secrets with no more than a word, a look?
"Sorry," he muttered, blinking his eyes clear and driving again.
"There's nothing to" -- "It won't happen again."
"Maybe it should," she whispered.
"Maybe you need someone right now, to" -- "I don't discuss my family with strangers, Alex, and I certainly don't have sex with a stranger for comfort." With anyone, for that matter. But she needn't know that.
"I am human, though, so I'd appreciate it if you'd keep your distance."
He didn't have to look at her to know his barb had stuck. He knew she winced, could see the pain in her eyes without even turning his head.
Too bad. She was one of those females who thought she could heal the world with her soft touch and her smile and a little TLC with her incredible body. And her eyes, don't forget those. Well, she was wrong. And he damned well didn't want her poking around an old wound just to prove it.
He was stuck with her for a few days, at most. Long enough to find the missing formula and send Scorpion to hell. That was it. The sooner she got that through her head, the better.
"I didn't offer you sex for comfort," she told him in a wounded voice.
"You could have fooled me."
She was silent for a long time while he drove. He was, too, though his mind was working overtime. It took some effort to put his grief and the faces of his dead children back into the deep well of pain that used to be his heart. Sortiething about being with Alex seemed to drive those ghosts to the surface more often than ever before. But he had to keep them locked away. He couldn't think of them now.
And' he couldn't think about how remembering them didn't hurt so much when Alex held him in her soft arms.
It took still more effort to bring his thoughts back 'on track. A plan was what he needed.
"Where are we going?" she asked him at last.
"Where do you think?"
She gave him a look that made him feel like a demon for trying to hurt her. Deliberately trying to hurt her. Shooting thorns right into her skin, his automatic defense mechanism, apparently designed specifically for her, would keep her from getting too close to his private hell ever again. He couldn't help it. It was necessary.
"We're going back to Pine Lake," he told her.
"But we have a few stops to make first."
His sons. Those two adorable little boys in the photo, who looked so much like him. Taken from him without warning or reason. God, it was no wonder he was so nasty. The man was in more pain than any human being ought to bear in a lifetime.
And his came all at once.
But -he'd let her hold him, even if it had been only for an instant.
He'd turned to her with that grief, turned to her as if for salvation.
In his eyes she'd seen something she'd never seen before.
Adesperation, a ple he couldn't or wouldn't or didn't know how to. voice Help me, Alexandra.
Maybe he wasn't even aware of it, but Torch Palamaro was going to bleed to death from the arrows in his heart if he didn't pull them out and start 'to heal.
He'd released a tiny bit of his grief in her arms. It wasn't a great leap of the imagination to guess he hadn't done so often, Perhaps not at all. The rage and turmoil bottled up inside him were visible in his' eyes. That swirling, riotous emotitn she hadn't been able to place before. The man was going to explode like one of his bombs if he didn't do something.
And it was none of her business, was. it? She barely knew him, and what she did know of him made him her enemy. Why, t~, was she so compelled, so drawn to him? Why this urge to hold him until his grief was spent? Oh, she knew she was always drawn to the wounded.
The more serious the wounds, the more she wanted to help. Came of that need to be needed, she supposed. And the knowledge she'd never have children to nurture, So she naturally longed to nurture others.
But it shouldn't extend to this man. Common sense ought to have some say in the matter, and common sense certainly decreed she keep a safe distance from a man
"Sorry," he muttered, blinking his eyes clear and driving again.
"There's nothing to" -- "It won't happen again."
"Maybe it should," she whispered.
"Maybe you need someone right now, to" -- "I don't discuss my family with strangers, Alex, and I certainly don't have sex with a stranger for comfort." With anyone, for that matter. But she needn't know that.
"I am human, though, so I'd appreciate it if you'd keep your distance."
He didn't have to look at her to know his barb had stuck. He knew she winced, could see the pain in her eyes without even turning his head.
Too bad. She was one of those females who thought she could heal the world with her soft touch and her smile and a little TLC with her incredible body. And her eyes, don't forget those. Well, she was wrong. And he damned well didn't want her poking around an old wound just to prove it.
He was stuck with her for a few days, at most. Long enough to find the missing formula and send Scorpion to hell. That was it. The sooner she got that through her head, the better.
"I didn't offer you sex for comfort," she told him in a wounded voice.
"You could have fooled me."
She was silent for a long time while he drove. He was, too, though his mind was working overtime. It took some effort to put his grief and the faces of his dead children back into the deep well of pain that used to be his heart. Sortiething about being with Alex seemed to drive those ghosts to the surface more often than ever before. But he had to keep them locked away. He couldn't think of them now.
And' he couldn't think about how remembering them didn't hurt so much when Alex held him in her soft arms.
It took still more effort to bring his thoughts back 'on track. A plan was what he needed.
"Where are we going?" she asked him at last.
"Where do you think?"
She gave him a look that made him feel like a demon for trying to hurt her. Deliberately trying to hurt her. Shooting thorns right into her skin, his automatic defense mechanism, apparently designed specifically for her, would keep her from getting too close to his private hell ever again. He couldn't help it. It was necessary.
"We're going back to Pine Lake," he told her.
"But we have a few stops to make first."
His sons. Those two adorable little boys in the photo, who looked so much like him. Taken from him without warning or reason. God, it was no wonder he was so nasty. The man was in more pain than any human being ought to bear in a lifetime.
And his came all at once.
But -he'd let her hold him, even if it had been only for an instant.
He'd turned to her with that grief, turned to her as if for salvation.
In his eyes she'd seen something she'd never seen before.
Adesperation, a ple he couldn't or wouldn't or didn't know how to. voice Help me, Alexandra.
Maybe he wasn't even aware of it, but Torch Palamaro was going to bleed to death from the arrows in his heart if he didn't pull them out and start 'to heal.
He'd released a tiny bit of his grief in her arms. It wasn't a great leap of the imagination to guess he hadn't done so often, Perhaps not at all. The rage and turmoil bottled up inside him were visible in his' eyes. That swirling, riotous emotitn she hadn't been able to place before. The man was going to explode like one of his bombs if he didn't do something.
And it was none of her business, was. it? She barely knew him, and what she did know of him made him her enemy. Why, t~, was she so compelled, so drawn to him? Why this urge to hold him until his grief was spent? Oh, she knew she was always drawn to the wounded.
The more serious the wounds, the more she wanted to help. Came of that need to be needed, she supposed. And the knowledge she'd never have children to nurture, So she naturally longed to nurture others.
But it shouldn't extend to this man. Common sense ought to have some say in the matter, and common sense certainly decreed she keep a safe distance from a man
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