He put his hands to her ass and muttered, “Let’s take this to the bedroom.”

She went solid and held him where he was by landing her hands on his shoulders and pressing down.

“Lift your arm, let me see,” she demanded.

“Baby,” he ground up against her, a message she couldn’t misinterpret, “in a certain mood.”

“Lift your arm,” she said gentle but firm. “Sweetie, let me see.”

“It’s nothing.”

“Let me see.”

“Carissa, it’s—”

He shut up when he saw tears all of a sudden fill her eyes.

“Do you… did you smoke?” she asked.

Fuck.

“Baby—”

She cut him off, saying quickly, “Boys do that. They get drunk and they challenge themselves or each other. Is that how you got those?”

He clenched his teeth and through them said, “No.”

Her chin wobbled and she whispered, “He gave those to you.”

She knew it. She knew his old man had burned him.

Joker wrapped his arms around her and pulled her close. “Long time ago. Now, Carrie,—”

“He gave those to you.”

“Carissa, it’s—”

“He gave those to you!”

At her enraged shriek, his arms went slack and she tore out of them, finding her feet.

“He gave those to you,” she snapped, tears still in her eyes but not falling, her face growing pink.

He pushed out of the couch and she scuttled back.

“I got away from him, remember?” he pointed out, going for a calming tone.

And failing.

“Not soon enough,” she bit out.

Shit.

“Come here, Carrie.”

“She left you to that and he gave those to you,” she hissed.

They had to get off this.

“It was a long time ago,” he repeated. “They’ve healed. It’s over. Just let it be over.”

She stared at him, her chest rising and falling fast, breathing hard to hold back what she was feeling, all of it, and it was visibly massive.

And it was for him.

For him.

Jesus.

Then she let fly and when she did, the path Carson “Joker” Steele found himself on the second he saw a woman holding a baby on the side of I-25 and decided to pull off and help came to its conclusion. Just like that, Carson Steele was exactly where he’d always needed to be, with the woman he needed at his side, doing it as the man he never dreamed of becoming.

But somehow was.

And all this came about when she stated, “You don’t heal from that, Carson. Not from that. My God,” she threw out both hands, “how magnificent of a man do you have to be to go through what you went through, doing it alone, nobody to ease the way, the pain, no mother, no brother, no sister, all by yourself enduring that and fight your way to becoming all that you are. It isn’t amazing. It’s a darned miracle.”

His body stone, only his mouth moved, “Come here, Carrie.”