“Blake?” she asked, sounding breathless, confused.

“I can’t do this, Kara. I can’t think when I’m inside you. Someone else, yes. Not you.”

Her eyes went wide. “Did you really just say that? Did you say…” She let go of him and ducked under his arm and he reached for her but she was gone. She whirled on him. “You want to fuck someone else? There’s the door. Go find a good ‘fuck’ escape. That’s what you do, right? Fuck everything that moves to try to forget whatever it is that’s eating you alive?”

“Kara, sweetheart…”

“Blake, go to hell, and stop calling me that. I’m not your sweetheart and I’m not your fuck buddy either. Damn, you’ve made me hate that word more than I already did.”

“You took what I said wrong.”

“I took it wrong? How am I supposed to take it?” She crossed her arms in front of her body. “It’s fine, Blake. Just go.”

Oh, shit. He knew enough about women to know the word “fine” was not a good thing. “I…damn it, Kara, it came out wrong.”

“You owe me nothing, Blake. Not an explanation. Nothing. We hardly know each other.”

“That’s the problem, woman,” he half growled in complete, utter frustration. “I can’t just fuck you and forget you. And you were right. That’s what I do. I walk away and if I never knew the woman’s name, all the better. That’s what I swore would be how I operated for the rest of my life.”

She looked appalled. “What made you like this? What happened?”

Blake’s skin started to twitch; the shadows swirling around in the back of his mind were threatening to take shape. He walked to the bed and sank down onto it. He dropped his face to his hands. “I can’t do this, Kara.” The shadows began to part, the bloody images started to take shape.

The bed shifted and Kara’s fingers gently stroked his hair. “Blake…”

Her touch was both soothing balm and liquid fire. He grabbed her hand, trying to control what he felt, trying not to feel at all, and it was impossible. Steeling himself for her probing stare, he forced his gaze to lift. “Kara.” His voice was hoarse, laden with emotions he couldn’t seem to control. “You…you make me…”

Feel. He didn’t put another name to it. He couldn’t. He didn’t want to. He didn’t want to feel anything, and yet he did. He felt way too much.

Her expression softened instantly. “You make me…too. Blake, I know what pain feels like. I’m here. If you need me—”

“I don’t want to need you,” he said vehemently, unable to hold back.