Love & Decay, Episode 11 Read Online Free Page A

going to keep them safe, Reagan?”
                  My throat dried up immediately and I struggled to find words to speak through the closing tightness.
                  “You should think about that. You should think about how you’re going to protect them.” He was so cautiously controlled and calm that I knew the monster was lurking just under his surface. This was the Kane I was afraid of. This was the Kane that was my biggest threat.
                  There were things I should say, warnings I should make, weapons I should find and use on this cold, frightening psychopath that was threatening me.
                  And he was being as careful as always. There were no exact words said or plans confessed, but I felt the immediate danger as heavily as I had the silence and the noise. The Parkers were in peril and it was because of this man.
                  “Reagan!” Hendrix called from the other side of the door. The sound of his voice released the vice grip on my chest and tears started to fall again, fast and wet on my cheeks. “Reagan! Open the door!” His voice broke as emotion overtook him, “ Please , open the door!”
                  And I did.
                  He fell through it, bloody and filthy from battle. He righted himself and we stood there as everything else disappeared. Sounds of gunfire still resounded through the early morning light filtering into the dark bunker. His face was cut, his clothes ripped and covered in blood. His skin was black from dirt or death or worse.
                  But he was alive.
                  And so was I.
                  There was nothing else more important than that.
     

Chapter Two
     
                  The tears started to fall faster and harder. Hendrix’s own eyes glistened with the same kind of relief and intense gratitude that we were once again standing in the same room together. Alive.
                  He shook his head at me, a fierce protective expression hardening his eyes until they were angry and wild. He lunged forward, pulling me roughly- almost painfully- against his firm chest. The breath whooshed from my lungs as our bodies collided. His arms wrapped around me in a stronghold of possessiveness. I heard his empty gun drop to the floor as he freed his hands so they could press against my back and push me impossibly closer to him.
                  “Never…” he started on a severe growl, but I couldn’t let him say another word without confessing the most important thing I would ever say to him.
                  “I love you,” I blurted with a coarse, emotional voice. His body tensed further against me and I felt his confusion as it rivaled with his acceptance of hearing me say those precious words. “I love you, Hendrix. I should have let you say it before. I should have never made you wait. I just needed you to know that….”
                  This time it was him that cut me off. His mouth crashed against mine with the fervency that the moment demanded. He devoured me in a consuming kiss that pushed every rational and cohesive thought from my head. He tasted like sweat, dirt and metal.
                  And like him.
                  Like the man I loved.
                  His fingers dug under the big, flannel shirt I’d found in one of the drawers here and gripped my hips with feral possession. His body pressed into mine until I was sure that without his hands holding me in place I would tip over from his weight. His lips moved over mine, savoring me, tasting me, claiming me.
                  My tears mingled with the evidence that he had risked his life to get to me and I wrapped my arms around his neck, determined to never let him go. My heart ached with the tenderness and poignancy of the moment. I felt too much for him, too