With a sigh, she set both snifters aside. Maybe brandy wouldn’t help after all. “You were there. You saw it.”

His eyes flashed white heat. “It’s my damn job.”

“I know.” She lifted a hand to his cheek, soothing. “I know.”

Compelled, he grabbed her wrist, held tight a moment before he turned away. “I don’t want you touched by it. I don’t want you touched by it ever again.”

“I can’t promise that.” Because it was her way, she wrapped her arms around his waist, rested her cheek against his back. He was rigid as steel, unyielding as granite. “Not if you want something between us.”

“It’s because I do want something between us.”

“Alexi.” So many emotions, she thought. Always before it had been easy to sort them out, to drift with them. But this time… It had been a long, hard day, she reminded herself. There would be time to think later. “If what you want is someone you can tuck in a comfortable corner, it isn’t me. What you do is part of what you are.” When he turned, she brushed her hands over his cheeks again, refusing to let him retreat. “You want me to say I was appalled by what I saw in that room? I was. I was appalled by the cruelty of it, sickened by the terrible, terrible waste.”

That sliced at him, a long, thin blade through the heart. “I shouldn’t have let you go with me. That part of my life isn’t ever going to be part of yours.”

“Stop.” The sorrow that had paled her face hardened into determination. “Do you think that because I write fantasy I don’t know anything about the real world? You’re wrong. I know, it just doesn’t overwhelm my life. And I know that what you faced today you may face tomorrow. Or worse. I know that every time you walk out the door you may not come back.” The quick lick of fear reminded her to slow down and speak carefully. “What you are makes that a very real possibility. But I won’t let that overwhelm me, either. Because there’s nothing about you I’d change.”

For a moment, he simply stared at her, a hundred different feelings fighting for control inside him. Then, slowly, he lowered his brow to hers and shut her eyes. “I don’t know what to say to you.”

“You don’t have to say anything. We don’t have to talk at all.”

He knew what she was offering, even before she tilted her head and touched her lips to his. He wanted it, and her. More than anything, he wanted to steep himself in her until the rest of the world went away.

He took his hands through her hair, letting his fingers toy with those loose, vivid curls. “We haven’t come up with those rules.”

Her lips curved, slanted over his. “We’ll figure them out later.”

He murmured his agreement, drawing her closer. “I want you. I need to be with you. I think I’d go crazy if I couldn’t be with you tonight.”