Xavier’s arm reached for the notepad on the nightstand. He scribbled something. Showed me.
Can’t. Tried. Nothing.
“But you did. When you came. You said my name.”
He wrote again: Didn’t mean to. Just... happened.
I looked up at him. “So whatever’s blocking you... it failed. Just for a second.”
He nodded slowly.
The implications made my head spin.
If the conditioning had cracked once, even briefly, maybe it could crack again.
Maybe we could get his voice back.
“Hellhound needs to know about this. It could be important. For understanding what they did to you.”
Xavier’s grip tightened on my hip. Expression shifting to something wary.
“What?”
He took the notepad. Wrote: Don’t want to think about Hellhound right now.
Fair enough.
I outlined the scar on his ribs. “What do you want to think about?”
One palm slid down. Cupped my ass. Drew me closer.
I raised an eyebrow. “Already? You just...”
He was hard again. Pressing against my thigh.
Impressive recovery time. I’d add it to his medical file.
“Xavier...”
He kissed me. Slow this time. Thorough. His tongue stroking against mine until I melted into him.
When he withdrew, his stare asked the question.
Again?
I should say no. We should rest. Conserve energy for whatever hell was coming.
But the clock was ticking.
Two weeks. Maybe three.
And I wanted to memorize every second.
“Yes.”
The word came out against his mouth. “Again.”
Chapter 17
