“I couldn’t control it last night,” he reminded me, tipping his face down to kiss my bare shoulder.
“Danny,” I breathed, leaning back against him. “Look at me.”
He raised his gaze to mine.
“Don’t fucking spiral, all right?”
He stiffened.
Reaching up, I cupped his cheek in my palm and held his face next to mine, our gazes locked.
“If you hadn’t gotten there when you did, we were toast,” I told him, the memory of all those humans rising from the forest like ants making me shudder. “We were surrounded, and there were too many of them. If we hadn’t had the boys and Aunt Halle, it might’ve been different, but we couldn’t go on the offensive because we were too busy playing defense for them.”
He turned his head slowly and kissed the center of my palm.
“Don’t expect me to judge you for the ability that got us all home alive last night.”
“I had some help,” he reminded me ruefully.
“Secondary characters,” I joked, wrinkling my nose. “You’re the main character, babe.”
Daniel laughed. “Come on, mate,” he ordered, leaning back. “Let’s get you cleaned up.”
We were quiet as Daniel helped me lose the sheet and sling, then soaped up a washcloth and began to clean me off. The bathroom fan was the only noise in the room as he started with the unwounded half of my face, then my ears and neck. Using a clean washcloth, he rinsed the soap away. Then he grabbed two new cloths and started the process on my chest, arms, armpits, and back. As he worked his way down my body, I let my eyes drift shut.
My body was sore, especially my face. All the talking we’d done had pulled at the stitches in my cheek, and I was actually a little surprised that he was able to understand me because the words that came out of my mouth were consistently slurred and garbled.
Tears gathered in the corners of my eyes as he dropped the next set of dirty cloths on the tile floor and reached for new ones. He was being so incredibly gentle as he washed away the memories and the terror and the evidence of what we’d gone through. Every touch felt like a benediction, his lips brushing over the bruises and scratches he found as he cleaned me off.
“Danny,” I whispered as he helped me sit so he could wash my feet.
“What is it, love?” he murmured, looking up from where he kneeled at my feet in nothing but a towel.
“I fucked up last night,” I confessed.
“How did you fuck up?”
The fact that he didn’t try to argue that I hadn’t, just asked what I’d done—no recrimination in his tone—made tears drip down my cheeks.
“I was supposed to guard Seamus,” I choked out. “He was counting on me to keep him safe. Everyone was counting on me.”
Daniel smiled gently and reached out to wipe the tears from my cheek. “I’m not going to try to convince you otherwise.”
I nodded, trying to hold back a sob.
“But I am going to tell you this—are you listening?”
“Yeah.”
“When we undressed you last night, there wasn’t a single person in the room who understood how you could’ve stayed on your feet with the wounds you had.” His hands wrapped around my ankles and squeezed in emphasis. “You should’ve been unconscious. At the very least, you should’ve been down—but you weren’t.”
I sniffled pitifully, not even bothering to wipe my nose.
“You stayed on your feet, Rosie. You kept going, and no one knows how you did it. I know I can’t change how you feel about it right now, but, baby, you didn’t fuck up. You fought until the very end to keep that boy safe. Try to remember that when you’re feeling guilty for shit that was out of your control.”
“Okay,” I replied halfheartedly as he went back to cleaning my feet.
“I felt the same way when Zeke died,” he continued a few moments later. “Knowing that I wasn’t there to protect him?” He shook his head. “That was my job as his big brother. I should’ve known he was in trouble. Hell, I should’ve known that he’d found his mate. I hadn’t been keeping in touch like I should’ve. That was on me.”
