people with working eyes, making her an outsider. There was always a chance she was missing something. Or that she was in potential danger without realizing it.
One year, while growing up in the commune, the elders had decided to observe Christmas. More for their own amusement than anything else. Decorating the communal tree was the first time Mary acknowledged the deck was stacked against her. She’d been more than capable of hanging ornaments on branches during the trimming ceremony, but the other children kept moving them. Either she’d put them too close to another one. Or she’d put it in a section that was already heavy with shiny baubles and balls. Her efforts could be erased for being imperfect without even an explanation even being offered. As if she didn’t warrant one.
With Tucker at her side, there was no question she was physically safe. But she couldn’t help the feeling that he was currently spinning a different reality.
Moving ornaments without explanations.
She’d never felt anything like the blast of Tucker’s rage in the diner.
More than that, she’d never experienced anything like her reaction to it.
In the midst of his primal outrage, her fingers had curled into the tile floor, mouth drying up. She’d listened to his grunts of pain and growls of aggression, the shocking blows of his fists connecting to bone, his enemies crying out in pain…and she’d grown oddly restless. In a way that wasn’t familiar.
The tips of her breasts were still sensitive an hour later. The wet material of her underwear was adhering to her sex, making it necessary to keep her hands clasped together tightly in her lap. Not only to shield her embarrassing response to being protected by Tucker, but to keep from reaching over and stroking his skin. His face, his shoulders, his thighs.
Surely she should have only felt fear back at the diner.
Not fear with a slick coat of arousal on top.
It wasn’t unusual for her to intercept a being’s mood. To have an emotional experience alongside them, like mirth or sadness. But she usually had to search for it. Concentrate and seek it out. She wasn’t seeking this out whatsoever, so it couldn’t be coming from Tucker, could it?
No, this was her. Not her empathy or ability to read energy.
Mary twined her fingers more tightly together. Touch was something she valued above everything. Without the use of her fingertips, she wouldn’t be able to feel her way down hallways or recognize the texture of her favorite jeans or read. When she needed to puzzle something out, she touched it. And so with Tucker behaving so oddly and clearly keeping things from her, the instinct to touch was fierce.
“We should be there in a few minutes,” Tucker said, the low register of his voice making her tingle in strange places, like her thighs and lips. “We’ll stay here a night or two, as long as it’s safe. We’re not that far from Hadrian’s manor, but you’re not due for a while and…” Suddenly he seemed unsure. “You still want to cross those items off your list, right?”
“Yes.”
A beat passed. “With me?”
Mary frowned. “Yes, of course. Why wouldn’t I?”
“It got a pretty violent back there.” His voice was uncharacteristically tight. “I just want you to feel safe.”
“It got violent because you were protecting me,” she pointed out.
He cleared his throat. “I guess even after all this time, I’m not used to the violence that comes with being this way. I mean, hell, I grew up pudgy with a smart mouth, so I’ve been in my share of fist fights. Mostly happened when they’d make fun of my father. A black eye now and then was par for the course.” He paused. “But those fights weren’t about killing.”
“Did you kill any of the slayers tonight?”
“I wanted to, Mary. One of them went for you. If he’d gotten one more step…”
Mary realized she was leaning closer and closer to Tucker and snapped back into her seat, clasped hands pressing, pressing so tightly to the hem of her dress. Was it normal to be so turned on by a male’s protectiveness? Every time his hand creaked on the steering wheel from leftover frustration or his chest rumbled, a surge of heat flooded her.
He’d have killed for her. And she’d never believed herself to be the slightest bit barbaric, but something about how feral he’d been tonight made her feel coveted and achy. Having Tucker as her guardian had been right since she’d sensed him in Enders. She’d actually