counsel.”
“And you’re giving me a few home remedies to get me out of here,” she accused hotly. “You still think I want to jump your bones!”
“I’m trying to help you, Karen. Maybe my methods—”
“This isn’t help,” she ground out, coming to her feet. If he wasn’t going to take this seriously, then what was the point? “This is bullshit.”
“There.” He crossed his arms over his chest. “Right now. Tell me what’s going on inside your body, your brain and your heart.”
“W-what…” she stuttered, looking around for a hidden camera or something. “What is this? A game?”
But Reaux was looking at her. Hard. Intently. “Tell me. Now. What are you feeling?”
At first she wanted to tell him to go to hell. That whatever this was he was doing wouldn’t work. But the way he was staring at her…those eyes. She felt… “Heat,” she uttered. “Building. Bubbling. Can’t go anywhere. Can’t go over. Up and down, inside my mind. There’s nowhere for it to go.”
She stopped talking and just stood there, eyes wide, breathing shallow.
“Sit down, Karen,” he said gently. When she didn’t move, he gave her an encouraging smile. “It’s okay.”
Tears broke in her eyes as she melted down into the chair. That was brutal. Strange. And yet, she felt perceptibly lighter.
“I’m sorry,” he began. “I know it’s shocking to the system, but it’s the best way I’ve found to deal with emotional pain. Force it to the surface. See what it looks like. Feels like.”
Karen didn’t say anything. She couldn’t. Just swiped at the tears staining her cheeks.
“Yesterday,” he said, “when you cried in my arms. It was torrential.” He studied her for a moment. “When was the last time—”
“Crying is a weakness,” she whispered. “Can’t allow it. Couldn’t allow it.”
“But you did. In here.”
Yes. Exactly. She stood up again. Reaux’s gaze followed the movement. No doubt he thought she was leaving, that maybe she regretted coming to him. But instead of walking out the door, she grabbed the front of her chair and started dragging it toward him.
“What are you doing?” he said, his tone wary.
“Coming closer.”
“I see that. But why?”
When she finally landed, a good six inches before him, her knees brushing his, she said in a fraught voice, “Look, I don’t understand it, but your…physical presence helps me. Changes how I breathe. Makes it okay, even healthy, for me to cry.” She studied his expression for a moment. Shook her head. “It’s not sexual in any way, so don’t go all nuts.”
“I’m not going all nuts.” His tone was dark and foreboding.
“You’re worried I’m going to rip your clothes off with my teeth.”
His nostrils flared. “I wouldn’t say worried, exactly.”
“Then what?”
His eyes delved into hers. “Maybe your mate wouldn’t be comfortable with it. How you need to be close to me.”
She looked suddenly confused. “I don’t have a mate.”
“The male at your house last night…” he began darkly.
“Oh, Adrian.” She shook her head. “No. He’s a friend. A close friend. He’s probably going to need some of this too. But don’t worry, he wouldn’t want to jump your bones either.”
Reaux didn’t laugh at her obvious joke. Didn’t even crack a smile.
“Adrian and I understand each other,” she continued. “We help each other. That’s it.”
“You were in the lab together?”
“Yes.”
“Is he the father…”
“No,” she said quickly. “I don’t know who the father is, for Caleb or any of my children.” She looked away for a second. At the cluster of native plants in the corner. “The one who abducted me just a few days ago, Ward, he’d been told from infancy that I never wanted him. That I’d basically tossed him aside. He clearly favors the Pantera side of himself. He’s just nine in human years, but he looks almost as old as me. A man. I never got to see him grow up.” Her gaze slid back to Reaux. “How do I grieve that without the anger?”
“You don’t,” he said simply. “But you do need to grieve it.”
“He’s just out there somewhere now. He was hurt, shot, trying to help us escape. Raphael has people looking for him now, and I hope and pray…” She shrugged, tears snaking down her cheeks again. What was happening to her? She was a walking tear duct around this guy. “But what about Tate, you know? My oldest. My first. He was ripped out of my arms before I could even kiss him goodbye. That’s why Adrian was over last night. He’s helping me try and find Tate, track him down.”
“And