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I lay my hands to his shoulders, and the feel of him beneath my palm near undoes me. Hard with tension. Hot with it. Every part of him is still wound tight from what passed with Ewan.

“Are you all right?” I ask.

The question is foolish. Of course he isn’t. None of us are. Ellen is bloodied, Aileen is shaking like a leaf in a gale, and James looked near ready to kill a man before us all.

But it’s what comes out.

Alex lets out a breath through his nose. Some of the fury has gone from it now, but not enough. There’s still something dangerous about him, something sharp-edged, and instead of frightening me, it only makes my heart beat harder.

“I’m fine,” he says.

I know it by the look in his eyes that he isn’t. It’s as if he’s trying to tuck a part of himself away before I can see too much of it.

But it’s too late for that. I see too much of him already.

I can’t seem to be sorry for it.

“What?” he asks at last, when I keep staring at him.

My pulse is still running wild from what I watched, and perhaps I’m a touch mad myself in this moment, because the words leave me before I have any chance to call them back.

“What I just watched you do was reckless.”

He’s trying to pull back even farther.

His mouth tightens. “Rosie…”

I shake my head at once. “No. Don’t do that.”

“Do what?”

“Look at me as if I’m about to scold ya for it.”

His brows pull together.

I step closer before I can stop myself. There’s almost no space left between us now. I can still smell the yard on him. Sweat. Steel. The last rough trace of anger.

“It wasn’t that,” I say.

His eyes stay on mine, wary still.

I swallow.

My whole body feels too tight for my skin.

“It was…” My voice nearly fails me then, which is ridiculous, because I have never in my life been known for timidity. Yet somehow standing here in front of him, with his breath still uneven and my hand still on his shoulder, I feel seventeen again and foolish with it. “Gods, Alex... watchin’ what ya did made me wet between my legs.”

For one glorious second, he only stares at me, like he’s struck through with disbelief.

I press on before I lose my nerve entirely.

“The way you came to Ellen’s defence,” I say, the words coming quicker now, tripping over themselves in my haste. “The way you looked at Ewan without hesitation, and made it plain he would answer for layin’ a hand on her… like she was yer own. Like she was family. It was—” I let out a breath that feels almost like a laugh, though my heart is pounding too hard for amusement. “Amazing.”

His expression changes again then, and though his eyes are now filled with want, I know at once he means every word.

“She’s family,” he says.

Simple as that.