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Huge body flying through the air, Beau gave a mangled shout before he slammed into the opposite wall. The ground trembled as he slid down into a sprawled heap. Golden brows crashed into a hard line as he rubbed his chest, fingers clutching at the space where Rey’s hand had connected.
They all watched on in shock as Beau ripped his shirt open to reveal a fist sized bruise blooming across his tawny skin. Deep red swelled with purpling blue, the tight circle expanding with Beau’s every breath.
“Fuck,” Rey whispered, dark brows knitting as he sat hard on the bed. Horror mingled with fear in the dark umber of his gaze as he continued, “Do you see now?”
“And you’re sure it’s…”
“Dead certain.”
“What the hell is going on?” Devin tried to slink back into the security of her blankets, but Rey caught her. He dragged her onto his lap with a far too careful touch, as if worried even petting her hair would leave Devin mangled.
“You can’t tell him, Daniel,” Beau said as glacial blues raked over Rey, oblivious to Devin. “Don’t do it.”
“I have to. He has a right to know.”
“The fuck he does!”
“I asked a fucking question,” Devin snarled, punching Rey’s shoulder. For a long, breathless moment, there was a surge of heat. A flare of golden light suffusing her chest that etched its way through her limbs, drawing her up into a brilliant glow.
As suddenly as it appeared, it was gone.
Rey didn’t say a word. Cradling her jaw, he turned Devin to look at him, searching her gaze for the answer to a question she couldn’t discern. Dark brows forming a hard line, the warmth of his chestnut gaze swept over her face. Returning to meet the deep blue-violet of her eyes, his face softened. Dreamy with something Devin didn’t understand.
“Get out, Beau,” Rey murmured, his arms coming around Devin to cradle her against his chest. Working his way onto the bed, he shuffled forward on his knees until he settled her weight dead center of the twisted blankets.
Devin was half aware of Beau’s heavy footfalls, but she’d become entranced with Rey. Something about him seemed so very different as the ruddy amber of his lips spread in a smile she almost didn’t recognize. Head canting, Devin was blatant with her scrutiny. His jaw was no less square or firm, the breadth of his cheekbones just as hard. He was the same, yet so very different in that moment.
“What’s going on,” Devin asked in a breathy whisper, as fascinated as she was terrified.
“You feel it.”
Though it wasn’t a question, she nodded, at a loss for words.
“It’s been this way since before I got you back, sweetheart.”
“No, it hasn’t. I didn’t feel this before.”
“Only because you were fighting it,” Rey breathed as he covered her, keeping most of his weight on his elbows and knees so as not to hurt her. Darkness welled in his beautiful brown eyes, a hint of pain, an anguish that ran bone deep before he let out a slow breath.
“No.” Devin shook her head, refusing to believe it. She’d felt nothing of this. Not before their fight or while she was in that filthy cellar. There’d been nothing but heartache since he’d brought her back.
Yet she couldn’t quite forget the tickling, golden heat before the mercenaries burst into their home. That bizarre evening and the even stranger morning before she’d pushed him away and he’d taken his anger out on Beau.
That was before, though. He wanted nothing to do with her now. She’d been tainted by Morozov and the scheming of males she had no control over. Devin tried to shy away, to hide the confusion within her, but he wouldn’t allow it.
“Shh, sweetheart. No,” Rey husked as he set his forehead against hers. Lips hovering over hers, he breathed his truths into her. “I want you. So very much. I couldn’t, though. I didn’t want you to ever have that and what we have together in the same thought.”
“You don’t want to touch me!” Tears burned the backs of her eyes, but the bitter misery of them burned her skin before she realized they were threatening.
“I do,” Rey groaned, eyes squeezed tight as he dropped his weight and pushed the hard length of him into her. It felt larger, too big. A pained sound escaped him as he rutted against her with slow rolls of his hips. “But I can’t bear it if you think of… Not during that. Never when I touch you.”
Breath shuddering into her lungs, she fisted Rey’s silken locks tight against his scalp, pulling at the strands hard as she snarled, “All I smell is him! I feel their hands on me. His eyes…”
Dissolving into desperate tears, she tried to pull away. Shoving at his shoulders, squirming beneath the weight of him, Devin struggled to break free. Lungs refusing to draw a breath, she clawed at the sheets.
“You think fucking you will change that,” Rey demanded in a low growl, tugging Devin back to crush her beneath the full breadth of his weight. His far larger body swallowed hers, his arms coming up around her head to block out everything that was not him.
“It did before,” Devin shrieked, clawing at his sides, the only place she could reach.
