Page 137 of The Wild Charge

“Tenny,” Reese said, and his fingertips ghost over Tenny’s bruised knuckles.

Tenny rounded on him with a snarl. “What the fuck is your problem?”

Reese didn’t retreat, not even when Tenny shoved his face in close and bowed up his back, every angle of his posture screamingback off. No; instead, he frowned. “If you split your knuckles on his teeth, then we need to clean and bandage them. You can’t fight properly if they get infected.”

“You – are you taking the piss right now? What thehellwere you doing offering my name like that?”

“He was insulting you,” Reese said, and his jaw settled in a stubborn line, brows notched together. He looked determined in a way he never had when they’d first met; looked like someone braced and ready. “And you were just standing there.”

Just standing there. He’d beenjust standing there, like some useless knob, some civilian, some nobody, letting a man needle him. No smart comeback, no diversionary tactics, no deflection. He’d once convinced two men to kill each other in an elevator, and stepped over their bodies afterward, his hands and his conscience clean. And five minutes ago, he’d…stood there, brain blue-screening, vitals flying wild.

It was happening again, now: his heartrate was accelerating, his breath leaving his mouth in harsh pants, his palms filling with sweat. “Fuck you,” he spat. “You think I’m weak? That it? That I need you to swoop in and save me?”

“I think your father’s an asshole,” Reese replied, evenly. “And he makes the whole rest of your family upset. I saw him trying to upset you – hedidupset you – and I–”

“Upset? I don’t even know the man. He’s nothing to me. Do you think you’re a psychiatrist all the sudden? Two months ago you didn’t even know what your own face was doing, and now you’re psychoanalyzing the whole room?”

Reese’s frown deepened. “There’s a lot of things about people I don’t understand, but I knowyou. I can tell whenyou’reupset. And I’m not going to stand there and be quiet when I can say something.”

Tenny was so furious the edges of his vision were slipping in and out of focus. He growled an ugly sound that hurt his throat, unable to stop it from boiling out from between his teeth. “It wasn’t any of yourfuckingbusiness.”

“Yes it was!” It was the loudest Reese had ever been – he was nearly shouting – and it shocked Tenny to momentary silence. But then he added, “It’s my business because I love you and I’m going to protect you when I can.”

In his red haze, the word that slipped through and struck home wasprotect.

“Protect? You think you have toprotectme, you idiot?”

Between one blink and the next, Reese’s gaze dropped; it flicked down and touched, briefly, on the scar on the side of Tenny’s neck. On the place where Reese had pressed his hand down and held tight, and saved his life. A gaze that flicked back up, after, but it seared him like a brand.

Tenny shoved him in the chest with both hands.

Reese staggered back a step in a way he never would have had anyone else struck him; had it been anyone else, the strike wouldn’t have landed. Reese’s eyes widened, face going slack with momentary shock. Then his mouth firmed and he moved.

Tenny caught his wrists – and Reese broke his grip effortlessly and sent a karate chop toward his throat. Tenny bent back at the waist, caught himself on a hand, and felt the strike whistle just above his face. He slapped his other hand down, and swept Reese’s leg with his own. Reese lost his balance, but turned it into a tuck and roll, and sprang back up just as Tenny did.

Reese paused a moment, waiting, and that was his mistake, because Tenny didn’t hesitate.

Tenny went in with a fast flurry of strikes, some blocked, some landing; Reese didn’t say a word, but a few low, fast exhales accompanied the give of skin beneath the edges of Tenny’s hands. Tenny took his share of hits, too: ribs, arms, and a nasty kick to his left thigh which left his teeth gritted. They were too evenly matched, but still, he sensed Reese holding back.

Something crashed to the floor – a lamp, maybe. Tenny tripped over a chair and righted himself with a fistful of the front of Reese’s hoodie.

“Fucking fight me for real!” he snarled.

Reese grabbed his hand, dug his thumb expertly into the pressure point that had his fingers spasming open, and chopped against his collarbone, turning his whole arm numb. Triumph flashed in his eyes, and Tenny was going to kill him.

With a muted roar, he threw all of his weight forward, got his good hand tangled in too-long blond hair, and twisted Reese around. He surged, and pressed, and bore him face-down to the carpet, landing with a knee at the small of his back. The air left Reese’s lungs in a hard rush. Tenny’s arm was full of pins and needles, but he’d suffered much worse; palm half-numb, he still managed to get hold of a grasping hand and twist Reese’s arm behind his back.

The sound of Reese hitting the carpet, the little chuffs of his struggle as he tried to buck Tenny off his back, sent chills skittering over his skin. The sight of his hair laced through Tenny’s fingers, and fanning across the carpet, left him breathless.

“I’m not weak,” he panted. “You aren’t stronger than me.”

Despite Tenny’s grip, Reese managed to turn his face to the side, one blue eye glittering up at him. “I wasn’t trying to be.”

Still, Tenny didn’t let go, not even when Reese quit struggling and went lax beneath him. They stayed like that, both catching their breath, the feeling coming back into Tenny’s arm. His pulse kept knocking, but the rage bled out of him in a sudden rush, leaving him with a realization. Two, actually.

He was hard.

And Reese was pliant beneath him.

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