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“He’s down there because he broke in and held a gun to Reid’s head.”
“And Reid shot him. Isn’t that enough?”
I shrug one shoulder.
“I need to see him, JD,” she begs, her voice cracking on my name.
“I know, baby,” I assure her, stroking her jaw with my thumb.
She leans into my touch and it makes tingles race down my arm and spread through my body.
“I meant it, Dove,” I whisper. “I am so—”
Her fingers press across my lips, stopping my words.
She shakes her head, sadness filling her eyes.
“It doesn’t matter. No amount of apologies will change either the past or the future.”
“You need to talk to Reid. Really talk to him.”
“I know.”
“Everything he said yesterday, the things he alluded to…”
“They’re true. All of them and more,” she confesses, pain filling her eyes before she looks down at her lap.
“Hey,” I say, wrapping my hands around her waist and effortlessly lifting her from the bed in favor of my lap.
She fights me, but not hard enough to think she doesn’t want it.
Her legs fall on either side of my hips. I press one hand to the small of her back and slide the other up to wrap it around the side of her neck.
“You’ve got nothing to be ashamed of.”
A self-deprecating laugh erupts from her.
“Easy for you to say. You don’t know the half of it.”
“It doesn’t matter what I do or don’t know,” I force out, desperately trying to keep a lid on the anger bubbling inside me as I think about anyone touching her without permission. “You survived. You’re here. And you’re incredible, Dove. So fucking incredible.”
“Anyone would think you just want to get laid,” she muses, refusing to hear what I’m saying.
“Stop deflecting,” I demand, twisting my fingers in her hair and dragging her head back so she can’t hide from me. “We all have pasts, Dove. Things we’d rather forget, darkness that lingers just under the surface, waiting to suck us down and swallow us whole. Having them doesn’t make us weak, Dove. They make us stronger. They make us survivors.”
My chest aches and I have to fight to stop my hands from trembling as I rip myself open and show her a little bit of the real man who hides beneath the lazy smiles and stupid jokes.
Her eyes search mine, desperately trying to find a hint of that darkness I’m talking about. But while she’s sitting on my lap, the warmth of her skin seeping into mine, I doubt she’ll find any.
Her presence is better than any medication I’ve been forced to try over the years. Better than any pain I can inflict. One look in her eyes and it all ebbs away. My only focus is her and the way she makes my heart race, even when she’s doing the simplest of things.
Straightening my spine, I close the inches separating us. She gasps as my chest brushes her nipples and my cock continues to swell beneath her.
I lean forward and she licks her lips, getting ready for the kiss she thinks is coming. Only, at the last minute, I change direction and go for her neck instead, sucking on her sweet, soft skin until she moans, her body going lax in my arms.
Fuck, this woman. I can’t get enough of her.
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