Page 92 of His to Seduce
Blood drained from David’s face and his hands fell from the door. “What?”
Oh my God.What had I done? Squeezing my eyes closed, my body quaked with the realization that voice had been mine. And I’d shouted it. I’d revealed my shame.
“What?” he asked again and stepped toward me, slowly, calmly, his blue eyes cloudy with shock.
I shook my head and took a trembling step backward. My knees shook so violently, I kept moving until I collapsed at the edge of the bed, unable to hold myself up.
As David moved closer, I threw up my hands and stopped him. “Don’t.”
“Camden…”
I heard the pity, saw it in his eyes. I’d never wanted him to know. Had never wanted him to see that side of me.
“Talk to me, sweetheart.”
I looked away, tears coming so thick and heavy they fell to my lap, and I didn’t bother wiping them away. “Why are you making me do this?”
“Because it hurts now, but the only way to get better is to talk about it.”
“I don’t want to.” I swiped a hand across my face.
He reached out for me and I flinched, shoulders tightening to my ears, and pulled away. “Will you let me hold you?”
I said nothing. God, I wanted it. And I didn’t. I wanted to be alone.
Memories rushed back to me. The box I’d kept them so deeply buried in burst open with the admission I’d shouted and now nothing could stop them.
The pain, the fear, the terror and the blood and the running and the screaming…all of it made me quake, and I barely recognized it when the weight of him dipped the bed next to me.
His arms folded me to his chest as I sobbed violently, tears soaking both of us, and I lost the energy to pull away.
I lost the energy to fight.
Finally, after sixteen years of running and hiding and fighting everything that day brought forth in me, I surrendered.
—
The room was dark when I peeled my eyes open. I blinked harshly, trying to wet my eyes and erase the sandpaper feeling, and rolled over. I was in David’s bed, in his bedroom, and I was alone. On top of me, a soft blanket I’d seen draped over a chair in the corner of the room covered my body, tucked tightly around me. I must have fallen asleep on top of the covers.
I couldn’t remember falling asleep. I could only remember thinking of everything about that day when Evan had forced himself on top of me. All of it had flown through my mind, but while I’d been completely devastated, sobbing with despair and the pain of admitting what had happened to me, what had irrevocably changed me, David had held me.
Eventually, he had lain on the bed next to me, pulling me down with him, and I didn’t have the energy to fight it.
I pushed myself to sitting and looked around the room.
The sight of David sitting in that corner chair made me gasp and jerk back in shock.
“You’re awake,” he said. Elbows propped on splayed knees, his hands fell between them. “How do you feel?”
I cleared my throat. “Rough.”
“I’m sorry I pushed you that hard. I shouldn’t have…I should have respected your need for privacy.”
He was apologizing tome? I shook my head to clear it.
I opened my mouth to tell him his apologies were pointless. Pressing my hand to my throat, I rubbed it, warmed it so I could tell him.
Everything.
