Page 6 of At the Edge of Surrender

Maybe that’s why I’d let him touch me. Because everything felt so ugly and bleak right then that I needed something beautiful to marvel at.

A shockwave of energy ruptured from him.

A rage I could see he was trying to keep contained all mixed up with this concern that had my stomach twisting with something I shouldn’t feel.

I swallowed around the force of it.

“No.”

He roughed a tattooed hand through his warm, brown hair, his voice a scrape of coarse gravel. “Saw you hit the ground pretty hard.”

My head barely shook, and my tongue stroked out to wet my dried lips. “My hip might be a little sore tomorrow, but that’s it.”

“You sure? Because you have this going on.”

Shock ripped through me when he reached out and dragged the knuckle of his index finger up the track of a tear that I didn’t know had fallen down my cheek.

Warmth followed in its wake.

A skimming of heat that rushed beneath the surface of my skin.

What the hell was happening to me?

How was I just sitting there?

Chin tipped toward him like I wanted him to do it all over again.

Maybe I really was losing it.

Going off the deep end.

“I…” I stalled.

Was I really going to admit this? Just let it come riding out of my mouth when that territory was always off limits? Apparently, since the words were trembling off my tongue. “I don’t really like being backed into a corner like that.”

The man’s expression morphed, running through a fresh round of fury.

Most people didn’t like to be touched when they didn’t want to be.

I got that.

But mine went deep.

Honestly, my fear of it used to be debilitating. It was something I’d been working on for years, but I still hadn’t managed to fully bring down the shield.

“Fucker is lucky he’s still standing.” There was no missing the undercurrent of ferocity.

As if he were trying to control it, he swiveled on his heel and strode over to the bar on the far side of the office.

His big body moved across the space.

Fluid and lithe.

Enthralling.

I watched as he grabbed a glass and filled it under the faucet, and he was almost wearing a smile when he turned and headed back for me.

The ground trembled below.

---