Connor broke it. “If you like it, what’s the problem?”
“I don’t have to answer that. We had sex, but that doesn’t make you my Doms.” Using that word crashed down Sunny’s bravery.
The word, out loud, was the key that unlocked everything it had meant to her before.
She remembered the times Tanner had hit her, the times he’d grabbed her by her hair and gotten in her face, when he’d told her she belonged to him, that he was her Dom.
And here comes the panic attack.
She grabbed for the table, trying to keep upright. She’d passed out once today—she didn’t need to make it twice.
Still, none of her tricks worked. Not the counting, not the breathing, not the finding things to see and smell and hear. The attack came over her so fast, she could find nothing to ground her, to focus on. Nothing seemed able to get in the way of the train, to stop how the world spun, how her throat closed, how the memories overwhelmed her.
Spike whined as he always did when these attacks happened, coming to her side.
Voices moved around her, deep and masculine, but she couldn’t make out what they said. They only added to the horror inside her head, to the way her brain forced her to relive it all, dragged her back to that hell and refused to let her move forward. It was like even now, Tanner had his claws in her, that he could yank her to her own nightmares whenever he wanted.
I’m never going to be free, I’m never going to—
A hand closed on the back of her neck, then pushed her down, to her knees. She was so far gone, she didn’t fight it, especially because she’d almost collapsed on her own.
Her cheek pressed against something warm and rough, and a hand grasped her hair. It didn’t hurt, the tug against her scalp.
“Sunny!” Her name was snapped out in a voice that wouldn’t take no for an answer, and it reached through the haze of her mind. “Look at me.”
She obeyed, lifting her gaze to find blue eyes and a stern face. The person crouched there, blocking out the rest of the world, so that between him and whoever was behind her, they shielded her from everything.
It wasn’t his hand in her hair, though, but the tight grip didn’t let her look around. Instead, she shuddered, locking on to that deep blue that wasnothinglike Tanner’s dark brown, until the panic drained from her.
She rested her cheek against the thigh beside her and closed her eyes, exhaustion replacing panic.
Connor stared down at the girl, her eyes closed, her cheek against his thigh.
Boy, hadn’t she taken herself straight into that panic attack?
And all over what?
The word ‘Dom’?
He tried to think back, to recall if she’d uttered it the night before. Once, at the start, but she hadn’t reacted like this.
Then again, she’d had a harder day today.
And she lacked her costume, which he suspected had felt like armor to her. Her anonymity had probably given her extra courage, as if it wasn’t really her there but some fox creature who lacked her baggage.
So Connor kept the grasp on her hair but loosened it a bit. After another moment, he moved to massaging her scalp, letting her rest against him, trying to take away what she’d seemed to hold inside, trying to carry it for her. Her hair was incredibly soft, and the strands were curled at the end. It had looked brown at Sanctuary, but now? Now he could tell there was a reddish hue to it.
Garrison was across from Connor, sitting back since she’d settled and calmed.
Thisgirl was their Fox? The woman who had turned them inside out the night before, the one who had easily given Connor the best night of his life despite his cock never even making an appearance?
He sure recognized her. Her hair was down, loose around her shoulders and wavy. He wondered how he’d missed it when he’d spoken to her in her office. The sweet, hazel eyes, the narrow waist, her pink lips.
Yeah, it was her.
And she wasfarmore damaged than they’d realized at first. Wasn’t this a perfect example?
He blew out a breath as her body relaxed further, as she fell asleep there, resting against him.