Free Back From Hell by Shiloh Walker

quickly their lives were changing.
    * * * * *
    Jenai slid her arms into the voluminous button-down, her fingers flying over the buttons, covering her flesh. Her jeans seemed to abrade the sensitive skin of her sex and she cursed as she realized she hadn’t brought any underwear into the bathroom with her.
    “Damn it,” she muttered, lowering herself to sit on the edge of the small bathtub. As she drove her hands through her hair, she tried to understand exactly what it was she had just done.
    Sex wasn’t something she indulged in often. If the need got too bad, she dealt with it, but she was good at suppressing those needs.
    Until today.
    No, until Ronan had walked into her life, just a matter of hours ago. Hell, if he had tried to strip her naked in the kitchen with Stephanie looking on, she might not have had the intelligence to stop him.
    Her intelligence, her common sense, her focus, all of those seemed to shatter around him. It had been that way in her dreams—but it seemed more real, more vivid now that he was actually in her life.
    She had to think. They had so much work that needed to be done. And Stephanie, she had to make sure her sister was going to be okay. A dark red flush of shame stained her cheeks. Fucking a man she barely knew in a closet while her sister lay ill, fighting the poison in her system.
    “I’ve lost my mind,” she muttered, shaking her head.
    When sex became a demanding itch, she scratched it, but need for a man had never had such powerful control of her.
    Ronan, though, he was different. And try as she might, she couldn’t convince herself that he was a stranger. She may have just met him—but in her heart, she knew him.
    Just as he knew her.
    Tiredly, she rose, rubbing her damp hair with the threadbare towel. “Deal with it, Jenai,” she told herself shortly.
    He was here, he was in her life. And she knew he wasn’t planning on leaving.
    And oddly, that was comforting.
    * * * * *
    When Jenai slid from the room, Ronan eyed her with an arched brow. She met his gaze full on, but the pale ivory of her cheeks pinkened a little as he watched her.
    “I’m hungry,” he said neutrally. “I imagine you are as well. And we need to have some kind of fluid to give Stephanie when she wakes.”
    Wordlessly, she nodded.
    Running his tongue over his teeth, he studied her closely. She wasn’t darting away from him. Wasn’t pretending he wasn’t there. He’d been prepared for that, or for anger. She hid behind anger all too often.
    “If I go get some food, will you be here when I get back?”
    Her eyes narrowed, her chin lifting as she glared at him. “I’m not going to take off and leave Stephanie here alone. And she can’t possibly walk out on her own yet. I won’t move her if it’s likely to endanger her.”
    “And if Stephanie wasn’t an issue?” he asked gently, taking one small step toward her.
    Her eyes fell away this time. Ronan closed the remaining distance between them and cupped her cheek in his hand, lifting her eyes to meet his gaze. “Jenai?”
    He watched as her pale throat worked while she swallowed. “I don’t know,” she admitted truthfully.
    A smile crooked his mouth and he brushed his knuckles over her cheek. “Well, at least you didn’t outright say you’d haul ass out of here.”
    She flushed. “I doubt it would do much good,” she muttered sourly.
    He smiled. “No. I’ll find you, Jenai. Wherever you go, wherever you try to hide, I’ll find you. You are my match, the other half of my soul. And nothing will separate you from me.”
    * * * * *
    Nearly two hours later, she sat with her belly full and her mind hot with fury.
    “What in the hell do you mean, I can’t help? Those bastards shot my sister! They destroyed my home!”
    And if Ronan continued to stare at her with those patient eyes, she just might tear them out. His voice was calm as he said, “That wasn’t your home. You rented it. You didn’t really live there.”
    That stung. Hell, she