Page 67 of His Wild Seduction

“I think so,” she whispered, and the shakiness in her voice made my heart clench.

“What is it?” I asked, moving only my head back.

“After all this time, is it possible you forgive me?” she whispered after what seemed like minutes, or was it hours, later?

“What did you do that I need to forgive you, Little Red?”

“That night, the note?—”

“You were so young,” I replied, kissing her temple before easing out of her.

“I wasn’t. And you know it,” she said, and I couldn’t bear the hurt in her eyes.

Ignoring the messy realities of sex, I rolled onto my back and pulled her on top of me.

“Josef,” she gasped.

“Shhh. You should know, I ran a check on you,” I began, feeling guilty, but needing to clear the air.

“I know. I figured it out when I went to the shelter and Sr. Elise showed me everything you did. Thank you, by the way. That place needed it,” she said, surprising me again.

“I don’t usually apologize, but I think I should for stealing some of your past like that. I’m not sorry I did it. I mean, I need to keep you safe, and to do that I need to know everything. But I didn’t read the details, Meredith. Those are your stories, and I want you to share them with me when you are ready. Not before.”

“Really, Josef? Do you mean that?” she whispered, and I held her closer.

“Yeah, Baby. I mean that.”

“Because,” she hedged. “I don’t think your reports told you everything.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

JOSEF

Ifelt her tense, and I rubbed my palm up and down her back.

God, I loved touching her.

She was so soft, so warm.

“Do you want to tell me?” I asked, allowing myself to hope.

“I think I have to tell you,” she replied, and I frowned.

Have to wasn’t the same as want to. I tensed.

A bad feeling crept through me as I held my wife in the dimly lit guest room. We should probably move to our bed, but I was too comfortable to get up just yet.

Besides, I didn’t want to break the fragile trust we were building.

“I need you to understand what really happened all those years ago.”

“Okay,” I whispered.

“That night, at the stroke of midnight, when I turned eighteen, I could hardly breathe when I found you in the garden,” she whispered.

I was immediately thrust back in time to that night. Fuck, she was so beautiful. A redheaded angel, skin so soft and pale, she’d glowed in the moonlight.

“It was the sweetest thing, making love to you that first time. Giving myself to you so completely,” she whispered. “I know you didn’t believe me then, but I was telling the truth when we got married. I never touched another man like that?—”

---