Page 57 of Guarded By a Monster

“She wasn’t. I have excellent hearing.”

I put my hands on my hips. “Just how excellent? Have you been eavesdropping on everything I’ve said since I got here?” My conversations with Kendal ghosted through my mind and my stomach flipped. No wonder he’d been so unsure around me. He’d heard me being unsure about him.

His nose swung back and forth, his ears plastered to his head. “No! I would have to be focused on you. I don’t multi-task well.”

I huffed. “Fine.” I let my hands drop. “So how good is your hearing? Can you hear a bug move from a mile away or something?”

“Not quite that good,” he chuckled. “But…” He tilted his head and we both went quiet. “I can hear the insect that is bumping into the porch column.”

“Holy shit. What about your other senses? Taste, smell, sight?”

He leaned into my neck and inhaled, making me giggle as both his cold nose and his breath tickled.

“I can smell your sugar scent, the spice that lingers from your arousal, the undercurrent of me on your skin.”

“Okay, that’s hot.” I let my head fall to the side to give him better access.

His tongue licked from my collarbone to the curve of my ear. “You taste delicious, like Nanna’s snickerdoodles, but better. You are my favorite thing to eat.”

And I was soaked. How he could take me from needing coffee to wide awake and wanting in five seconds was a talent I’d never tire of. “And sight?” The words left me on a sigh.

He grunted. “My sight is … impaired.”

That threw an ice cube down the back of my shirt. I stepped away and pointed to my glasses. “So is mine.”

He looked away from me. “No aid can help in my case.”

On my tiptoes, I traced the scar that ran through his eye. “Will you tell me what happened? You don’t have to.”

He pulled me into his arms, his muzzle rubbing along my back. It was my favorite place to be, surrounded by his strength and warmth. I wrapped my arms as far around his waist as I could and rubbed my nose on his chest.

“They sent us on a mission. We thought the objective was simple: breach a house and take out its occupants. But that was just what they told us. The real aim had been to test us when things went wrong. Until that point, we were flawless. Our missions carried out without incident. It was ‘too easy’ and they needed to up the difficulty.

“So they sent us with faulty equipment. A flash grenade on the shoulder strap of my tactical vest exploded, sending shrapnel into my face.”

I squeezed harder. “That’s so cruel.”

“Quin patched me up in the field and Cavi did what he could when we returned, but my eyesight was lost.”

“Is that why it’s dimmer than the other?”

He nodded. “Cavi thought it might cease to glow altogether, but so far its light has just dimmed. Even so, I am damaged.”

I stepped back and grabbed his muzzle to force him to look at me. “You are perfect.”

He wiggled his head from side to side, and I yanked. “Perfect. Do you hear me? You’re amazing.”

“I am broken.”

I growled and it surprised both of us, but I was so angry. At the scientists whose treatment of them was inhuman, unethical, and evil. And at him, for thinking he was less than. “Do you think me damaged, broken?”

“No!”

“Then neither are you! How can you even think that? You’ve worshiped my body like I’ve never experienced. You’ve opened your home to me and a dozen cats. You make me feel safe.” I took a deep breath. “Loved.”

His eyes closed as if to hide, since I wouldn’t let him pull his face away.

“Nothing about you is damaged or broken.”

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