He had imagined they saved each other that night. He had picked her up and taken her to Maria, holding her against his chest, feeling a sense of rage, of protectiveness that anyone so fragile, so innocent and pure, could be forced into such pain. The look in her eyes had reminded him of his sisters, their minds as violated as their bodies had been before their escape.
Roni hadn’t been raped; rather, she had been terrorized. Left alone, with no food, no one to care for her, and her father’s enemies stalking her, striking out at her when the bastard who sired her couldn’t be found.
From that day on, Roni had been his. At first, it had been friendship, a protectiveness, a need to care for her. Later, it had grown, terrifying him with the depth of emotion and desire she inspired in him. He drew in a hard, deep breath. The child had grown into a woman before he could make sense of his own changing feelings for her. Her smart mouth and wild ways had worried him incessantly, but he had always known what she was thinking, what she was feeling. The woman whose screams had rocked his lust moments before was not the woman who had sworn her love to him the year before. This Roni was too quiet, too self-contained, shut down. As though life had dealt her one blow too many and now she refused to trust or to try again.
He breathed in tiredly as he pulled a cloth from the small shelf beside the sink and wet it with warm water. She would be sore, and wouldn’t rest comfortably with her thighs slick and damp from their mating.
Taber moved back to the bed, feeling his c**k harden, lengthen, as he stepped closer and drew in the faint, distinctive scent of their combined releases. It was reminiscent of a wild wind after a summer thunderstorm, untamed and earthy.
He drew the sheet back from her slumbering body, grimacing at the effort it took to keep his hand from trembling as he began to clean her. From her neck, along her arms, her full, firm br**sts—rosy from his earlier suckling attentions—down to her slender torso, her delicately rounded tummy to her thighs. He swallowed tightly as he spread her legs, ignoring her pleasured moan as he cleaned the slick, inner juices from her body.
He was breathing hard and heavy by the time he covered her once again and dragged his own weary body into the bed beside her. Dawn was approaching and it felt like weeks since he had slept. He pulled her close to him, ignoring her first instinctive move to pull away from him, shushing her gently, wrapping his arms around her and tucking her against his chest.
“What happened, Roni?” he whispered into her silken hair before bestowing a soft, gentle kiss to her forehead. “What the hell happened to you?”
Chapter Fifteen
“You can’t bathe yet, Roni.” It was late afternoon before Taber awakened, drawn back to consciousness by Roni’s furtive escape from the bed.
She paused, gripping the footboard as her body tensed.
“I’m sore.” Her voice was low, but he could hear the vibration of anger. It sure as hell beat the confusion he had heard the night before.
“I know you’re sore, baby.” He flipped the blankets back, rising and padding over to the chest at the end of the room.
He drew a soft, blue, cotton button-up shirt from one of the drawers, which would make it easier for Doc Martin to check her out while maintaining her modesty.
“Put this on.” He walked back to her, handing her the shirt as she stared at him suspiciously.
“I stink of you,” she snapped, raising her head, her blue eyes so filled with anger he almost flinched. “I want a shower.”
Taber frowned down at her, uncomfortably aware that her fury was only sparking his lust. His c**k was beginning to stiffen, to pulse in hunger.
“Put the shirt on, or get your ass back in bed where I’ll f**k you until you’re too damned tired to argue
with me. It wouldn’t be wise to push me right now, and you know damned good and well once I touch you, you won’t deny me.”
She was breathing hard, her br**sts rising and falling sharply, her ni**les peaking at the harsh sound of his voice. His mouth watered as his gaze flickered to them.
“Stop.” She jerked the shirt from him, drawing it roughly over her arms and holding the edges tightly together. “Do you think I don’t know just how little you do want me, Taber? Do you think I’m just going to willingly accept what you’ve done to me?”
Well, if he had, he guessed it was time to change his mind, he thought sarcastically.
“Doesn’t look to me like you have much choice.” His c**k was insistent now. Damn, Doc said to be in the lab first thing after Roni awoke, not after another hour or two of f**king her silly. “Button the shirt, Roni. We have to go down to the lab and I’ll be damned if I’ll let you flash that pretty ass for whoever is standing around outside this room.”
He stomped back to the dresser, jerked a T-shirt and sweat pants from the drawers, and hastily donned them.
“Lab?” At least she was buttoning the shirt, even if her voice did pulse with disgust. “Do I look like a f**king rat to you?”
He turned to her slowly. Her voice was harsh, guttural, the scent of her building heat reaching him effortlessly.
“Don’t push me this morning, Roni.” He was holding onto his temper and his arousal by the thinnest thread. “You won’t like the consequences.”
She eyed him with brooding fury and a bitterness that confused him no small amount.
“You mean it can get worse?” she asked with vicious sweetness. Damn, that smile could cut a man in two without even trying.
He stepped closer, his hand reaching out, catching in the long strands of her hair before she could jerk away from him. He watched her eyes widen as he exerted just enough pressure to force her head back, to look into her face, fighting instincts he hadn’t even known he had.