Melody gave a small nod and when Kai stood, she took his hand he held out for her. As they reached the door, she pulled her hand away and covered her chest with her arms. When she saw the men weren’t standing around waiting, she relaxed. They didn’t seem too interested in her personal affairs. 

     Kai watched her hurry up the stairs and to her room. He smiled a little from the thumping of his heart and went into the kitchen. 

     “Set another place,” he told Blane taking out the dishes. “She’s going to eat with us.” 

     “Yes, sir,” Blane replied with a smirk. 

     He cleared his throat and went to do as told when Kai gave him a disapproving glare. 

     Kai was certain his team had something to say to each other about how she’d cried in his arms, but he knew they understood her situation. Their good-natured teasing would be toward him and his bachelor lifestyle, but he didn’t want her seeing and thinking they were mocking her. 

     He helped with the food as he thought about his past. It was one he was neither proud nor ashamed of, but one he would be happy to change for a woman like her. Perhaps only for her. 

     Melody wiped her eyes again and looked into the mirror before she changed clothes. She couldn’t stop crying. Once she opened the flood gates to Kai, it seemed there was no closing them. It felt good. Really good. She’d never felt so free to let out all of her pain. It made her happy, and that made her cry, too. 

     Out of her suitcase, she pulled out a lavender t-shirt with a glittery white rabbit in the middle. She slipped into a pair of blue jeans, socks, and sneakers, then ran a brush through her hair. When she was done, she looked at herself in the mirror.  

     She wouldn’t bother with make-up. She didn’t care how she looked to those men, or any man for that matter. Maybe Kai Pierce but that would never work. Not with her kind of problems. She couldn’t deny how he made her feel, though. 

     It was odd to her. She’d shut off half the world after that night. It was the male half. Men existed, of course. She heard them, she saw them, she talked to them when she had to, but she felt absolutely nothing around them. 

     Caution was a given but there was no longer an emotional charge when a man looked at her or flirted or just walked past her for the sake of getting from point A to point B. It was as though they were nothing more than pictures in a magazine. 

     There he was, Sergeant Kai Pierce of Pittsburgh S.W.A.T., with the build of a Thai fighter and a smile that could be in one of those magazines. All the charm in the world wouldn’t have won her over, even before that night. It was what was inside that some strange ability of hers allowed her to feel. 

     It was that same feeling that had vanished when she needed it but suddenly came roaring back the moment he spoke to her and looked at her with those green, gold-flecked eyes. He ignited her senses and it wasn’t as pleasant as it should have been. 

     She inhaled deeply and released her breath in a way that made her shoulders slump. She could never make him happy. She couldn’t even make herself happy, and her healing came first. 

     She shook her head at the arrogance of assuming a man would even want her when he knew as much as she had to believe Kai knew. It wasn’t the physical scars that would keep a good man away. It was enduring the mental and emotional roller coaster she was only capable of offering. 

     She closed her eyes and thought of how he held her on the swing. It was the most wonderful feeling in the world, and she felt as though something changed inside of her. She felt like he was someone who not only could help her with her troubles but would happily do so. 

     Drying her eyes again, she groaned to herself. She didn’t know what to do. She couldn’t stop thinking of how much of a burden she would be to anyone she loved. When they finally had enough and left, her heart would be shattered. 

     After crying for a few minutes, she blew her nose and tried to dry her eyes yet again. She grabbed a thin white sweater and slipped it on before leaving. She slowly stepped from her room and looked downstairs over the railing. She could hear voices from the dining room, so she walked around to get a better look. 

     When she didn’t see anyone anywhere else, she looked into the surveillance room. There was someone seated at the monitors paying no mind to her. She hurried down the stairs and cautiously approached the dining room. Nervously tugging at her sleeves, she looked in through the wide opening. 

     Her eyes immediately found Kai’s as he sat at the end of the table directly across from where she stood. She inhaled deeply at the way he looked at her and tried in vain to ignore the growing warmth in her heart.