.
So blessedly quiet.
Unfortunately, it didn’t last.
“Christopher?”
I didn’t recognize the voice. It wasn’t the same guy from before, but that didn’t mean anything in this hellhole. I shook my head but not in response to his probing of my name.
“Please, don’t.” I buried my face in the disgusting bed and sought out the pages of one of my favorite books.
“Christopher, my name is Rush. I work with King.”
“King?”
It was the only word in his statement that made sense in my addled brain.
“Yeah, King. He’s in the next room with Gio, and when you’re ready, I’ll take you over there.”
King was here? He was with Gio?
Reality returned like a punch to the gut. I jerked upright, striking a solid form in the process. Strong fingers closed around my upper arms, but unlike the ones before, they were gentle. Gone was the stench of alcohol and cigars, and in its place was the muted crispness of one of my favorite aftershaves.
My hands were stuck between my body and what proved to be a very broad chest.
“Are you hurt?” the man—Rush… he’d said his name was Rush—asked as his hands swept up and down my forearms. Some of the chill began to leach from my system as Rush’s body heat began to envelop me.
I shook my head and willed myself not to cry like I wanted.
“Gio,” I croaked. “I need to see if…”
“He’s okay, Christopher. We got to you in time,” Rush said with unfound certainty. Then, strangely enough, he pulled me forward into his arms, dropped his head on top of mine, and whispered, “We got to you in time.”
This time, his voice held not only certainty but relief as well. I felt his body shudder slightly against mine, as if he were letting out a relieved breath.
Had he and King been worried aboutnotreaching us in time? The reminder of what would have happened if they hadn’t had me wanting to throw up then and there.
Instead, I wrapped my arms tightly around Rush’s waist. He returned the embrace with a level of fervor that had nothing to do with intimacy and everything to do with comfort. I couldn’t say how long we stood there like that for, but it likely wasn’t long given the situation. I loosened my hold on Rush and stepped back a little. I was both glad and disappointed when he let me go.
“Thank—” I began as I lifted my eyes to Rush’s face. As I quickly took in his gorgeous features, I stumbled over the rest of what I’d been trying to say. “Thank you, Rush.”
I quickly dropped my eyes because Rush’s dark eyes were just too damn intense. I knew they couldn’t be black, but they were such a deep shade of brown that they may as well have been.
I fully expected the man who had at least six inches and seventy-five pounds on me to lead me from the room, but he surprised me when his gentle fingers brushed my chin and then urged my face up. Since he was holding me in the position, I allowed myself to drink my fill of him. Tan skin, black hair that was just a bit unruly, and dark brows framing eyes that I just knew in my gut would only be readable if the man behind them allowed it.
Like he was doing now.
I couldn’t really make sense of what I was seeing. Concern, yes, but it went deeper than that. He was studying me like… like he knew me or something, yet I’d never met the man in my life.
The show of what I could only call emotion rattled me, and I found myself dropping my eyes a bit.
They landed on his mouth.
His really pretty mouth that was surrounded by just a bit of scruff that, like his hair, was dark.
