”Always.”
Her voice snapped like the crack of a whip. Like thunder trapped in a valley. A thunder that set the earth beneath their feet to trembling, shaking free the wounds that were home to his armor and sending trickles of blood rolling down his legs. Shaking free the cliffside that threatened to overwhelm them.
His head whipped around to her, eyes alert, but the tumbling rubble snagged his attention and in the next instant she was crashing into him. Grunting, he caught his feet under him, watched her attack his bone plate like she could chew her way through it.
“Heartfire!”
He felt as though he was speaking through a tunnel, unheard and unreachable. Alone with this new emotion striking his veins with a charge of electricity. A sort of fear, believe it or not. It was the craziest fuckin thing.
He was afraid for her.
Yeah, he's been afraid of her, she's fuckin terrifying. Haven't you seen her? But this time was different, a bitter taste and an ice in his bones, a dark haze of panicked worry filling his chest like smoke.
The muscles in his legs locked up tight, bracing against her weight as she pressed -- finally fuckin pressed that gorgeous body against him. His eyes were locked on her face, brightened by that strange needling concern as he searched her furious eyes. He was the target, but he wasn't the monster she was hunting this time.
He took her beating because he chose it. He was built to withstand it anyway.
And whatever. He kinda liked it.
She accused him of things he probably couldn't deny, and shouldn't try to. But that last bit shut her up quick, got her moving away from him after a long moment. He straightened warily, keeping his eyes trained on her.
Well, obviously she got tangled up with a jerk like him. Or worse.
There wasn't much he could say as her eyes closed, shutting him out again, throwing up those walls again. It wasn't like he could give her a nice cuddle. Not exactly the snuggling type, was she? And she wouldn't want him to either. Hadn't she made that plenty clear? He wasn't particularly a cuddler either.
Maybe.
Kinda couldn't remember.
“If I wanted a body, I'd fuckin have one,” he quipped with a hard stare she didn't see, his voice low. And then he turned with a jerk in his shoulders like he could straighten out a leather jacket, started walking away again. Give her space to lock him out again. Take some space from her too because it shouldn't even fuckin matter how she feels about him.
She didn't give a damn.
And that didn't hurt.
And he didn't care.
we're slaves to any semblance of touch
Lord, we should quit but we love it too much
