Page 50 of Rogue Voice

Bea licked her lips, hoping to dispel some of the tension. His eyes zeroed in on her mouth and he gave a little groan. His form faltered, as if he no longer knew if he was pushing up or down.

She shared the feeling. He put a knee down onto the floor and jumped to his feet.Broad, strong feet. She loved looking at them.

He looked her up and down for an instant. Again, that connection between them crackled. Bea held his gaze. Was it just her, or had the room heated up several degrees in the last minute?

Not knowing what to do with her hands, Bea gripped the towel tighter. It was exactly the wrong thing to do. He averted his eyes, as if only just realizing she was naked underneath.

“I’m sorry,” he said, his voice deep and growly. “I’ll go shower while you get changed.”

The door closed behind him. Bea let out a deep breath.Damn.She wanted—she wasn’t sure what she wanted, but when he looked at her like that, she wanted more. She wanted closer. She wanted to see where this was going, and she wanted to ask him why he wasn’t giving them a chance.

Since his recovery, Rogue had been the perfect gentleman—letting her shower first, giving her first use of the only towel so it was dry when she used it, letting her choose which of the single beds she wanted for herself.

She sighed. The first time she’d seen the room, she’d wished it had been a double bed. Now she realized Rogue would have chosen to sleep on the floor, rather than share the bed with her. It was almost as if he didn’twantto be close to her, except every time they were together, she felt his eyes on her, felt the intensity of his gaze. He liked looking at her as much as she liked looking at him.

Maybe he’s not yet feeling a hundred percent. Maybe—But she knew, deep inside, that wasn’t it. After those first few days in bed, he’d recovered quickly. She’d just caught him doing push-ups, for goodness’s sake.

There was a reason he was avoiding her, and she feared she knew what it was.It’s you.It’s your fault.This whole time she’d been acting like a shell-shocked victim, so of course, being the good human he was, that’s what he was treating her like. Her hands clenched, and she forced them to relax.

There had to be something she could do to make him realize she wasn’t a victim—or, at least, notjusta victim. That she was a grown woman, able to make her own choices, and that she wanted him.

The shower stopped.He’s going to need the towel. You need to get changed.

Bea walked to the chest of drawers and opened the top drawer. Dark had gone out the first day and come back with a bag full of things for her. Underwear, socks, flip-flops, a pair of too-big denim shorts and several colorful T-shirts. Her favorite one had the words “It’s Colombia, not Columbia” printed in the colors of the Colombian flag. She loved the casual style, so different from the pastel dresses her uncle had insisted she wear. If it was up to her, she might never wear a dress again.

She selected a clean pair of underwear and a T-shirt—then stopped on her tracks. Suddenly, she knew exactly what she had to do.

“Bea? Are you done with the towel?” Rogue asked, his voice muffled by the door between them.

Before she could change her mind, Bea opened the bathroom door. “I won’t be needing it,” she said.

Rogue’s head popped out the side of the curtain, a questioning look on his face. He’d washed his hair. She liked it like this, wet and with some strands falling down the side of hisface, even better than she liked it tied back the way he usually wore it.

She slowly unwrapped the towel, letting it hang from the fingers of the hand that was closest to him.

“Here,” she said. His face froze for a second, his eyes widening. She felt a moment of uncertainty. This clean but dingy bathroom wasn’t the ideal scenario for what she had in mind. She looked down at herself—at her too-small breasts, the bones still jutting out from her hip bones, though she could already see she’d gained weight in the last week. No surprise there, given the way the men kept feeding her huge portions of everything they prepared. But maybe he liked more voluptuous women. Her smile dimmed. Bea knew that would never be her, no matter how much weight she gained.

“What are you doing?”

The ragged tone of his voice made her look up, and what she saw made her heart stop. He was drinking in her naked form like a man dying of thirst in the desert, his gray eyes stormy with desire.

His hand came out, as if to touch her, before he shook his head, seeming to realize what he was doing. He stepped out from behind the shower curtain, grabbed the corner of the towel from her, and clumsily pulled it up to cover her form. Which, of course, left his body completely exposed. And now it was her turn to open her mouth. Until now, she’d never seen him fully naked. Naked from the waist up, yes, and that was impressive enough. But never … like this.

Before she could stop herself, her gaze moved down his chest to his belly button, following the thin line of hair heading down … straight down to his thick, very erect cock.

Bea gasped. As she watched, his cock thickened even further, bobbing lightly. She’d never imagined a man could be so big.

He still held the towel as a kind of shield in front of her body, but now his hands wavered, as if wondering if he should be covering himself rather than her.

“Have you never seen a naked man before?” he asked, his voice almost a growl.

Bea realized her own mouth was still hanging open. She closed it quickly, struggling for words. Words that weren’t coming.

Words won’t come while you’re staring at … that.

She finally forced her eyes up. His own eyes were twinkling with something like amusement now.

“Enjoying the view?”

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