An Alleycat Crew Short
He hadn’t uttered a single word, not even a grunt.
Kash had come from the bedroom, dressed only in his boxers, and lifted Calynn from her seat at the helm. When she tried to look into his eyes, he shifted and tossed her over his shoulder like a sack of root vegetables.
He padded into their quarters and tossed her onto their bed, his face still blank.
Calynn pulled off her shirt and kicked off her jeans with practiced efficiency as Kash crawled up onto the bed. She was still searching his features for an inkling of his thoughts, but came up empty yet again.
He was doing a masterful job of hiding his intentions from her, sending sparks of curiosity racing through her body. Every nerve ending of every fiber of her being was primed and eagerly awaiting his touch.
Her heart quickened. Her breaths came shallow and wanting.
A single drop of moisture struck her skin just below her belly button.
Kash’s face was still a blank slate, but his eyes were glassed over, more tears threatening to fall.
This wasn’t seduction. It was despair.
He buried his face in her stomach.
She arched her back, allowing him to slide his left arm beneath her while his right hand gripped her hip tight. She felt his rib cage shudder, sobs threatening to escape.
He was in the hurt. Reliving some long-ago pain from his military service, or worse… his childhood. She knew most of his trauma from his time in the Legionnaires, but he never spoke of his childhood, save a few foster parents who were the bright spots in an otherwise endless sea of darkness.
His hands were still searching for purchase to pull her closer, and she hugged his head to her body. But that didn’t feel like enough to comfort him.
So she slid her right leg out from beneath him, rolled him onto his side, and slid down in the bed. She wrapped her legs around him, pulled his head to her breasts, and planted kisses on top of his head.
This was better. She was wholly wrapped around him now.
His hands balled into fists as he hugged her tighter. Another small shudder.
“It’s okay, my love,” Calynn said as soothingly as she could. “I have you.”
Another shudder. Then, slowly, Kash lifted his head and looked up at her, eyes red and wet and so unguarded it nearly broke her.
She wanted to ask him a thousand questions to understand why he hurt, but she could tell he wasn't ready for that. So she just brushed a tear from his cheek with her thumb and smiled softly.
He’d absorbed plenty of her tears. She could handle a few of his.
She pulled him back down to her chest, rested her cheek on his head, and just held him. No more. No less.
