“You didn’t.” She pressed her hand to his cheek. “You didn’t hurt me. You helped me.”
His frown eased only a degree. “That’s all I wanted. I could see you were hurting, and I had to help you through it if I could.” He reached around her and cut off the water. “I wasn’t going to leave your side.”
She stared into his brilliant blue eyes, struck by his tender words and his patient care with her. How was he able to exasperate her with his overbearing cockiness and refusal to leave her alone, yet make her heart twist with yearning at the same time?
Now that the noise of the shower was silenced, she was achingly aware of the fast, heavy pound of her pulse. Standing so close to Zael, she heard his heartbeat too. She couldn’t resist placing her hand against the bronze-skinned, corded strength of his chest.
He touched her, too, brushing his fingertips over one nipple, then the other, his caress light, undemanding. A rush of arousal streaked through her, and he responded with a low, approving growl in the back of his throat.
His cock had been erect since he’d entered the shower with her, but now it surged even harder in the narrow space between their naked bodies.
“I’m afraid, Zael.” It was apparently a night for first admissions, because these were further words she had never said to anyone before in her life. “You scare me. You have from the very first day I saw you.”
He lifted her chin, holding her gaze as he lowered his mouth to hers. His kiss seared her senses, despite its gentleness. It answered all of her fears, more than any words could.
She’d never had someone take care of her the way he had tonight. She didn’t know she could enjoy someone’s touch like this, or need someone’s comfort so profoundly.
No, not just someone.
Just this man.
Only Zael.
And, yes, that scared her.
It terrified her, how deeply she was beginning to care for him.
He cupped her face in his broad hand and she turned into his palm, pressing her lips to the center of it, the spot that had been glowing earlier tonight. Her tongue darted out to taste him and he growled, low and deep and primal.
It was all the warning he gave her before he swept her off her feet and up into his arms.
With her hair dripping and their bodies still wet from the shower, he strode into the bedroom with her.
CHAPTER 23
Brynne was light in his arms, her face nestled against his chest as Zael carried her out to the bedroom. He held her close, hoping she couldn’t feel the fury that was coursing through him after hearing what she had suffered at the hands of the man who made her.
He seethed over those other things she didn’t say.
Abuse so heinous she didn’t—or could not—put it into words. But it had been evident enough on her tormented face. Whatever had been done to her physically had left no traces on her body. Her advanced metabolism would have taken care of that. It was the other scars she carried inside that had obviously wounded her far worse.
Zael wanted to roar with his rage over what she had endured.
Never again. Not so long as he was alive to stop it would she ever know pain or mistreatment.
She would never have to be alone, locked in a prison of her own making because of fear for what she was.
It was a ridiculous promise for him to make even to himself—and all the more so when he knew his actions in the alley may have jeopardized everything. Using his power in the open as he had was tantamount to broadcasting his location to every Atlantean around the globe. His kind were all connected by the light within them. It was their strength as a people, but for fugitives like Zael, it was also a weakness that could have led his enemies right to him tonight.
But the need to help Brynne had eclipsed any risk to himself.
They had made it out of the city despite his carelessness, and she was safe.