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He brushed his thumb over my jaw, and my pulse went wild.

“You’ve got some”—he motioned to my jaw—“ink on your face. I was just…” He dropped his hand.

My cheeks heated. “Oh…” I laughed awkwardly and wiped where his fingers had just been, and hoped he didn’t see the way mine trembled. “I’m always doing that. I was drawing earlier. Is it gone?”

He cleared his throat. “Yeah.”

“Let’s get started. I know it’s hard, but you can’t pull away, okay?”

He nodded again, and I closed the space between us, wrapping my arms around his stomach and lacing my fingers together behind his back, so every part of me that could was touching him. My face was against his chest, and I could hear, feel, his heart banging hard as I sent power into him, seeking out the damage, wrapping around it, not tight, not yet, brushing past it and smoothing it out.

His breathing grew choppy.

“It’s okay, Ren,” I said. “Everything’s going to be okay.” His exhales grew almost frantic, and I hung on to him tighter. “I’ve got you.”

I filled him with warmth, with love and affection, as waves of guilt and horror rolled off him and into me. Oh goddess. It was as if, for a short time, his pain was my own. I trembled, tears springing to my eyes like the last time, the feeling too big, too overwhelming to hold them back.

“Fuck,” he bit out. “Fuck.”

I unlaced my fingers and rubbed his back, soothing him as best I could. Most people were calmed by this, my arms around them, and hugged me back, letting the warmth and the healing fill them. People who didn’t think they deserved healing responded like Ren. Feeling good, feeling warmth, affection, it terrified them because they didn’t believe they deserved it.

“I can’t…Jaz. Fuck.”

I pressed closer, linking my fingers again tighter, wanting to take all of his pain away so badly and fucking hating that I couldn’t. “Don’t fight it. Let it in.”

“I don’t think… I can’t…” He growled, his muscles twitching, his body trembling against me.

“Hang on, just a little longer.” He was rock solid, so tense it had to hurt.

Then his arms suddenly banded around me, gripping me to him tightly. He shuddered out a breath as his face went to the crook of my neck. My power had won out, for now, and the euphoria was kicking in. He groaned, his lips brushing my neck like last time, but they lingered, and the brush turned into sucking kisses across my skin.

I’d never had anyone kiss me while I healed them. They hugged me, tight like he was now, but this—

Shivers slid through me as his mouth skated along my throat to the underside of my jaw. It wasn’t time to stop. I couldn’t pull away from him yet. “Jasmine,” he groaned, his arms an iron band around me. He trembled harder.

“It’s okay,” I rasped. “You’re okay.”

Everyone reacted differently when I healed them. I’d had people feel unexplained rage or resentment toward me, another client had professed his love for me during every session and begged me to go out with him, another had followed me around for a couple weeks, positive I was the love of his life. In all instances, these feelings had worn off when the work was done.

His hand slid up my spine, his fingers thrusting in my hair, his panted breaths against my ear.

Oh goddess.

Ren’s reaction was just more…physical.

He tugged lightly, like he was trying to get me to turn to him, while he kissed along my jaw. It was wrong, but this was Ren, and there was no stopping my body from heating, from responding.

The waves of his emotions ebbed, slowly rolling back. He released his grip on my hair and lifted his head from my throat and, still breathing hard, he pressed his mouth to the top of my head.

“Ten seconds,” I whispered, and counted down.

Finally, I released him and stepped away, turning away without looking back. He didn’t need me staring at him when he was already feeling so utterly vulnerable. I quickly swiped away my tears, still recovering from the intensity of his emotions and of his arms around me—his mouth on me.

“You can move around now,” I said, making myself busy picking up the string and rosemary line and packing away the candles.

“You’re upset,” he choked out, alarm in his voice.

“It happens. Not just with you but with all my clients. I get a bit of what you’re feeling, and it can take me by surprise.” It was the truth, but I’d never felt anything like I did when I was with Ren.