Chapter 453
[ 515 words ]
Chapter 453:
He lowered his head, his mouth aiming for hers, a clear attempt to silence her with a kiss, to re-establish his ownership in the most primitive way possible.
But she turned her head, and his lips met her cheek.
The rejection, small as it was, was like a lit match in a room full of gas. A low, furious sound rumbled in his chest. He caught her chin with his left hand, the grip rougher than it should have been because his fingers were too swollen to obey him cleanly. Pain flashed across his face, but he did not let go.
“Don’t,” he bit out, each word sharp and clipped. “Don’t you ever push me away again, Caroline.”
She stared into his eyes, past the fury, and saw the bloodshot veins, the sheer, animalistic exhaustion. And in that moment, the heart-wrenching pity she felt for him overwhelmed her fear. She stopped struggling. Her hand, trembling slightly, came up to cup his cheek. The stubble on his jaw was rough against her palm.
“Jarrod,” she whispered, her voice cracking with a tenderness that surprised them both. “You’re scaring me. You look… you look like you’re about to shatter.”
The raw concern in her voice, the simple, honest fear for him, not of him, was the one thing he hadn’t prepared for. It cut through his rage like a surgeon’s scalpel.
His body went rigid. The feral light in his eyes flickered and died, extinguished by a wave of something else. The anger drained away, leaving behind a vast, empty space filled with nothing but bone-deep weariness and a vulnerability so profound it was terrifying.
He let go of her chin. His left forearm slipped from its brace point on the cot, and he sank carefully, awkwardly, because the right side of his body could not bend the way he wanted it to. His head dropped, and he buried his face in the curve of her neck, his shoulders slumping. He felt heavy, a dead weight of a man who had been holding up the world and had finally let it fall. He wasn’t the Colonel anymore. He was just a man, broken and seeking refuge.
ո𝗲𝗐 𝘄𝖾e𝘬𝗅у с𝗁𝖺𝗉𝘁𝘦𝘳s 𝗈𝗇 g𝗮𝗹nо𝗏𝖾𝗹𝗌.𝘤𝘰𝗺
Caroline’s arms came up, wrapping around his broad back, holding him. She avoided the rigid brace and settled one hand between his shoulder blades, feeling the fine tremor running through the parts of him that were still allowed to move.
“Sleep,” she murmured into his hair, her voice soft and soothing. “Just for a little while. I’m right here.”
Jarrod remained on the edge of the cot, the space she had created between them crackling with tension. The stunned hurt in his eyes slowly hardened, freezing over into a sheet of ice. He said nothing, but his silence was a weapon.
Caroline’s chest heaved as she fought to catch her breath. She didn’t look away. She met his cold, accusing stare head-on.
“No, Jarrod,” she said, her voice shaky but firm.
A humorless, bitter smile twisted his lips. “No? I thought you…” He trailed off, but the implication was clear. I thought you wanted this as much as I did.
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