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.For the first time since he could remember, he wondered what someone else thoughtwhen they looked at him.Ugly, painful-looking scars, one at his hip, another slashing down from hiscollarbone.An unruly mess of tattoos running together, none of them with any particular meaningexcept to cover him up.To keep people away.Why hadn t it worked with Julie?Not wanting to look at himself any longer, he turned and leaned back on the marble sink, crossinghis arms over his chest.And tried not to blink.Every time he closed his eyes, he saw her in themirror.Hair a gorgeous mess, lips swollen and damp, breasts bouncing up and down from the forceof his thrusts. Hell. Reed dragged his hands down his face, feeling himself harden beneath the towel.ThankChrist she d gone back to her room to shower, or they d be at it again.Not that it had been easy lettingher walk out of the room, looking more than a little shell-shocked by their heated encounter, followedby his sudden silence.His less-than-warm treatment of her after the hottest damn sex of his life.He dwanted to say something to make her smile, but the words never came.Truthfully, he still couldn t come up with words to describe what the hell had taken place betweenthem.Consensual sex between two adults didn t cover it.He d demanded promises from her; he dheld nothing of himself back.Two things he d never done, not with any woman.When he d tried tochalk it up to the heat of the moment, he immediately discarded the notion.An hour later, the thoughtof another man looking at her, watching her dance, made him grind his knuckles into the counter.Hecouldn t even contemplate it without adrenaline blasting through his veins, demanding moreassurances from her.Where the hell did he get off asking for reassurance? Promises? He had no use for them.Certainlycouldn t make any of his own.He d break them& wouldn t he? Broken promises were his legacy.They ran in his family.Julie probably came from a long line of honorable men who kept their word.Men whose word meant something in the first place.She d marry a man like that someday.Long minutes passed before Reed could think clearly again, the idea of Julie marrying another manhaving wrapped around his throat to choke him.He sucked in a deep breath and left the bathroom togo dress.What were his options? Option one: cut things off with Julie now, try to keep his distancefrom her the rest of the week, and never see her again? Reed almost laughed.He d nearly gone to herseconds after she left his room this afternoon.Four more days? Not a hope in hell of his lasting thatlong.They hadn t even spoken about the fact that they lived in the same city.If he didn t get rid of thisinfatuation now, knowing she was so close would drive him slowly insane.That left him with option two: stop thinking so damn much, make the most of the time she allowedhim, and fuck her so well, so thoroughly, she would never forget him for the rest of her perfect,privileged life.Option two it is.Reed yanked a black T-shirt over his head and strode to the door.He paused with his hand on theknob.Perhaps this decision wasn t exactly wise.The pull he felt toward Julie wouldn t lessen themore time he spent with her.It might even strengthen.Reed rested his forehead against the door.Hethought of her alone in her room, wondering if she d done something wrong.Wondering if she d everfeel him inside her again.It made him crazy.He didn t know where this urge to soothe, to reassure,came from.It felt primitive.As if it had always been there, sitting unused in some hidden part of him,gaining strength.Now the urge blasted him like volcanic ash.She would be his Julie.At least for thenext four days.The second he referred to Julie as his, the jealous beast within him lay down, relaxed for the firsttime since she d left.He didn t know what that meant, only that if he stayed away from her, theanxious feeling would return.Decision made, he left the room at a brisk pace.Minutes later, he stood outside her door, impatient to see her.Before he could knock, he heard hermuffled voice on the other side, sounding upset.Only her voice, however, suggesting she was alone.On the phone, possibly? Reed glanced down the hallway, knowing he should leave.Let her deal withher problem and return later, pretending he d never heard the tinge of sadness in her voice.Instead, he found himself knocking.When she pulled the door open, cell phone pressed to her ear,Reed felt something odd, something foreign move in his chest.Inside a puffy white robe that fairlyswallowed her, bare feet poking out at the bottom, she looked so incredibly sweet and defenseless, hecould only stare at her.Then he heard the angry voice on the other end of the phone and his body wenton alert.He noticed her deflated posture for the first time, the downturned corners of her mouth.Someone was upsetting Julie and that definitely didn t work for him.Reed opened his mouth to demand the phone from her, but managed to hold himself back at the lastsecond.Shit.Shit, I really need to get a handle on this.I m acting like a lunatic. You re right, Daddy, I picked an inconvenient time to leave Atlanta. Julie dropped her hand fromthe door, but left it open as she retreated into the room.Reed stepped in and closed the door behindhim without taking his eyes off her.She sank down onto the edge of the bed and massaged herforehead. Have you tried calling Dr.Cybil? She makes house calls. She listened for a moment. Good& I just& I didn t expect this.Last year, when we reached three years, Mom seemed to becoping better.I would never have left if I d She broke off as Reed sat down next to her on the bed.He hadn t planned on it, had been walkingtoward the balcony to get some air and wait for her to wrap up the call.Then her words had startedmaking sense, calling to mind the conversation he d overhead between Julie and her mother.Threeyears.Her sister s death.Hell, he d been so wrapped up in his own bullshit, his almost-painfulattraction to her, he d let it slip from his mind.She d opened up to him in the woods and he dbasically disregarded it.Just another way they differed.If Julie knew someone was hurting, shewould probably do everything to fix it.He, on the other hand, just expected everyone to bottle it upand move on.Like he did.Funny, he didn t want Julie to bottle anything up.Not around him.Even asthe idea of shouldering someone else s burdens terrified him, he craved the idea of bearing the bruntof anything upsetting Julie.With considerable effort, Reed pushed aside the startling realization.Trying for casual, he laid hishand on top of hers, all the while pretending to be engrossed in the muted television.Her hand jerkeda little and for a brief, awful moment, he thought she might pull away.After casting him a quickglance, she slowly entwined her fingers with his and continued her conversation, voice a hint moreconfident than before.Why that made him so goddamn happy, he didn t have the courage to explore. Daddy, we know the cycle by now.She won t stay in bed forever& just give her time. Juliecleared her throat, shifting on the bed. Does she& does she want to talk to me? She nodded once. Okay, then
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