Page 51 of Savage Promises

Only, that’s not me. I flinch, my face heating. “I just—”

“Lennox.” His voice softens and he takes a step closer. “You don’t need to explain. I know you were drunk. You didn’t mean any of it. Right?”

The question strangles my sanity, like a wrestler pinning me to the mat, demanding my surrender.

“The alcohol...” I say quietly.

He stands over me and with his gaze piercing my soul, he asks me again, “You didn’t mean any of it. Right?”

“Right,” I repeat as well, but not to agree with him. Toend the conversation.

“Nothing happened. I made sure of that.” His words feel like a slap in the face.

He made sure of it.

“Was that before or after you made me come?”

“Fuck.” Shane drags a hand through his hair. His jaw tightens like he’s fighting himself to answer me properly. “I know I should stay away from you. But I’m finding it impossible to ignore you,” he mutters, eyes dark with frustration. “You’re a damn temptation I never should have touched.”

“Shane... Why did you stop kissing me the night of my birthday?”

His jaw drops open, but he quickly closes it. “You don’t know?”

Shrugging, I say, “Because our families were at odds for years?”

He laughs. “I’d sayoddsis putting it lightly. It was about to get even worse.”

“Worse?” I clutch my throat.

He narrows his eyes at me. “You really don’t know?”

A pit forms in my stomach, and I wonder how much darkness surrounded me back then that I didn’t see. “No.”

“It’s an old conflict, but I’ll tell you.” He stalks toward me. “After my sister died, your father had the nerve to tell Fergus O’Rourke that his son Kieran should marry you.”

My legs give out and I wobble to a nearby chair. “Oh no.”

“My sister wasn’t even cold.”

“Oh God, Shane, I’m sorry.” I hold my stomach, ready to be sick. “I had no idea.”

“I know you didn’t.” His eyes soften. “It’s why I was there that night. Your party. To...assess.”

“Not to see me.” I don’t hide my disappointment. “Assess if I planned to marry the next Irish king ofAstoria?”

“Assess if you...wantedto marry him.” He folds his arms. “I’m a man. But I know what other women saw in Kieran O’Rourke.”

He’s not wrong about Kieran being unbelievably hot. But I didn’t want the oldest O’Rourke son, I wanted theyoungestQuinlan.

“And did I pass the test I had no idea I was taking?” I ask, tamping down my bitterness.

“I listened to your dreams and plans. You didn’t sound like someone who wanted to marry a heartbroken Irish prince.”

Shane’s words are a whetstone to the blade I’ve always felt twisting in my heart. The memory I try to suppress is always present. My father wrenched me from my bed when he returned home that night of my eighteenth birthday. He’d found out I went for a drive with Shane, and the smell of him on my skin confirmed it. He dragged me into the basement, complained about the mess and beat me, called me a slut.

Next, a doctor showed up and he painfully assaulted me to check to see if my virginity was intact. Only, the doctor told himit wasn’t. I cried out and told my father I hadn’t had sex. No one believed me.

Dad yelled that I was ruining everything. Beat me again. In front of a doctorwho did nothing.

---