Abruptly, he let me go. “Why are you doing this?” He slid to the cool tile, holding his head in his hands. Without hesitation, I sank to my knees in front of him, though I sensed his need for space, so I didn’t touch him, despite the cramped stall making not touching him difficult.

“Because I love you. I want you to unload on me.” Because I was the reason he’d gone through hell in that place.

He dragged his hands through his hair and shot me a hard look. “Should I demand you tell me what Zach did to you? Make you recount all the fucking details? Make you relive it?”

“You’re deflecting.”

“So what if I am? Some things should stay in the past. This is one of those things, Alex.”

“Not if it’s putting walls between us.” I trailed my fingers across my throat. “Not if it’s giving you nightmares.”

“You’re scared of me.” His gaze followed the path of my fingers, a reminder of how he’d choked me in his sleep. “I might push you, sweetheart, but I never want you to be afraid of me.”

“I’m not.” I let my hand drop. Even his subconscious would pull through to protect me because that’s who he was. He’d attacked me in his sleep, but he’d stopped. “I startled you during that nightmare.”

“What do you mean?”

“I grabbed your shoulder. That’s when you came at me.”

“I can’t…” He shook his head. “Babe, I managed to sleep next to you at your house last night without a problem, but I can’t risk that happening again.”

“It won’t. You don’t have it in you to really hurt me, Rafe. Besides,” I said, placing my hand on his arm. “I know better now. I’ll turn on a light or something next time.”

“There can’t be a next time.” He pushed to his feet in a single, fluid move and pulled me up. “Let’s continue this conversation later. You can ask your last question then.”

I frowned. “I still have two left. You never answered the second one, so it doesn’t count.”

“In my book, it does. I answered you, honestly, and I honestly think we don’t need to go there, ever.”

“Forget the stupid questions.” Trying not to glower at him, I retreated and bumped into the side of the stall. “Why can’t you just talk to me? Is it that hard to have a conversation like a normal couple?”

“We’re not normal.”

“No, but maybe we should sprinkle a little normal on this…whatever this is.”

He shut the water off with an angry downward strike of his hand. “Don’t try to change me into something I’m not.” His eyes raked over my erect nipples and the water dripping off of them. “We are who we are.”