Page 88 of Caught from Behind

Because I fucked up, and now he’s here despite all the shit I pulled and?—

Shame burns through me.

I drop my gaze to my lap.

His hand captures my chin, and he lifts my head, holding my eyes as he brushes his lips over mine.

“All right, chérie,” he says and there’s no teasing in his tone.

“I need you to tell me about it, baby. About all of it.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

Riggs

I hate that she’s so obviously been crying.

I hate that we’re sitting here in the cold when she’s shivering.

I hate what happened last night and that I don’t know how to fix the hurt in her eyes, can’t take away the fragility in the way that she holds herself.

And I hate that I have to push this.

But…I need to.

We can’t have another night like last night.

We can’t move forward if she’s going to shut me down and push me away and…use my trauma against me.

God, I hate how pathetic that sounds.

But—

I had to figure out a way to be okay with the parts they could give me.

I don’t want to be like her parents, don’t want to give her half of myself, don’t want to hide—fuck, that’s clear enough considering all I told her. And…if I ignore last night, she’s treated me with care.

And if I don’t…well, her face tells me enough. As much as I hate how things went down, it doesn’t take a genius to see that she’s ravaged by what she did last night.

“Chérie,” I say, cupping her jaw. “I trusted you, baby. Trusted you with my deepest darkest secrets and now I need you to let me in, to talk to me, to trust me.”

Silence for long enough that I’m almost certain she’s going to bolt, but then she exhales and goes limp against me. “But I hurt you. I ruined things and?—”

“We’re going to work through that.”

“How?”

“Because I hurt you first and you forgave me.”

Her eyes slam closed and a tear slides down her cheek. “I’m scared,” she whispers. “Because I like you too much. Because I’m falling for you and when you leave?—”

My hands convulse, but she’s still talking.

“When you leave me like he did, I don’t know how I’ll go on.”

“Leave you like who?”

Silence for long enough to hear the whistle of the wind and the waves on the shore.

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