There is nothing.
And then… there is everything.
Heat, blazing over my skin.
Hands – those arehands, gripping me, holding me steady, pressing me against that heat. I suck in a single, shuddering breath, tasting iron and musk and something that does not belong.
Too much—
“Kenny?”
I freeze at the low, rumbling sound. I feel it more than I hear it, reverberating through my bones, soaking into me.
“Kenny.” Barely a whisper, this time.
I don’t know what to do. My hands are gripping something soft, holding onto it with everything I have as I fight to breathe, to understand.
Where am I—
My eyes squeeze open, blurring and closing again. It’s too bright.
Too much.
A small, painful noise crawls from my throat. My fingers tighten in a silent plea.
“I’ve got you.” The voice trembles, shakes. “God, baby. I’ve got you. It’s okay, Ken.”
Roughness drags along my skin. My… neck. And something else, damp and salty that tinges the air around me.
My fingers flex. Testing.
“It’s okay,” the voice rumbles again. A hand runs down my back. Over, and over. Familiar, but… not. “Take your time.”
It breaks, shakes. Unsteady, and broken.
Broken.
I was… broken.
Slowly, I move my face. It’s pressed into warmth, and I push myself closer. Trying to bury myself in the scent. Musky and welcoming andsafe. I know that scent. It stayed.
But yet…it’s wrong, too. Spicy, and metallic.
I pull back, tasting it on my lips. My eyes open again and again, blinking to clear away the tears.
But they keep coming. Filling my eyes, sliding down my cheeks.
“Ken,” the voice breathes. And those are fingers, cradling my face. Hazel eyes. Familiar.Mine. Those are mine, too. “Can you look at me?”
They’re all mine.
But that scent—
There are more words. So many more words, tripping over each other, filling the air and making me flinch back, burying my face back in that warmth.
“Stop.” Another voice. A new voice. “Everyone, stop.”
And I know this voice, I realize slowly. Like I knew the first voice.
