Dead After Dark (Companion #6.5)(96)

He murmured something she didn’t understand and could feel his fingers stroke her nipples even though his hands were on his back. Lovemaking reached new highs with kinetic ability.

The sensation torturing her breasts moved lower, targeting the tiny nub that controlled her immediate world. His rhythm turned urgent just as he kinetically fingered the spot.

Stars zinged through her vision in the turbulent wake of coming again. Had Trey not held her close to him she’d have shot to the ceiling, but his arms clenched tightly when he growled her name with his release right behind her.

The familiar fragrance of their lovemaking cloaked the air and washed away all those years she’d missed him. She slumped against him. He lowered them both to the bed on their sides, stretching his body and tossing one huge leg over her.

Tracing a fingernail across his lips, she wanted to say, I love you, but whispered, “I’ve missed you,” instead.

Trey brushed a long strand of hair over her shoulder, his verdant gaze filled with love she’d never expected to see again. “I’ve missed you, too. You’ll never know how much.”

“So why did you leave me?”

He glanced away, just like he used to do when he’d gather his thoughts before speaking, then sad eyes met hers. “After I got over the shock of finding out there was a reason for all my odd behavior and that my abilities were needed to protect others, I accepted the responsibility that came with my destiny . . . as a Belador. That’s the tribe I belong to. I had little choice but to accept my destiny since the other option was to end up an enemy of our tribe and possibly go insane from my undeveloped powers. I wouldn’t subject you to that life.”

He’d cared enough to walk away to keep her safe, but she sensed something more. She’d felt his love in all the silent ways a man showed a woman, but knew in her heart he held back something he wouldn’t talk about.

“Was that the only reason, Trey?” Sasha asked, recalling the day he came to tell her good-bye. He’d stared into her eyes for a long time as if trying to discern something.

“I can deal with the truth, no matter what it is,” she assured him.

He touched her cheek, indecision playing through his frown. “There is something else, but I don’t want you to take it personally.” When she nodded her encouragement, he took a breath and continued. “I realized as a . . . child that I could read minds; then later on as a Belador I learned how to communicate telepathically.”

His face had flinched when he’d said “child.” What had happened then? “Tell me about the first time.”

“It was with my mother.” Trey’s fingers drifted through her hair. His eyes seemed unfocused and distant as he strived to recall a memory. “I always told her I loved her when I headed out to school or when she put me to bed. She’d answer back automatically with a ‘love you too,’ but she never looked me in the eyes when she said it. I was in third grade when I came home to find her and my dad arguing. Her suitcase was sitting by the door. When she lifted it to walk out, I panicked and begged her to stay. I asked her why she was leaving.”

Sasha had never seen the hurt Trey had surely carried all these years behind the jovial mask he showed the world, but she witnessed it now in full force.

He lifted a handful of Sasha’s hair to his nose and inhaled, then let the fine strands sift through his fingers and spill across her chest. “My mother didn’t speak, but I could hear her thoughts as if she’d shouted them. I heard ‘Why? Because I was a stupid teenager who married that truck-driving oaf and got knocked up with you. Giving birth to an ox would have been easier. You were one big mistake I should have aborted.’ ”

Sasha sucked a breath in horror that any mother could say such a thing. But she hadn’t. Trey’s mother had lied to his face. Memories of times with Trey raced across Sasha’s mind. Times in the past when he’d look at her as if he questioned what she said, but never openly challenged anything she’d said to him. How many times had he struggled to accept whatever she said at face value rather than hurt her feelings?

“You’ve never been able to read my thoughts, have you?”

“No,” he admitted. “But you deserved a normal life without the danger my world presents. One without being at risk.”

Sasha wanted to argue. Trey would always protect her, but she wouldn’t force the issue tonight after he’d shared a part of him she doubted anyone had ever been privy to. Instead, she tossed logic at him. “Normal? What was normal about my life back then? I had a closet-alcoholic father and a mother who couldn’t leave the house for fear aliens would steal her human eggs. She never seemed to notice inanimate objects moving around the house with autonomy.” Sasha relaxed. “Of course, even I excused it as my weird imagination or ghosts.”

A smile tilted the corners of Trey’s mouth. “Your family was pretty odd, but tonight you saw the kind of ‘things’ I deal with on a daily basis. I don’t want you around that.”

“I have powers, too. I can cloak myself. I can—”

That drew a scowl. “And if you don’t stop using those powers until you’re proficient you’re going to get injured or killed. What if you’d unleashed a legion of warriors like him?”

“Ekkbar controlled who came through his end of the portal.”