Healing Eden Read Online Free Page A

face pale. Whatever she’d done to heal him, her empathic gift had taken its toll.
    Ramsay stalked toward Reese. “You’re well enough. I’ll bet I can find a way to get what we need out of you.”
    “Ramsay.” Galena darted forward and stumbled.
    Reese dodged to the side. His legs gave out beneath him, but he broke her fall, his good shoulder snapping against the stone floor.
    Galena twisted in his hold and studied his injury, her eyes flared in alarm and her mouth parted. “Reese.”
    Screw the pain. Every bit was worth it to have her this close. To have her lips this close and her breath on his face. To feel her soft breasts pressed against his against his chest and let her flowery scent cart his mind miles and miles away from here.
    Ramsay scooped her up and out of Reese’s arms.
    “I’m fine.” Galena shoved Ramsay and tried to wiggle free. “I’m fine. Put me down.”
    “You’re not fine.” Ramsay shifted her in his arms. “You look like hell.”
    Reese pushed himself from the floor on wobbly legs, his breath shallow and huffing.
    “I just need some rest.” She still struggled. “Now put me down.”
    “No.” Ramsay spun for the open door, his guards hovering outside the door. He paused at the entrance and scowled at Reese. “She saved your ass. Not once, but twice. If you care so much about her, you’ll thank her for her efforts in the form of answers when I get back.”
    The door slammed behind him and quick footsteps faded into nothingness.
    Reese dropped to the cot and the wooden legs grated against the floor. What in histus was wrong with him? He was a POW, would probably hang within twenty-four hours, and all he could process was the way Galena felt next to him. He couldn’t twist the scenario more if he tried.
    He fisted the cot’s coarse brown blanket. Galena shouldn’t have wasted her energy to heal him. The zeolite negated his gifts, but it also sheltered him from Maxis. The minute he stepped free of the protective crystal Maxis would find him via link and shred his brain the same way he had Phybe’s.
    He laughed and banged the back of his head against the wall. What was he thinking? Ramsay and Eryx would hang him for treason whether he gave them the information they wanted or not. Even if they offered mercy in exchange for what he knew, he’d spend the rest of his life behind zeolite, which was worse than death.
    Two death sentences or a lifetime in prison. He let out a harsh exhale and hung his head. No matter which way things went, he was well and truly screwed.
    * * * *
    Galena bolted upright in bed and gasped. Her pulse thrummed at either side of her neck and her breasts ached, tight and heavy. Cool air hit her sweat-slick skin as she blinked her eyes into focus. Emerald curtains framed a window open to dark skies. A favorite painting hung along the far wall. Her room at the castle.
    Now she remembered. Ramsay hadn’t let her go home. Had insisted she sleep at the castle instead of her cottage.
    Plucking the damp silk against her belly, she took a slow steady breath and dropped back to the pillows. Wisps of erotic images clung to her thoughts . Her and Reese, lips and tongues, tangled and sweaty. She pressed her legs together and groaned at the lingering ache between them. In her dream, he’d devoured her. Touched her in a way no man had in real life. Bold. Decadent.
    A traitor.
    She flicked the covers aside and shoved upright. She didn’t have anything to be ashamed of. So what if her subconscious put Reese’s face on her desires? It didn’t mean she wanted him literally. Just that she wanted to be desired. To be more than someone’s political advantage or empty-headed house warmer. Completely reasonable.
    Pulling her hair off her neck, she plodded to the window and rested her elbows on the stone ledge. If she’d minded her manners and stayed out of Reese’s head in the first place, her imagination wouldn’t have had so much material to work with.
    Her cheeks flared