Page 41 of Truth

“You didn’t cause trouble, sweetheart. That was all Samantha’s doing, I’m sure. You have nothing to feel sorry about. Trust me. You were perfect yesterday.”

I allowed a few minutes for both of us to sit and enjoy the time we had together. It upset me that I’d not been there for Samantha’s little interrogation, but I supposed it had been inevitable. She’d been waiting for the time to pounce and had apparently felt that was her opportunity. I was eternally grateful to my aunt, however, that she’d jumped in and put Samantha in her place.

Although I wanted nothing more than to hold her all night, I knew there was more to discuss. “What was the third thing?”

“What happened before... before we left.”

I could always tell how hard things were for Brianna emotionally by how many times she paused. Easy things that held little emotion for her were said without pause at all. The harder subjects, the ones that either held emotions or she was unsure of, she always hesitated. Either that or she said them with a robotic detachment.

“Your panic attack. Yes, we do need to discuss that further, don’t we?”

She shivered.

“I know it’s scary, Brianna, but it’s not going to go away unless we deal with it.”

“I know.” Her voice was so soft I almost didn’t hear her response.

“I’ll be right there to catch you. I promise.” It wasn’t a vow I took lightly, and I meant every word.

Chapter Thirteen

Brianna

Stephan’s words comforted me, but they didn’t take away the fear completely. I knew he was right. I knew I couldn’t run away from what had happened to me. Even on my good days, which I had more often now, there was no way to forget. Every time I turned around, there were little things. It could be a word, a gesture, or even an object.

While brushing my hair out earlier that morning, I was hit by the memory of being beaten with the back of a hairbrush. The experience had left the back of my legs covered with welts for almost a week. I’d had to stop, close my eyes, and chant over and over again that it wasn’t real. There was no rhyme or reason as to when a memory would hit me. Ones like the hairbrush weren’t as bad as some of the others, and I was able to get them to go away on my own. I was afraid what had triggered my panic attack on Sunday morning would be a little harder to make disappear.

“Do you know what stands out the most for me from this past weekend?”

I shook my head. “No.”

“It was when we were standing in my old bedroom and I was telling you about all those times I snuck out and climbed down the tree. That wasn’t a good time for me in my life, but telling you about it made me realize how much things have changed. How much I’ve changed since then.”

Hearing him talk about it again made me smile, which turned into giggles.

“Picturing me climbing trees in my suit again, Brianna?”

When I didn’t answer, he moved his hand to my side and began tickling me. Before I knew it, I was hanging over the arm of his chair and laughing so hard I could barely breathe.

Eventually, he helped me to sit up, a huge smile on his face. I was panting, but it didn’t seem to matter as he took hold of my face and kissed me.

It didn’t take long for him to deepen the kiss. Soon I was straddling him and had my fingers tangled in his hair. When he broke the kiss, he rested his forehead against mine and chuckled. “It amazes me how easy it is to get sidetracked with you.”

A thrill surged through me at his words. If kissing me was what he meant by getting sidetracked, I liked that.

He kissed me once again and then leaned back in his chair, leaving me sitting astride his lap. “As much as I’d love to forget about everything and take you to bed, there are things we still need to talk about, sweetheart.”

He drew his hands down my side and gripped my hips. It probably took me longer than it should to realize he was holding me in place so I wouldn’t bump the erection that was once again straining against the fabric of his slacks. I glanced down purely out of reflex.

Stephan dug his fingers into my hips and groaned. “That isn’t helping. I need your eyes up here.”

My face heated, and I knew I must have been blushing. Looking up, I met that dark look in his eyes that confirmed his desire to forget everything he wanted to talk about and skip straight to sex. It was strange how much my feelings on the subject had changed, but I didn’t want to question it too much. Sex with Stephan was something I enjoyed and even looked forward to. I didn’t want that to change.

He closed his eyes, and when he reopened them, they were more focused and the intense heat was gone. I couldn’t help but be a little disappointed.

“Before we get into what I had planned for tonight, I want to talk about what happened earlier when I came home.”

When he didn’t continue, I felt I needed to respond in some way. “Okay.”

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