Better When He's Brave

He prowled closer, his eyes roving over me like a physical touch. This was not the calm and collected cop that kept the streets safe. This was the wild man that made a deal with a woman he didn’t trust and then let her put her hands and mouth all over him because he couldn’t resist the pull. This was the beast that wanted, needed, and craved being fed. He was practically vibrating with the emotions that were at war in his blazing gaze. Anger, lust, fear, sorrow, regret, guilt, remorse . . . all of them jockeying for top position as he watched me and prowled closer and closer.

“I chucked my phone at the accident scene. Roark has to be watching. I can’t figure out how he knew where Bax was going to be at that exact moment. He’s everywhere. I’ve been at the hospital nonstop since then, so I didn’t have a chance to get a new one yet. I only left to run to the garage to grab a shower or to go to the station to see if anyone had anything new on where Roark might be. I figured Race or Brysen would’ve told Karsen or Booker what was going on.”

“No. No one mentioned that he was awake. It would’ve been nice to know.” I couldn’t keep the sharpness out of my tone. Bax wasn’t my favorite, but he mattered to Titus, so that meant he mattered to me.

He got to the back of the couch and rested his hands on the cushions. He was towering over me and I knew it should make me nervous with the mood he was in, but this was Titus. He wouldn’t hurt me. He wouldn’t hurt anyone, no matter how mad or frustrated he might be. He was too good for that.

“I think everyone was so relieved that he finally opened his eyes that was all they could think about. Brysen was worried about Dovie and Race was a nervous wreck. He and Bax are like brothers, so it was hard on everyone to see him like that. So broken and so still. That’s not Bax.”

I couldn’t take it anymore. I had to touch him. I had to try and smooth some of that roughness out of his practically vibrating body. Never had any man needed to come home to a gentle touch like this one did. I lifted up onto my knees and reached both hands up so that they were lying near the center of his chest right over his heart. It thudded heavy and slow under my fingertips, like beating was just too much effort.

“Shane won’t stay down for long, and while he and Race might be like brothers, you are his brother, Titus. So you’re allowed to be just as worried and just as freaked out as the rest of them are. You don’t have to hold it together all the time. You’re a man, not a machine. Someone needs to be there to tell you that everything is okay every once in a while.”

Suddenly it was like his heart woke up and the rhythm under my fingers started to surge and dance. His bandaged hands came up and wrapped around each of my wrists. I looked down at his grip as it slowly started to tighten.

“What happened to your hands?”

His chest rose and fell with a deep breath and his eyes drifted shut. When the long, black lashes fluttered back open, the color of his remarkable eyes had switched from blue to that luminous silver. My skin tingled instinctively.

“I tried to pull Bax out of the wreck and I cut them on the frame of the car and on the broken glass.”

Oh my God, he was amazing and fearless. How could one man care so much about everyone else and not see the damage that it was doing to him? He couldn’t be responsible for the entire world. It would kill him.

“Titus . . .” My voice got caught on the emotion that welled up.

I didn’t have to add to it because he simply shook his head and told me quietly, “Tell me everything is going to be okay, Reeve.”

There was no hesitation as the words fell fast and furiously from my lips. “Everything will be okay.”

I met him halfway as he lowered his head toward me. The setting was different and far more appropriate, but the way he put his mouth on mine wasn’t. There was still the raw and brutal edge to it. Still the harsh scrape of teeth and the urgent twist of his tongue as it twirled all around mine. His lips were hard and eager. His breathing got jagged and uneven as he let go of my wrists and put his hands around my waist.

In a show of pure strength he lifted me up from my kneeling position and lifted me onto the edge of the couch. I thought he was going to settle me into that position once my legs were coiled around his waist but he didn’t. He put a hand under my ass and held me up, walking toward the wall of windows until my back hit the glass, his mouth moving over mine, devouring me the entire trip.

Once he had me secure between his big body and the glass behind me, he started pulling at my clothes. The soft cotton of my T-shirt and the delicate satin of my bra were no match for his questing and impatient hands. Between one gasp as my aroused nipples hit his chest and another as his heavy thigh forced its way between that notch in my legs that was getting damp and heated under his attentions, he had me mostly naked and was steadily working on getting my pants open. Things were moving fast, too fast. He was in some kind of frenzy and I could feel it as his lips and hands raced haphazardly across my skin. This was all about want and had very little to do with need, at least on his part, but I was greedy enough, gone enough over this man to let him take . . . for right now.

The button on my jeans proved to be very little deterrent as without warning, his hand and his very nimble fingers were all over me and unerringly finding all the places that would welcome him even if my common sense was screaming at me that I should put a stop to this right now. The bandage across his palm was rough on delicate skin and the brush of his fingertips even more so as they dipped inside of me. I moaned in response and my entire body jerked against his where he had me pinned. He pulled his mouth off of mine and we both sucked in a much-needed breath. His eyes burned and all I could do was smolder and move with him as he started to stroke me with firm, steady motions. Nothing about the way he touched me felt reverent. It was frantic and wild. The urgency made it all the more exciting and hot.