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He wrapped her in his arms and held her close.

Daisy pressed herself against him. She’d cling to him like her favorite teddy bear if she could get her hands free.

“I didn’t want this to happen. And I never hid it. I really didn’t know I’d had anything put inside me.” Her voice was muffled as she rested her head against his chest. It felt so good to be held by him.

“Of course. No one thinks you did. You’ll be back on the team before you know it. You’re going nowhere. And I’m sticking right by your side.” His voice was low and gruff.

“You can’t guarantee that.”

“I can. You’re staying here with me. It’s where you belong.”

She swallowed her tears. She had no clue if that was true. Her mind was swirling as badly as her stomach. She was adrift. Separated from everything she’d fought so hard to be a part of.

Daisy needed to find her way back, but she didn’t know how she could do that or even if it was possible. Everything felt wrong and distorted. Was there a path that would take her back to sanity and the old life she adored?

***

Anger burned through Rexx like a bush fire. If it weren’t for the fact Daisy seemed comforted by his quietness, he’d be raging and tearing this place apart to find answers.

He brushed his hand down her back as her soft, sweet body pressed against him. It was an exquisite torture to be so close to Daisy. To have her in his arms.

“You can’t understand what I’m going through,” she said. “Nobody trusts me. I feel different. Less in control of myself. It’s scary.”

“I understand well enough. I’ve experienced darkness.” Everything that was happening to Daisy stirred up his murky, damaged past. His capture after the failed mission, the imprisonment, the painful experiments that left him screaming.

Daisy looked up, and those sad, tear-filled eyes almost broke him. “You never talk about your time as a soldier.”

A slow, aching coldness seeped through Rexx. “What’s to talk about?”

“I know you were injured. I’ve seen some of the scars.”

His throat closed as he battled with the memories. “That’s ancient history. I can’t change it.”

Daisy reached out one of her restrained hands as far as she could and rested it on his thigh. “You were mistreated. I sense that. You hold in your pain. You never tell anyone how you’re feeling. If I didn’t know you as well as I do, I’d have no clue what was going on in your head.”

“Why does there have to be anything going on in there?” The cold dug into his gut, pinching around his chest and making it hard to breathe.

“Of course there is.” She squeezed his thigh. “I didn’t want to be a Gente experiment, but I couldn’t stop them. Was that the same for you?”

Rexx opened his mouth, but the words stuck. He couldn’t tell her. He’d never told anyone about the torture. And he only remembered half of what had happened to him. When he’d escaped that screwed up lab, he’d been out of his mind. The pain had shattered him in a dozen different ways. Each time he’d healed himself, the bits hadn’t gone back right.

“Rexx, I know you had your freedom taken from you. You were hurt, weren’t you?”

He didn’t mean to growl and cut off the noise the second he became aware of it. On the surface, he was healed. One of the advantages of being someone’s experiment was he had super-fast healing. But the side effects, the tension that radiated through his body, the sensitivity of his skin, and the torture that was burned into his memory, would never leave him.

He could never let that happen to Daisy. Daisy was perfect. She should never be twisted into something as damaged as him. He couldn’t let this alien tech stay inside her.

Her fingers flexed around his thigh. “I’d never judge you. Just like you’re not judging me now. We’ve seen bad times. In a way, that makes us perfect partners.”

Those beautiful eyes shone up at him again. He couldn’t tell her how he felt, but he could show her.

Rexx lowered his face to hers. He leaned closer, taking his time, not wanting to push anything.

Daisy caught her bottom lip between her teeth, and he couldn’t see straight.

He caught her chin in his hand, and their gazes locked. He brushed her bangs off her face and caressed her cheek. “I hate to see you in pain.”

“Ditto. I want to see you happy.”