Page 110 of Texting Dr. Stalker

I had a few choice words to say about that bastard, but I held my tongue.

“I don’t know what’s wrong with me. I don’t know how I didn’t see the type of man he was before it was too late. I don’t know how I allowed him to chip me away, piece by piece. And I don’t know how to glue myself back together again.” Her tears cut her off.

Nuzzling behind her ear, I cursed my damn mask as I kissed her fluttering pulse point and waited.

“I thought I’d made a significant improvement today. I was happy for the first time in ever so long. Peng has done wonders for my mental health. Just having something to talk to, to be with…I wasn’t aware how much I needed that, but…” She shifted in my arms, not trying to get away but to slot even closer against me.

I made space for her.

Dropping my legs a little, I slid her back until my hips were firmly lodged against her ass.

I wasn’t hard—how could I be when the woman I wanted was in tears because another man had hurt her?—but I wasn’t shy about letting her feel me.

Feel our size difference. Our power imbalance.

And then I loosened my arms, telling her without words that she could escape if she wanted to. That I held her this fiercely because I wanted to protect her, not dominate her, and every single moment of this was her choice.

Exhaling with a watery breath, she clutched my hand and tugged me. I understood her request and returned to squeezing the hell out of her.

With her trapped in my embrace, she spoke again, hitched and hesitantly. “I used your gift. It was hard at first. So hard to get past those memories. But then it got a little easier, and I thought…okay, maybe I’m not as broken as I feared. But the minute I got anywhere near potentially coming, I…I—” Her voice shattered into sobs.

Her grief tore me apart.

Rocking her, I pressed my forehead against her shoulder and held her while she broke.

I didn’t know how much time passed, but eventually, her sobs turned to hiccups and the doctor in me wanted to grab her a glass of water to rehydrate and perhaps some antacids for the churning in her stomach, but she hooked her foot around my ankle, ensuring I couldn’t go anywhere without some serious untangling.

“X…”

I sighed heavily. “Yeah?”

“Why are you here?”

I had no strength left to fake anything. “Because I hate that you’re hurting, and I can’t make it better.”

There’s no pill I can prescribe.

No surgery I can perform.

Only time and that made my skills as a healer utterly useless.

She went quiet, but not the quiet I’d grown used to. This one was prickly and poised with anticipation.

“What?” I whispered against her nape. “What is it?”

“You could, you know…at least try.”

“Try what?”

“To make me better.”

My eyes flashed wide. “Anything. Tell me what you need, and I’ll do it.”

The second I said it, I saw her trap.

Damn, I walked right into that one, didn’t I?

Her hips arched backward, rocking against me.

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