That made her angry, sure enough.Her eyes glittered, her lips thinning, and he thought privately that if she ever truly looked at him like that, his heart might stop.
She punched his open hand, another good solid strike.Then something broke inside her, and she hit him again, her lips peeling back from her teeth.Again, and again.She broke into a wild flurry of punches with both hands, tears blurring in her eyes.She made a low hurt noise as she punched, a noise Delgado recognized from the attack on her house.
Bingo.
Finally.Come on, angel, take it out on me, get rid of it.
Rowan uttered a low, hoarse scream, her fists almost blurring.Delgado blocked the strikes with little effort, and waited until she wound down.
She finally stopped after one last punch, her head down and her ribs heaving with deep ragged breaths.Delgado glanced around the room.
Everyone was studiously avoiding looking at them.It wasn’t uncommon for people to go a little crazy during a sparring session, especially shell-shocked green recruits.
Delgado waited.Eventually Rowan’s breath evened out.She still looked at the floor, tears dripping off her chin.It took everything he had to stay still, to wait until she moved.The next movehadto be hers.
Finally, she looked up, her chin trembling and her eyes huge and vulnerable.“Justin?”She sounded as if she’d just awakened from a nightmare, thready, uncertain.
“Rowan.”He couldn’t put all the longing he felt into that word.Couldn’t even begin.Be gentle with her now, Del.“Let’s hit the showers and get something to eat, what do you say?”
“I… I’m sorry.”
“I shouldn’t have pushed you.”That was a lie.She’d needed that, would need more of it in the weeks ahead.The shell of shock and calm she’d been in wasn’t healthy anymore.
And she’d let her guard down withhim.That thought warmed him clear through, even though it had been a foregone conclusion.He was the only emotional contact she had here.The only other person she might have conceivably broken down with was Henderson, and the old man had maintained a careful distance, waiting for Delgado’s clearance.
“I—” Tears welled up again.
Delgado moved a little closer.He hadn’t even broken a sweat, even though his heart was pounding wildly.He slid his arm cautiously over her shoulders.“Come on.Let’s get you out of here.”
She leaned into his body, her gaze dropping to the floor.Accepting his protection, though everybody in thedojowas politely ignoring whatever was happening between Delgado and his neophyte.It wasn’t so strange, after all—a society of psychic people were necessarily concerned about privacy.
He chose little-used hallways to get her back to his building, and they took the lift up to the third floor.Once inside the safe haven of his room, Rowan broke away from under his arm and bolted for the bathroom.The sound of running water from the shower did little to muffle her sobs.
It hurt to keep his distance, standing at the window and listening to her cry.It was sheer torture, in fact, especially since he had been so careful, so gentle.She was stubborn, determined not to break down, staving off all her grief with fierce pride.The toughness she was so determined to display was one more thing to admire.
Just use some of those interrogation techniques you’re so proud of,Henderson’s voice snorted in his memory.Delgado leaned his forehead against the window and looked down at the barren garden beneath its coat of winter gray.The weather had turned ugly, snowstorms coming.Some of the Society who had weather-sense were predicting heavy snows and an ice-storm, and everyone was uneasy.Part of that uneasiness was the recent upswing in casualties.Sigma was getting serious.It helped that Henderson had managed to get all the telem rigs fixed; the burr in the flux phasing had been responsible for a lot of Sigma’s tracking them down.Things were holding steady, but everyone was still jittery.
And the other part of the uneasiness had to do with Rowan’s quiet, numb misery.She was adjusting, true, but her grief was beginning to affect the whole complex.Henderson had finally quietly asked Del to do something about it.She refused point-blank to see any of the counselors; no amount of gentle cajoling or outright pleading would convince her.She only wanted to talk to him.
That was satisfying, but…
She turned the shower off, and he heard her moving around.She hadn’t mentioned him sleeping on the chair again.She hadn’t mentioned Sigma.But her nightmares were a twice-nightly occurrence now, with her waking up, shaking and sweating, and Delgado trying to calm her down, electric prickles racing over his skin.It took a level of control he hadn’t been aware he possessed to keep himself at a distance.He’d begun to pick up on her emotional state whenever she was in the same building, let alone the same room, and she was emitting high-level waves of distress that made even him tense.She progressed quickly in her classes, but she was at a complete standstill otherwise.
So I’ve got to.He watched the garden below.I wanted to avoid this.That was a lie, too.He wanted her to come to him of her own free will.He didn’t want to manipulate her.
But something had to be done.And he was responsible.
“Justin?”
He turned away from the window.His breath had fogged a respectable patch of glass.“Hey.”Now it was time to push her a little, see how she reacted.“Better?”
“I’m sorry,” she said, all in one rush.“I just?—”
He found himself crossing the room.Rowan didn’t back up, but she drew herself up to her full height and bit her lower lip.She wore his red sweater and a pair of jeans, and her feet were bare.
Delgado stopped himself a bare few feet from her.“Don’t apologize.I kind of think you needed that.”
“I think I did.”Her pulse fluttered in her throat.He tore his gaze away and found she was watching him, her eyes wounded and defenseless.“I want to ask you something.”
