Finding You Bk. 01: When Souls Collide

"Hello Tabitha, remember me?" he asked politely, his voice was warm and pleasantly masculine. He was making an effort to be nonthreatening but Tabby still glared at him through narrowed, wary eyes as she nodded in response. He cocked his head in the direction of the other two men. "Those two idiots over there are my friends: Cooper and Jaz."

"Hey!" the two men objected in unison, both managing to act affronted through grinning expressions.

Just then, the door to the apartment opened and another very tall man strode through holding his cell phone in his hand. Tabby jumped and then stiffened, all her muscles ready to act. Petra held on to her hand, afraid that she would bolt down the hall but Tabby just stood in place, her attention riveted on the man.

"It's okay, Tabs. It's only Marcus. He had to go down to his car to grab his phone." She was stroking the back of Tabby's hand with her thumb, helping to calm her down by redirecting her focus off the newcomer.

"M'sorry," she mumbled distractedly. Petra could see the curious little glances that Tabby kept sending in Marcus' direction.

"It's okay, sweetie. It's my fault. I forgot to tell you to expect another person."

Marcus had halted in the foyer of the apartment, feeling badly for startling the skittish young woman. His eyes drank in the sight of her and his face hardened at the trembling in her body and at the livid bruise that stained her cheek. Her face would be black and purple by morning, he thought, instantly wanting to rip the bastard's genitals off and choke him with them. The fierce rush of possessive aggression caught Marcus off guard and he turned his scrutiny back onto the girl with an appraising eye.

What was it about her that had sparked such a lethal response in him? On the surface, she was almost cowering in fright, appearing to be mentally shattered, but he had seen a spark flash in those brilliant green eyes when he had walked in and startled her. Her instincts had been to fight and that spoke of a deeper strength that lay under her frightened exterior. She was holding on to Petra like she need her protection but Marcus could tell that it was only comfort seeking. The girl wasn't nearly as broken as she appeared.

Something about her instantly intrigued him though on a level that was intangible and just out of his comprehension. He may not have understood what had suddenly changed inside him, but he couldn't deny the electrical attraction that had flared into life between himself and this compelling girl. He felt as if the moment that he had stepped into the apartment and laid eyes on her, it had completed a circuit that had be lying dormant, waiting for the missing component to slot into place.

Marcus stared at Tabitha, his calm demeanor hiding the confusion that had swamped his rational thinking. He'd already heard what had happened from Diego, it had made him angry but that didn't justify the level of feral violence he had felt upon seeing her or this strange current flowing through his veins. Something dark deep inside his soul had woken up and taken notice of the girl and had instantly wanted to protect her.

To claim her.

Holy fuck. What the fuck was he thinking? Seriously dude, get a grip. The poor thing had just been attacked and you're thinking...what - dragging her off like a caveman and keeping her for yourself? And you called the bastard who'd done this to her, sick.

He agreed whole heartedly with the mental dialogue going on in his head. But that didn't dispel the urge - no, the need - to run over to the girl's side, scoop her up in his arms and take her home with him. Keep her safe and protected and...his.

Her green eyes flickered up and met his for a brief instant, before shooting back down to her own hands. The fear he saw in that one glance made him murderous with rage. He wanted nothing more than to kill the man who had put that look in her eyes. Cooper and Jaz had better get some useful information from her, because Marcus didn't think he could keep the need to go asshole hunting under wraps. He needed to find the slime ball that had touched his woman and teach him a lesson in pain.

His...wait...WHAT? Marcus rocked back on his heels, his brain playing catch up with his subconscious. Where the fuck did that come from? He closed his eyes, hoping the loss of sight would help restore his sanity. She wasn't his! For fuck's sake, had he completely lost his mind tonight?

Mine.

He felt the word reverberate through every nerve and fibre like an earthquake, sending aftershocks straight down into his molecules and imprinting itself on the very atoms that made up his cells.

...Imprinted.

...Underscored.

...Bolded.

Something about the beautiful, damaged, young woman had just left an indelible mark on Marcus' very soul that he felt like a physical brand burning him up from the inside out.

He would find the prick who had attacked her, beat the shit out of him and then call one of the available subs from his club and fuck her until he couldn't think about anything at all.

Especially not about the green-eyed angel standing twenty feet from him right now.

Most especially not about her. No way. Nu uh. Not going to happen.

Mine.

Mine.

Mine.

Marcus took a deep breath, using every ounce of self-control he possessed, to walk casually over to where the other three men were waiting. Each of his long strides pulled him toward Tabitha, as if she was a lodestone for his magnetic north. He had to fight his own body to just keep walking in a straight line.

Petra was gently coaxing Tabby away from the shelter of the hallway and bringing her into the living room. Marcus could see how rigid her muscles were, fear making her red-rimmed eyes wide and bright. God damn, he swore. She reminded him of a tiny bird that had wandered blindly into a cat show. She was terrified of them.

Now that she was closer to him, Marcus was actually surprised at how tiny she was. After hearing Petra's retelling of what had happened, he'd somehow just assumed that the fierce creature in the story would have been more substantial than the almost pixie-like girl that he was staring at now. His gaze absorbed her perfectly proportioned frame and he could tell by the lithe way she moved that she was in good shape, strong but nothing that detracted from her inherent femininity - more like the opposite. Her curves were seductive and obvious, even under the shapeless nightwear that she was wearing. Even freed from a bra, he could see that her breasts were full and firm, riding high on her chest and accentuating the flat of her abdomen.

His eyes visually caressed the soft slopes of her hips, imagining his hands on them, pulling her naked ass onto his cock. He felt a stirring between his legs as said member began to tingle and he abruptly looked away, trying to clear his head of the erotic daydream.

When he looked back at Tabitha, his brain took a mental snapshot of the girl, without knowing why; she fascinated him in a way he didn't understand...yet...but he intended to figure it out later.

"Why, why are you here?" Tabby stammered, wanting nothing more than to retreat into the bedroom and hide until they left. She didn't think she had the energy to deal with more people tonight.

"Because Petra is worried about you, and from what she has told us, it's for good reason." Diego beckoned her forward and with a wave of his hand, indicated that she should go sit down. Tabby let Petra lead her by the hand into the midst of the big bodies of the men. She kept her eyes down, afraid that if she looked up, Jerry's face would appear among them. Sinking into the plush cushions, Tabby scrunched herself into the corner of the long sofa, needing to keep as much distance between the men and her as she could.

Especially the tall one named Marcus. There was something about the man that unnerved and intrigued Tabby at the same time. She had reacted with fear when he'd entered but thinking back, she realized it was something much more intense that she'd felt; her fragile mental state had just translated it as fear. A current had jumped between them, shocking her straight to her core. There was something familiar about the handsome stranger and she felt like she knew him...or should know him...or once knew him.

God, she was so confused that her head was spinning, or maybe it was because of her headache. She just didn't know anything anymore.

Tabby may have been keeping her eyes lowered, but she was watching Marcus. He filled her eyes courtesy of surreptitious glances snatched from her peripheral vision. She'd never seen such a tall, broad man before in her life, except maybe basketball players on the TV. He had to be well over six feet tall and Tabby figured her five foot four inch frame might bring the top of her head up to his nipple line...if she stood on tip toes. From her perspective, Marcus looked like a giant - an unbelievably gorgeous, intense and terrifying giant...and she couldn't tear her attention off of him.

He was walking towards her and Tabby drew in a breath at the graceful way he moved, he reminded her of some big jungle cat - an apex predator brimming with power and deadly ability. She was hypnotized by the way his muscles contracted and glided over his frame, making his limbs move in a fluid, effortless way that was mesmerizing to watch. Tabby felt her face heat and a surge of liquid warmth spread in her belly and pooled between her legs with an urgency she'd never experienced before.

The raw intensity startled Tabby. How could her body be reacting sexually to this stranger?

'I don't even know him! I can't be attracted to him! And he's so big, how the hell would that work anyway? He'd crush me...or split me in two.' Warmth transformed into a blazing heat that sent jolts of electricity from her core into her nipples that had suddenly stiffened and become almost painful with the sensation. Every nerve prickled and every hair felt like Marcus had brushed a light hand over her skin. Tabby shivered, feeling her pussy clench with unbidden desire.

Petra saw the shudder run through Tabby's body and misinterpreted it as a fear response. She patted Tabby's arm sympathetically, trying to reassure her that she was safe. Tabby choked down a hysterical burst of laughter. Her dear friend thought she was afraid and was trying to comfort her.

'What would she think if she knew I was getting wet just from looking at Marcus? I seriously need my head examined,' Tabby thought to herself, feeling close to being delirious from the intoxicating mix of arousal and lingering shock from the attack. She had to pull herself together and quickly, before she completely unravelled in front of all these people.

The men took their cue once Tabby had sat, grabbing seats wherever they could find one. Cooper perched on the sturdy coffee table directly in front of her, Jaz sat in an arm chair to her left, Petra and Diego claimed the rest of the sofa and Marcus had...disappeared.

What the hell? She cast her gaze around the room, but the man had vanished out of her sight. Where did he go? And why did it feel like he took the oxygen from the room with him when he left?

Petra, once again, misread her jerky head movements and attributed her jumpiness to fear. Tabby was nervous, definitely, but she was more concerned about where Marcus had gone. She felt his absence on a level deep inside her, as if some vital organ had been removed from her body...like her lungs, because apparently they weren't working. She couldn't breathe.

'That's it, Tabby,' she scolded herself sternly. 'From this moment on, textbooks are what you are going to be reading. Boring, dull and romance-free. All those chick books piled up beside your bed have filled your head with crazy romantic bullshit. He's probably taking a leak or something. He'll be back in a second...right?'

Diego began to speak, snapping Tabby's attention back to reality and out of her delusion. He leaned around Petra so that he could see Tabby. "I'm sure that the last thing that you want right now is to relive what happened to you tonight, but Cooper and Jaz are both police officers and they want to help you."

Tabby took a deep breath, knowing that she had to find the courage to do this. When it had just been her, it had been easy to slip into denial and to sweep the assault under the rug so that she didn't have to deal with the fallout. Now that she was surrounded by all these caring, concerned strangers, those blinders had been torn from her eyes, forcing her to face what had happened to her and look the beast in the eye.

Judging by all the determined looks she was seeing, she didn't think that Petra or any of these men were going to let her hide and ignore what had been done to her. No matter how badly she wanted to.

She understood that what Jerry had done to her was wrong and that he needed to be held accountable for his heinous behavior. It just seemed that the task of doing so would take so much more energy than she had. The more she thought about it, the more it became a monumental effort that exhausted her just with the thinking.

The rational part of her brain pushed through her doubts and fears and Tabby realised that she had to share what had happened. To try to obtain justice and closure for herself before her memories became a burden too heavy for her have to bear. Retelling the events of the attack would be hard but keeping the pain inside would eventually destroy her.

Petra handed her a cup of sweet, milky tea that she'd made for her while she had been in the shower. It was lukewarm and syrupy, just how Tabby loved her tea. She took the cup and sipped a little, feeling the sugar boost her energy almost instantly.

Everybody waited patiently while Tabby marshalled her strength and collected her thoughts. She could feel their curious stares but was lost in the pleasure of drinking her tea and had let her attention drift away. Thus she was startled, almost dropping her cup in her lap, by a sharp cracking sound that echoed from out of the kitchen. Her head spun in that direction, her gut seized in terror.

Marcus appeared a second later carrying a tea towel wrapped around a lumpy bundle in his hands. He approached Tabby carefully, keeping his body language as casual and non-threatening as a man his size could. Cooper figured out what he was doing and slid out of the way so that Marcus could fill the vacated space with his imposing presence. He crouched slowly down in front of Tabby and placed the bundle into her free hand, wrapping his huge palm around hers and bringing it up to her wounded cheek. Cold radiated through the terry towel and into her face, dulling the throbbing ache to a more bearable level.

Tabby held her breath; her insides quivering with frenetic energy, making her feel like she had swallowed a sparkler. Electricity was running rampant from where his warm skin had made contact with hers and suffused her with an effervescent energy. Once again, her lungs seemed to have glued themselves together because she couldn't seem to breathe, the heat from his hand and the intensity of his stare seemed to have stalled time, holding Tabby in thrall.

Jerry's hideous face and slimy flicking tongue were momentarily forgotten, the memories wiped away to make room for the most incredible pair of blue-green eyes that she had ever seen. Their gazes had locked together and Tabby felt like she could fall into those vivid pools and never want to surface again. The emotions simmering in his eyes mesmerized her and the amazing colour reminded her of the hues of a glacial lake that she'd seen in a nature book long ago; a deep pool of blues and greens surrounded by the cold white of the snow and ice. She thought absently that his eyes should have been cold, like that water, but instead, they glowed with an internal heat that was burning a trail into Tabby's heart. She wanted nothing more than to bask under that heat, purring like a contented cat.

"Thanks," she murmured, not trusting herself to say anything more. Her brain was on the verge of shorting out completely and the headache was making it hard to concentrate.

"Keep it there, it will help bring the swelling down," he replied, his smile warming her like a blast from a supernova.

Marcus removed his hand from Tabby's, feeling the loss of contact like a mule-kick to his balls. What was it about this woman? He moved away from her, loathe to do so but suddenly needing to put space between them so that his brain could function again. He took the last remaining arm chair and sat, unable to keep from staring at Tabby who was shivering and flushed at the same time.

His cock did get hard this time, arousal swamping him with a roaring need to take his woman and lose himself inside of her. He coughed, in an attempt to cover up the growl that had clawed its way past his rigid self-control. Thank god his jeans were tight and held his pulsing dick down, well mostly down anyway. Marcus casually pulled one leg up and rested in on his other knee, in hopes of hiding the silhouette of his shaft that appeared to be embossed into the front of his pants.

Cooper had been watching his friend's strange behaviour since the moment he'd walked back into the apartment and shot Marcus a "What the fuck?" look. Marcus glared back at him, his expression saying, "Mind your own fucking business, asshole."

Jaz cleared his throat, picking up on the aggression flowing between Marcus and Cooper and redirected everyone's attention back to the task at hand. He asked, "Do you think you can tell us what happened to you tonight, Tabitha?"

The hand holding her cup of tea began quivering, the full mug coming dangerously close to spilling. Petra wrapped her soft hand around Tabby's and helped her take one last sip before relieving her of the cup. "Take your time, honey. We can wait."

"M-my car broke down, ma- making me late," Tabby swallowed hard against the bitter taste of regret. "Jerry didn't take it well." A sob barreled up her throat before she could stop it, smothering her words and leaving her feeling strangled from the inside out.

Cooper leaned forward and gave her a reassuring smile. "It's okay, Tabitha. I know this is hard and I'm sorry that we have to make you relive it again, but we need to take your statement. Just take your time. You are safe here and among friends."

She nodded, embarrassment heating her cheeks and rubbed at the tears that had blurred her vision. Several deep, tremulous breaths later, she continued recounting the events of her assault to Cooper, while Jaz patiently listened, jotting down pertinent details in a black notebook that he had pulled from his jacket.

The more she spoke, the more her aching head throbbed and she wished she could just go to bed and close her eyes; the light from the lamps was really starting to bother her.

When she was finally done, Tabby felt deflated and utterly exhausted but also strangely lighter in her soul. She hadn't realized the toll that keeping everything inside had taken on her until some of that pressure had been released.

Cooper, Jaz and Diego all wore similar angry, compassionate expressions at what she had described to them, but Marcus...Marcus looked practically incandescent with incendiary rage. Violence and aggression radiated off him in waves that buffeted Tabby like a blast of wind blowing over a desert. It abraded her nerves and scorched her skin and her anxiety level skyrocketed from the volatile energy that he seemed to be directing at her.

He sat in his chair, hunched forward with his elbows perched on his knees, his eyes had darkened almost to jet black and he stared at her with single minded focus, barely moving even to breathe. With his intense gaze, black hair and short dark beard, he reminded Tabby of a large wolf waiting for the right moment to pounce and she had an unnerving feeling that she was his prey.