Total pages in book: 135
Estimated words: 131916 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 660(@200wpm)___ 528(@250wpm)___ 440(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 131916 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 660(@200wpm)___ 528(@250wpm)___ 440(@300wpm)
Her back that was scarred from the middle to the base. Scarred with a thousand gnarled lashes that I was pretty sure had been stacked on top of each other over a period of years.
There’d been no question that she had been abused, but I’d had no fuckin’ clue the severity of it, and I was wholly unprepared for the rage that went sailing through my being.
Unprepared for the riot of violence that shot through me like the spray of a thousand bullets.
Impaling.
Ripping and shredding.
Destroying.
Couldn’t fuckin’ see through the need to bring blood. I moved behind her, my hands in fists as the words scraped from my mouth. “Who the fuck did this to you?”
Because whoever they were? They were going to die.
THIRTY-SEVEN
CHARLEIGH
I froze at the brutal force of his words.
A shiver rolled through me as I felt the energy shift in the room. The bliss we’d been floating on evaporated, and in its place was a hostility so severe it clogged the air in toxic venom.
I should have known this would be coming. Should have known he wouldn’t ignore it the way I needed him to.
I shook my head to clear the stupor, my brain foggy from the perfection of his touch, and I hurried to grab my clothes, then turned to face him as if I could hide my back. I doubted it did anything but emphasize it with the way I had to bend over while I fumbled to get on my underwear, then my sweats.
“Who?” he demanded, still towering.
I readjusted the cups of my bra and tugged my tank back over my head, voice haggard. “It’s nothing.”
What bullshit.
He knew it.
Of course, he knew it. He’d known it all along.
Alarms blared at the back of my head, that part of me that had always kept myself shrouded.
Hidden.
Because I couldn’t expose myself like this, but what had I expected when I’d let him touch me like this? See me like this?
“Nothing?” It was pure malice.
I glanced up at him. I shouldn’t have looked. Should have known his stricken expression was going to cut me even deeper.
“It doesn’t matter, River. It doesn’t matter because it’s in the past.”
And I was here because he promised to show me what it was like to move on from that. It’s what I needed so desperately. But maybe I really was a fool to believe that I could ever truly have it.
A ball of grief threatened at the base of my throat.
His face pinched in disbelief. “It doesn’t matter? It fuckin’ matters, Charleigh. It fuckin’ matters because you’ve been running scared for years. Running because some monster inflicted that kind of pain on you. Running because I know you’re afraid of him finding you. And you came running to me. Believe me, it fucking matters.”
He slammed his fist against his bare chest. His massive chest that vibrated with an aggression so severe I was sure it couldn’t be contained.
Dread sank like a stone to the pit of my stomach.
Terror trembling through me.
Not for my own safety.
But because of what I saw written all over this man. I think it was the first time I truly saw what he was capable of. The lengths he would go to when he promised that he would protect me.
And I couldn’t…I couldn’t…
Panic bubbled inside me, and I gulped around the fear and desperation. He couldn’t get involved in this. I couldn’t let him.
“I’m here for you to show me this, River.” I flung a hand out to where he’d sent me soaring on the loveseat. “Here for you to make me forget everything else but this. This thing that you make me feel. But I can’t give you what you’re asking me for.”
“Because you’re afraid.”
I choked an aggrieved sound, and the words hitched on a sob. “Of course, I’m afraid.” My hands spread over my heart that was battering against my chest. “I’m afraid. I will always be afraid. Why do you think I can’t do this with you?”
The truth of it hit the room like a bomb, and I shook my head as the realization struck me.
Struck me with the force of a landslide.
“I never should have come here.”
It destroyed me, but it was true, and I wound around him and headed for the door. I had to get away from him before he convinced me that I could give him this. I should have known he’d be right behind me. I went to turn the knob when a hand slammed down on the door over my head, blocking my escape.
“Where are you going?”
“I need to get out of here. Away.” I yanked at the knob.
“You think I can just ignore what I saw? After what we just did? After everything?”
My head dropped, and I could feel his harsh breaths panted at the nape of my neck.