pack on the floor next to the bed. He pulled his shirt over his head and tossed it aside. Her breath caught, and she couldn’t look away. The desire she had for him bubbled to the surface. His hands reached for his side, and he loosened his waistband.
“What are you doing?” She didn’t want him to stop but felt some feeble protest was in order.
Dev did something unexpected. He turned his back to her and lowered his pants so she could see a series of small scars moving down his side and hip. They made a path down to the backs of his thighs. “I’m showing you.”
The puckering of strange symbols created a crude pattern in his flesh. Her eyes followed the trail before lifting to his naked ass. Tight muscles flexed. She tossed her empty food pack next to his on the floor and then moved closer. She reached a finger to trace a scar. He stiffened in surprise and glanced back at her.
“How could anyone do this to a child?” Violette glanced at her arm the second the words were out of her mouth. She had her answer. Her father had given her a scar, too.
“Pain conditioning is the Bevlon way.” He held still, not bothering to pull up his pants. Her finger traced the pattern across the back of his thigh to his hip. She had not noticed them before in their frenzied lovemaking.
Love? No. What they did was not lovemaking. It was more primal than that. There was no love here. There couldn’t be. Violette did not feed into romantic notions. She couldn’t afford to. This man was the friend of her enemy. She had to remind herself of that fact. She couldn’t forget it. Then why couldn’t she force herself to leave?
Nothing in this universe was simple.
Violette felt drawn to him, wanting to be closer, wanting to connect and feel. Flattening her hand more fully against his flesh, she let it slide around to his stomach. She stood next to him and leaned her cheek against his back. Heat radiated off his skin. The intimate contact of flesh made it impossible to pull away. His breathing became hypnotic.
She closed her eyes. “I’m so exhausted.”
Why did she admit that? It felt like a weakness.
He turned in her arms. Her head lifted briefly before resting on his chest. Her gaze roamed over his body, traveling over his stomach to the growing arousal between his thighs. He clearly wanted her, but he didn’t move to initiate passion.
He rested his hand on her shoulder. “Then you should rest.”
Her exhaustion was more than just lack of sleep. It was the weight of everything sitting on her shoulders that she had to face alone. Dev was not part of her life. He was a brief, passing moment. She could never care for him. Life had made sure of that. But for right now, in this instance, she took comfort in the fact that he was warm and breathing, and that she liked the feel of him against her. Before when they came together, it was an explosion. Now, it was…
He ran his hand slowly down her arm, causing her to shiver at the brush of heat.
Now it was something she could not define.
She lifted her head to gaze into his dark eyes. There was a sadness in him, a regret. Did he feel it to—the temporariness of their time together?
Dev kicked off his boots and then stepped out of the pants that were piled around his ankles. He leaned over and lifted her up into his arms. He laid her down on the mattress and then settled next to her, keeping his body on the side closest to the door. The narrow bed would only fit them comfortably if Dev rested on his side. He arranged his arm over her waist and held her against his chest.
“Sleep,” he said.
The word sounded like an order, but she didn’t protest as she closed her eyes. Yes. Sleep.
Chapter 13
Even before Dev lay down beside Violette, he knew he would betray the trust she’d shown him when she’d leaned against his body. The path for a man in his situation was pretty clear. He needed to escape his captors without leading them back to his crew, and before his friends decided to engage in a rescue mission. He didn’t want anyone hurt, not over him.
He touched Violette’s cheek as she slept. She was still clothed, and he was naked. Her parted lips acted like a