Going Down
Page 26
“Don’t apologize,” she managed. “What’s going to happen is bigger than both of us. It has to be.”
“Yeah, it does.”
His mouth was so close. Damn it, he didn’t have to be looking down at her like that, and his arm didn’t have to be around her back as if he thought she might take flight. Yet despite the distraction and dangerous potential of his body, she had things to say before putting an end to tonight. To them.
“This is the side of what I do—did for a living that I’ve always managed to avoid facing,” she whispered. “I hid behind the word consensual and told myself that The Dungeon was good, clean fun. But that wasn’t all there was to it. The Slavers—people like them feed off what we offer them.”
“Don’t.” Pulling her closer, he wrapped both arms around her. One covered the small of her back while the other pressed against her buttocks. “Don’t blame yourself for—”
“Of course I do!” Was she speaking the truth or simply trying to weather Reeve’s presence? “We have all these controls so underage kids can’t view what’s on our site, but do we try to block out the sick elements of society? No! We take their money and shrug and say it isn’t our problem. But it is. It is.”
“Saree.” His breath dampened and heated her face and throat while his cock sought a home. “I mean it, don’t take on that burden.”
“Why shouldn’t I. It’s the—”
“No, it isn’t. Saree, you just told me not to apologize for what I put you through. You’re no more responsible for what The Slavers did than I am for my father’s rampage.”
That stopped her, that and his strength and sexuality. So much evil had taken place here and yet beyond the walls, the ocean endured. “Of course you aren’t. You were only a child.”
“Just as you’re only a woman, a sexy woman who does what she loves.”
But can I ever do that again? “I think—I want to talk to those shrinks you’ll be taking the women in there to. I’m so—everything is so complex.”
“Yeah, it is.” He pressed the heel of his hand against the base of her spine, stealing her breath and challenging her sanity. “And it’s not going to get better for a while.”
“I know.”
“But eventually it will.”
“I know,” she repeated. “The way it did after my parents died.”
“And after my father was arrested. Honey, the other reason I came out here was to tell you how damn proud I am of you. You’re an incredibly brave woman.” He took a deep breath. “And for the first time since I became a Clan member, I’m not thinking about moving on to the next assignment. I don’t—don’t want to be alone anymore.”
“Neither do I,” she whispered.
Leaning back she looked up at him. It didn’t matter that she couldn’t make out his features, that she still needed to ask him if he saw her as tainted goods, to tell him that she’d have to draw on his strength to get through whatever it took to put The Slavers behind bars.
There was this moment. This ocean breeze. Their bodies crying for each other.
Tomorrow could wait. And they’d face it together.
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