Page 75 of Visions of Darkness

Obliterating.

Stealing oxygen and reason.

My nerves scattered at his proximity, a frisson whipping through the room as he took the one step required to stand over me. White flames licked in the depths of his gray eyes as he looked down at me. I didn’t realize he was holding a T-shirt until he muttered, “Here. Put this on.”

Rather than handing it to me, he unfolded it and carefully worked it over my head.

I wound my arms into the armholes before he pulled it the rest of the way down.

The material swallowed me, and in an instant, I was surrounded by his scent.

Leather and soap and something deeper that whispered of masculinity.

As if his magic had been woven into the threads.

Or maybe it was justhim.

His aura and his potency.

The one I’d found only in my dreams, who now was right there.

Alive and vibrating with an energy that was more powerful than anything I’d ever known.

I pulled the towel out from under the shirt and tossed it to the floor; then I tipped my face up to him, barely able to get the words off my thickened tongue. “Thank you.”

Reaching out, Pax swiped the calloused pad of his thumb over the small scar at the edge of my mouth. “I was created to take care of you, Aria, and I would never turn on you.”

A shiver rocked down my spine.

Before I could say anything, he’d torn himself away, turning his back as he pulled something from the duffel bag.

A second later, he was kneeling in front of me with a first aid kit. A flash of heat rolled through me when his hand curled around my ankle. He lifted my leg enough that he could inspect the bottom of my foot.

“You’re hurt.” It was close to a growl.

My laugh was ironic. “I’ve suffered much worse.”

Gray eyes jumped to my face. Fury blazed in the roiling pools. “You shouldn’t have to.”

The air grew thick, so dense it was close to suffocating, and I struggled to breathe. “There have been so many times that I prayed for it to go away. That I’d be saved from the misery. And when I bound the Kruen awake ...?”

A tremble rolled.

Pax’s or mine, I didn’t know.

Softly, I continued to speak. “I’d thought ... I’d thought it wasn’t fair. That it was too much. That I couldn’t bear it, and I begged Ellis for an answer. For a way to take it away.” My tongue stroked across my dried lips. “But I know it’s my purpose, Pax. I could never change that. And in the end, I wouldn’t want to.”

For a moment, he looked like he wanted to argue. Refute my claim.

Instead, he sat higher on his knees, his beautiful, furious face an inch from mine. “I won’t let anyone hurt you.”

It was an oath. Shards of broken glass.

I didn’t know if I was brave or foolish for reaching out. But I trembled my fingertips over the scar that ran along the right side of his face.

His eyes squeezed closed, and his jaw clenched as if my touch caused him physical pain.

He remained there for a moment.

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