Sea Haven 02 - Spirit Bound

didn’t appear afraid of him, only for him. Her hand slipped to his chest, fingers splayed wide. She drew in her breath, as if she felt that same burning in her lungs.
    “Thomas, I’m trying so hard to save you.”
    He bent his head and kissed her again, a gentle, coaxing kiss bordering on tenderness. He had no idea where those gentler emotions came from, but she’d tapped into them and, although for him the rest of the world didn’t really exist outside those shadows, she was real to him, and so were those emotions reserved for her alone.
    “I need saving, Judith.” He gave her the stark, raw truth. “But sending me away won’t accomplish that. Fight for us. Give us a chance. That’s all I’m asking.”
    “We barely know each other. How can I tell you things I’ve never told anyone else?”
    “You know me. We both know. You’re not like other people and neither am I. Maybe it’s our gifts, but you know me, Judith. Your body recognized me. Your mind is fighting, but your heart and soul know as well. I’m the one. Give us a chance.”
    She sighed and slid her hand up to his wrist. “Let me look at the bee sting.” Before he could make demands, she shook her head. “I need time to think, Thomas. Please don’t push me right now.”
    He stayed still, caging her between his body and the wall, wanting her shamelessly, his body’s demands merciless. More than that, he wanted this moment to be right. He needed to handle this the right way and he didn’t have any experience in matters of the heart. He operated outside such parameters.
    “You’re giving me all the firsts I should have had over the last thirty years.”
    “I don’t know what that means.”
    “It means you can take a look at my neck and fuss over me.”
    A slow smile curved her mouth as he straightened and held out his hand to her. She threaded her fingers through his without hesitation.
    “You’re a good man, Thomas,” Judith said with a small sigh as she led the way to her bathroom.
    It was a feminine room. Spacious and filled with colorful things. The room was designed to be both restful and soothing, a place of the sea with splashes of color winding through shades of blue, gray and green. He sat on a low makeup bench, facing away from the mirror while she took tweezers and pushed his head down so she could shine the makeup lights directly on the sting site.
    He heard a hitch in her breath and his world stilled to that moment. To Judith. To the sins she was determined to push him away with.
    “A few years ago, when I was an art student in Paris, I met a man. He was wealthy and handsome and years above me in experience.”
    There was so much self-loathing in her voice he actually winced.
    “I was dazzled by him, so dazzled by him that I . . .” Her voice trailed off and he felt the burn as she caught the stinger with the tweezers and pulled, removing the tiny barb from his flesh. “I see auras. And his was muddy and complicated and violent. All the signs were there, but I didn’t want to see them. I wanted to believe the things he said to me, not something no one else could see.”
    She dabbed some cream onto the sting. He waited until she put the tube down and caught her wrist gently and pulled her around to stand in front of him, wedged between his thighs. His hands settled on her waist.
    “How old were you, Judith?”
    She shook her head. “I was twenty-one. Very naive. A young twenty-one in terms of experience with men. I studied so much that I never really was around men, not that I’m giving myself an excuse. Somewhere, deep inside, I knew better. I just refused to heed the warning signs.” She refused to look away from him, her hands resting on his shoulders. “One day I went to see him without calling first. I slipped in the back door to surprise him. The door to his study was barely opened and I heard voices. Screaming cut off. The smell of blood.” She pressed one hand to her mouth.
    He could see nightmares in her eyes. “He was torturing someone.”
    “Not Jean-Claude. He just stood there watching. His men. He was always surrounded by very scary men. He told me it was because of his money and his work, that people wanted him dead. I ran.” She moistened her lips. “I slipped out before anyone saw me. I was so scared that I called my brother, Paul. He was older than me and had raised me after my parents had died in a car accident. Of course he came to help me, dropped everything and rushed over to France