Page 177 of Tamed By Her Touch

Except one of them had been shot and the other had just spent the afternoon curing him with sex, Clair thought. Normal was probably no longer an option.

Clair tucked both tablets—hers and also Kaelus’s— securely under one arm.

“Now what?” he asked, frowning.

“Now we get out of here.” Clair shivered. “I’m more than ready to get out of this dungeon and back out into the sunshine.”

Kaelus nodded.

“Agreed.”

He bent to retrieve the blaster from beneath the restraint chair, but the movement made him stagger.

Clair caught his uninjured arm.

“Hey, take it easy, big fella!”

He grimaced in pain.

“I am fine.”

“You are not fine!” she exclaimed. “You have a hole burned in your shoulder and you’ve lost God knows how much blood, so for once in your life, will you stop arguing and let somebody take care of you?”

The words came out more fiercely than she intended.

Kaelus looked down at her and something passed through his golden eyes.

Was it sadness? Longing? Clair didn’t know but she could almost feel his emotions…then that strange barrier in her mind tightened again and she felt nothing.

“I do not deserve your care,” he said quietly.

Clair stared at him.

“What the hell is that supposed to mean?”

He shrugged.

“Nothing.”

“It didn’t sound like nothing,” she pointed out.

Kaelus looked away.

“We should leave.”

Clair put a hand on her hip.

“Oh no, you don’t get to say something cryptic and depressing like that and then just⁠—”

A low moan interrupted them. Looking down, she saw that Sendar was beginning to wake.

Kaelus immediately shifted to stand in front of her. Even wounded, exhausted, and barely able to stand, he placed himself between her and danger without thinking.

Clair looked at his broad back—at the scorched hole in his shoulder where he had taken a blast meant for her. She looked at the man who had chained himself to a chair rather than risk hurting her.

Her heart fisted in her chest. Whatever had happened between them while the virus controlled him, this was Kaelus.

This was who he really was—the male who would rather die than hurt her…the male who had taken a blaster bolt for her without hesitation.