Page 110 of Luck of the Draw

“Skye…honey…baby girl…” The boulder was choking him. Her cascades of fiery, scarlet hair and dark green tank top were reduced to a Christmas-like blur through his bleary eyes. His words came out fragile and shaking. “Let me hold you right now. Someone needs to hold you while you’re feeling like this. Please let it be me.”

She snapped upright and immediately threw her hand across his face, her palm connecting with his cheek in an angry, stinging slap. He gritted his teeth and briefly squeezed his eyes shut, forcing a tear out of the corner of one eye, and then he slowly lifted his hands to a neutral position.

Skye stared at him through glassy eyes overflowing with tears. “I hit you,” she growled through clenched teeth, her voice cracking. “Hit me back.”

His chin trembled. “Baby, I will never hurt you, but I would really like to hold you while you’re feeling like this.”

“Ihityou,” she repeated, tears and snot dripping down her face, her voice breaking with each syllable. “So hit me back, mother fucker.”

He slowly lowered himself to take a knee in front of her, hands still raised neutrally, making himself as benign and non-threatening as possible. “I’ll never hurt you, Skye. I promise.”

She was breathing rapidly, her mouth pinched tightly shut. Her nostrils were collapsing with each intense inhale. Her eyes were glassy pools of blue spilling down her cheeks. She dragged in a long, shaking breath, and then she uttered a sound like he’d never heard. A deep, mournful wail that graveled like an angry growl and descended into guttural sobs.

She staggered toward him, stood there for a second looking down at him, and then blubbered, “I’m sorry.”

Another tear spilled out of the corner of his eye, and he shook his head slowly. “It’s okay, honey.”

“It’s not okay.” Her sobbing was violent, and she reached her shaking hand forward to touch his stinging, tear-stained cheek. “I’m sorry, Brennan.”

“Skye,” he murmured, going out on a limb and gently covering her hand with his. “Let me hold you while you’re feeling like this. Please, honey.”

She retracted her hand and threw her arms around his neck, and he immediately stood up, folding his arms around her, his biceps and forearms forming a shield and a cocoon that—as far as he was concerned—was the safest place in the world for her. Her lavender scent was drowning him. Her tears were soaking the side of his neck. Her lips were parted and spilling her sobs against his clavicle and down his chest. He laid his cheek against her head, turning his face to press firm kisses against her hair, andholy fuck.

Holding her after not holding her for so long had him spinning and spiraling and leaping headfirst off the precipice into the abyss of eternal love over and over and over again, and he’d never…

Never…

Not ever…

Not in his entire 31-year history of inhabiting this particular lifetime…

Not once had he ever loved anyone or anything this much.

“I do love you, Skye. I love you so much, and I swear to God I’m going to help you fix this. We’re going to get you out of this shit and into a totally new life.” He held her even tighter while he hoisted her feet off the ground, walked her to the bed, and helped her lie down.

He lay down next to her, both of them on their sides. She curled into a fetal position, knees bracketed between his thighs, while she burrowed face first into his shirt and wailed. Brennan slid his arm under her to regain his cocoon-like embrace of her, tucking his chin over the back of her head. “You’re going to do whatever you want, and you’ll never have to be afraid of anything ever again.”

She wailed and wept and sobbed and clawed at him like she did the previous time she’d broken down like this, but this time he held her. He continued to hold her until she cried herself dry and yawned through her sobs, and then he switched to rubbing her back and stroking her hair.

She abruptly lifted her head and stared at him beneath a knitted brow. “I hit you.”

Brennan picked up her hand and held it against his chest. “It’s okay, sweetheart.”

“But it’s not.” Her bottom lip trembled, and her eyes began filling again. “It’s not okay. It’s never okay.”

“I know,” he acquiesced, still holding her hand securely but gently against him. “It’s never okay, and this time it’s not okay because the only reason you did that is because someone’s done it to you a million times already. Is that not accurate, honey?”

Her brimming blue eyes darted back and forth between his for a second. “It is.” Her gaze collided with his, and her bottom lip shook harder. “I’m so sorry I did that to you, Brennan.” A sob lurched between her words, and she reached to touch his cheek. “I’m so sorry. I’m sorry for all of it.”

“I know you are, sweetheart.” Brennan slipped his arm around her back and pulled her to lie partially on his chest. “I know you feel terrible about a whole hell of a lot of things, but I wish you didn’t. You’re not any of those terrible things you called yourself. You were preyed upon and victimized. But you know what else? Despite being victimized, you’re not letting yourself be a victim of this shit anymore. Just like you said. You’re surviving. You’re doing whatever it takes to get away from it and do something different. And I know you’re going to do it. And all of that just makes me think you’re amazing.”

She turned her face toward him, resting her chin on his sternum, and frowned through a face of puffy, red eyes and splotchy, pink cheeks. “How can you think that after I told you all of this?”

He shrugged. “I love you. I just love you because I love you.”

“But you don’t even know me, Brennan.”

“I do though, sweetheart.” He tucked a lock of her hair behind her ear. He’d missed the feel of her hair. “I knew from the very first night that you had been abused and were in trouble. That’s a heavy thing to know about someone. That made me start having all these feelings for you because I thought I could save you. Ever since then, you’ve shown me time and time again that you didn’t need anyone to save you. That made me admire you. And it all just snowballed from there, and I love you.”

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