Numbers (New Species #14-15)(43)

He’d snapped at her with his fangs when she’d tried to hug him, snarling for her to go across the kill-zone line on the floor where humans belonged. Even after they’d let him go, he’d refused to go near her. He’d slept on the floor instead of sharing their mat. He wouldn’t speak to her. She’d cried and pleaded, but nothing had worked. Then in desperation, she’d come up with a plan. A plan that might work as well today as it had then.Hero just needed space. He couldn’t think with Candi invading his home. She had refused to leave so he needed to. The only problem was that she blocked the door. He refused to touch her. It would be too much, and he couldn’t handle it. Not right at that moment.
“Why don’t you go in the bathroom and get dressed?” Her gaze lowered down his body. “It’s too mean to stand there in front of me when I can’t touch you.”
He noticed the way she looked at him and fought his natural responses. Just thinking of sex reminded him that she’d given herself to another male. It was ingrained in his mind, burned there from the years of pain he’d endured from it. He would have taken a thousand beatings rather than have her step inside their cell with the stench of another male all over her. To know someone else had kissed her and stripped her bare killed his sex drive. He growled, his rage rising fast. He could handle anger better than the pain.
He bent and snatched up his jeans. He even had the sense to remember to yank a shirt out of the closet. He stormed into the bathroom and locked the door, needing that barricade against her. He’d forgotten underwear but it didn’t matter. He dressed, his actions stiff and jerky. He stood there when he was done, not willing to face her just yet. He stalled for a while by washing his face and brushing his teeth. He even picked up a brush to comb out all the tangles from his wet hair.
He unlocked the door, took a deep breath. He had to make her understand that he needed time to think. She had allowed the male to mount her, thinking she was saving his life. He just had to work that information into his mind longer so the pain could dull a little. It was just too fresh. He stepped out and glanced at the door where he figured she’d be. She was there all right, and utter shock slammed into him.
Her borrowed clothing from Medical was in a pile at her feet. Her legs were bare all the way up to mid thigh where one of his discarded tank tops now covered her body. Her arms were above her head, stretched high. He barely noticed that since his shirt gaped open on her sides, the large armholes revealing a lot of skin from her hips upward. He noticed then why her arms were up. She’d used two of his belts to secure her wrists and the ends of them were closed in the top of the door.
“What—” He couldn’t even comprehend why she’d do that.
“You didn’t have chains, but I’m restrained here all the same. They are thick enough that I really had to push to get the door to close. They are really stuck.” She bent her knees a little, hanging there when her feet left the floor. “I’m not going anywhere unless you free me.”
“Why would you do this?” It agitated him. She’d effectively restrained herself. 
“It worked before.”
“What are you talking about?”
“I chained myself to the wall. Remember? I thought about tying myself to your bed this time but figured you’d leave me there. You can’t get out of this room unless you touch me.”
“Oh hell.” He growled, took a few steps forward, but then stopped.
She grinned. “You had that same amazed, yet dismayed look on your face when you woke up on the floor and found that I’d chained myself up the way you’d been.”
“I had to call the techs in to unlock the restraints.” He remembered. “I should have left you there. Nobody wants to be chained to a wall.”
“You stopped being angry with me.”
A jolt of amusement shot through him, ruining his foul mood. He’d forgotten that she had a way of getting into predicaments that left him laughing. “What if I left you there?”
“We’re on the third floor. It’s not like you can just climb out a window. The door is the only way out.”
“I could jump down to another balcony until I reach the ground,” he teased.
She straightened her knees and flatted her bare feet on his carpet. “You could, but you won’t.”
“What makes you so sure of that?”
Her smile faded as she licked her lips. “You won’t. It would bother you, thinking about how eventually my arms are going to start to hurt.”
He closed his eyes. “Candi…”
“Look at me,” she whispered. “They took your pride away that day and embarrassed you in front of me. You thought I’d see you as the animal they claimed. I showed you that we’re the same, and there was no reason for you to feel that way. You didn’t think any less of me, seeing me chained to a wall.”
He opened his eyes and the dark mood returned. He just wasn’t sure what to say. She spoke before he could.
“I took something from you by the choice I made. I really did it to save your life. I know I hurt you. I’d do anything to take it back if I could.” She paused. “I’m at your mercy. Leave me here or touch me. You have a choice now.”
“Your mind doesn’t work correctly.”
“That’s the politest way anyone has ever accused me of being nuts. I’m okay with that. I spent a long time in an asylum when I was sane. I’m due some bad choices now.”
She could drive a male insane. He advanced. She needed to be set free. He kept back, avoiding touching her directly as he gripped one of the belts. He tugged, but the leather band was really wedged in between the door and the jamb. He frowned, pulling harder.
“That’s not going to work.”
He glanced down. She was too close. He could smell the shampoo she’d used in her hair, knew she’d brushed her teeth with something minty, and underneath that, her feminine scent called to him. It always had.
“Why not?”
Mischief made those beautiful eyes of hers sparkle. “I might have chosen the two belts with the thickest, strongest buckles that stops them from sliding through the door. You’re actually going to have to move me and then open the door to slide them off the top. Why do you have so many belts? Isn’t one enough?”
“I only left you alone for five minutes.”
“I have a quick mind.”
He remembered that about her too. She was always the mastermind when they played pranks. He’d been the one with the strength and height to put them into motion. There had been the time she’d used loose threads from her clothes to braid a thin string. She’d tied a piece of meat on it and then had him lift her up to hang it above the door from an old nail. Dr. C had come in on his daily check, and she’d casually mentioned that a spider was over his head. The doctor had looked up and cried out like a female. He’d realized what it was and glared at both of them. It had been funny. She knew Dr. C feared the eight-legged creatures.There were a lot of good memories. Warmth spread through him as he continued to stare down at her, flashes of their time together coming back. Some of the drugs Mercile had tested in his system had made him hurt so she’d had him lie with his head on her lap while she sang softly and played with his hair. She’d tell him stories that distracted him from his suffering.
He examined her features. She was his Candi. He could see some changes. A few lines marred her skin near her eyes and mouth. His attention lowered and his cock stiffened. She had filled out in her chest. The soft-looking mounds of her breasts were clearly defined through the thin material of his tank top.
“You’re going to have to touch me.”
Her voice came out a little husky and he growled. He wanted to feel her. He opened his hand without thinking, almost touching the skin that was revealed over her ribs. She was too pale and looked so soft. She arched her back, as if to encourage him. It unsettled him. He lifted his gaze to stare deeply into her eyes.
“You want my touch?”
“More than anything.”
“I’m angry.”
“I know.”
“I could hurt you.”
She relaxed, keeping her gaze locked with his. “I’d rather feel your temper than nothing at all.”
He curled his hands into fists and flattened his knuckles on the door next to her chest and closed his eyes. It was easy to inch closer until he pressed lightly against her body. She pushed her face forward to rest her forehead against his chest. He just stood there, feeling her warm breath through the thin material of his shirt. She felt small, but that was nothing new. His Candi had always been tiny but fierce. It also made it real. She was alive.
“Do you remember what you did when you woke up after they first brought you into my cell?”
“I cried,” she murmured. “I knew my mother was dead and Christopher had taken her from me. He abandoned me in a cold room, and I knew he wouldn’t ever let me out. I didn’t even think I’d see him again.”
He lowered his chin, resting it on top of her head. She fit there, as she always had. “You hurt my ears with all that sobbing.” He pressed a little closer. “You looked up and saw me crouched in the corner.” He smiled at the memory. “I believed you’d start screaming or make louder sounds but you didn’t. You just crawled off my mat and right to me. I thought you might attack and I tensed, prepared to knock you away since I’d been told I couldn’t hurt you. Instead you threw your arms around me. You held on so tight.”