Before the Dawn(42)

She grabbed his hand. "I have sex in the dark with all of my lovers. Not just you."

His face hardened and a muscle jerked along his jaw. "Your other lovers?" The words were a furious growl. "That's not what you want to be talking about with me right now."

She held him tighter. "Yes, it is. It's what you need to know. I didn't keep the lights off because...because of you." Dawn stumbled over those words. Because you have his face. Because you have his eyes. "I've had other lovers in the years since we've been apart. I need the dark. It...it helps me to hide."

"Why the hell would you want to hide?"

She let him go and walked around him, pacing toward the window and staring out at the city. Her curtains were pulled back so that she could see all of the glittering lights. "At first, I was hiding my scars. They were ugly, even when they stopped being so red. So jagged." Her breath whispered out. "And then...then I was hiding because no matter who I was with..." God, this was so hard to say.

He didn't speak behind her and the silence was stretching too long. Dawn eased out a slow breath and turned toward him.

"No matter who I was with, I was still afraid." Truth. "It became easier to stay in the dark." Maybe if she'd fallen in love with one of her other lovers, it would have been different. She'd tried to live a normal life. Tried to have relationships, but she put up too many barriers. She knew that.

It was hard to let men close. It was hard to trust.

Tucker stared at her, his eyes so bright and blue. Emotion swirled in those depths. He'd turned on all the lights in her room. No more hiding in here. He wore a pair of sweatpants around his hips, and his muscled chest was bare. Strong, determined Tucker. Her gaze drifted over him, staring at him fully in the light.

He had scars, too. But then, he'd always had them. Even when they'd been together before, she'd noticed his scars. Some were small, barely an inch long. Others were bigger, deeper. A few thick ones were on his back, just below his shoulders.

She'd asked about them before. She'd kissed them all before.

He'd told her they didn't matter. Accidents. Marks he'd gotten in battle. Wounds to be forgotten.

If only her own scars were so easily forgotten.

"Were you afraid when you were in my bed tonight?"

She'd been afraid going to his room. Been afraid as she stood just outside his door, but then he'd begun to touch her, and the feel of his callused fingertips had been so familiar. "No."


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He nodded once, as if satisfied, then he was stalking toward her. One slow step at a time. She didn't retreat. Where was there to go? The window was behind her. He was in front of her.

And-

He reached behind her. Lowered the shade. Pulled the curtains closed. "Take off the robe."

"What?"

"I'm not your other lovers." Again, that muscle jerked in his jaw. "I'm not going to be some faceless man in the dark. That's not who I am to you. Take off your robe. Let me see you in the light."

It was so hard. The way his eyes were gleaming. The way his face had gone hard. The way-

He caught her chin in his hand. Tucker tilted her head up when she hadn't even realized that she'd turned away. "Who am I?"

"Tucker."

"Fucking right. Remember that. I'm not Jason. I'm not anyone you've been with in the past. I'm Tucker, and you can trust me."

Easy words to say.

"Take off the robe."

Her fingers fumbled with the belt. Slowly, she shrugged off the robe. It fell to a pool at her feet.

He sucked in a quick breath and then he took one step back as his hand fell away from her chin. His gaze-almost burning it was so bright-swept over her. Going first to her shoulder and to the cluster of three roses that had been tattooed there. The scar on her shoulder had been the worst, so Jinx had spent extra time layering the petals there.

Jinx.

She had to blink away tears.

His gaze slipped down to her right side. Another rose, one that curled over her hip. Then he looked at her stomach. Two more roses, twisting together there over the long, thin slice that had been left from Jason's blade.

She had three more roses on her body. One on the top of her thigh. He was staring at that one now. One on her back. One small rose along her inner arm.

"You are the most beautiful woman I've ever seen." His gaze was slowly moving over her as he spoke and his voice was a deep rumble. "You were made to be in the light. Made to be seen, not hidden away in the dark."

Her breath came too fast. Her heartbeat seemed to shake her chest.