Page 34 of Rescued By the Convicts
“Zev!” Her handsome man with that devilish yet easy-going smile emerged from the cave. She flew into his embrace. “I can’t believe you’re here!”
His lips found hers quickly, and he took it slowly with her, letting his tongue glide over every part of her mouth, lips, and neck before releasing her. It had only been two weeks since she’d patched him up in the med-center, but it felt like years.
He looked good. His hair was longer than she was used to seeing on him, and he’d maintained that scruff, giving him a rougher, but very sexy look. But that perpetual sadness in his eyes worried her.
“You’re not staying, are you,” she surmised.
“I can’t.” He swiped the tears from the corner of her eyes. “I told you this before, Mel. I have a job to do.” This time he smoothed her hair away from her face as if he couldn’t stop touching her.
He wasn’t returning. His eyes, his face, even his posture said as much. This was why the others had brought her here. So she could say goodbye.
“When?” she asked.
“Soon. A week, maybe two, but I won’t see you again. Coming here was risky. For both of us.”
She glanced around and suddenly realized the rest of their unit had disappeared.
“They’re scouting the way you came and the direction I came, to make sure no one followed.”
They were giving them privacy. She loved them for that. Now she understood Reece’s anxiety earlier. Willingly giving her to another was difficult for him, but he understood she needed this chance to say goodbye to Zev.
Zev turned her around, so she could watch the majesty of the lava streaming between the glowing pits.
“It’s beautiful,” she said.
“Indeed.” Zev’s hand moved over a breast. Her nipples, already tight, ached to be held, sucked, pinched even.
“I don’t want you to leave, Zev.”
“I know, precious.” He leaned his head against hers. “Do you realize we’ve never just sat and talked before.”
“Blame that on the dark, cold walls of the bunker,” she said while struggling to hold back her need to cry. Zev and she didn’t need to talk. There was a peace to Zev the others didn’t enjoy. He wasn’t broken like them, but he was torn. She could feel the desperation in his kisses, in how even now he couldn’t take his hands from her. He didn’t want to leave.
“You’re wrong to think we haven’t talked,” she said.
“Usually about Reece, Ivan, the bunker,” he said. “Never us. Because there couldn’t be anus, not long term.”
“You told me about your past.”
Silence.
“Fine, you lied. About a lot. But every time you touched me, every time you helped Reece, or stood up to Ivan and Jayce, you showed me who you were, Zev. The rest are meaningless details.”
“Our past is never meaningless. It shapes us, makes us who we are.”
She shuddered at that thought. “I can’t accept that.” She wouldn’t give Namir any credit for who she’d become. She’d studied hard, worked at her lab, both on Baccula and here without any benefits from him. Her discoveries and her failings were her own. He owned no part of her now.
“Let it go, Melina.”
“Let what go?”
“What your mate did to you. The only way he wins is if you doubt yourself because of him.”
“I don’t do that.”
“Sure you do. Every time you hesitate when one of us touches you, or you check where the door is, where your escape is. You have to let yourself trust again.”
“I trust all of you.” She breathed him in, knowing she was losing him.
