Page 35 of Heart of Stone
I didn’t know how much time had passed before I felt a hand curl around my foot. “Natalia.”
Sleep became a distant memory. At Reid’s gentle, intimate touch, my body tensed, and pain shot through me as I dared to return my attention to him. The look in his eyes had my mind racing.
“Where were you? Please…” His voice was strained in a way that made it seem like he was in agony, like he was the one who’d been brutalized last night. “Please tell me what happened to you.”
Understanding precisely the pain I’d experience if I laughed, I managed to keep it contained, but it took almost as much effort as it had to stand up and walk to the door minutes ago.
It wasn’t that I found anything funny. Nothing about this made me feel happy or joyful. It was the mere fact of Reid wanting me to talk to him. To share details about something that had nothing to do with work. Did he think it was that easy?
When I spent too much time studying him, Reid gave my foot a squeeze. That one small gesture would have turned my world upside down in the best way if things had been different between us. It was an effort not to groan at how good it felt or to pull my foot away too quickly for fear he’d know how he was affecting me.
“If I recall correctly, you asked me not to speak to you unless there was something related to work that needed to be discussed,” I reminded him. “I’m relatively certain that what happened to me last night doesn’t fall within those guidelines of when I should speak to you.”
He closed his eyes and sighed. The distress and torment were nearly blinding when he finally returned his attention to me. “I can’t tell you how deeply I regret saying what I did to you that day. It’s why I came here in the first place. I’m sorry, Natalia. I’m sorry for what I said, how I said it, and that I hurt you in the process. I will do anything to prove how sorry I am.”
I stared at him, unsure of what to say. Probably still afraid to say anything.
“I’m so sorry,” he whispered.
My throat constricted, my nose stinging with emotions bubbling inside of me. “I’m exhausted, Reid. I really need to rest.”
He dipped his chin with understanding. “So, sleep. I’m not going anywhere.”
“But—”
“Rest, Natalia.” He gave my foot another squeeze. “I’ll be here when you wake up. I’m not leaving until I know you’re okay and everything is good between us again.”
Whether he knew that was an impossibility or not, I didn’t know. Maybe he thought it sounded good.
Either way, I would get nothing out of arguing with him about it now. Feeling as tired as I did, I wouldn’t be able to say all that probably needed to be said.
“You don’t have to stay here with me. If you could just give me a day or two to recover, we can talk then.”
“Close your eyes and sleep.” His expression turned serious. “I said I’m not leaving you alone, and I meant it.”
Whatever.
He’s the one who’d be bored to tears.
I closed my eyes, and within seconds, sleep pulled me under.
Reid
When I decided to come here to fix things with Natalia, I never imagined they’d get worse. Sure, I wasn’t so foolish as to believe that I’d say two words, and everything would go back to normal. In fact, I expected she’d be hesitant to forgive me for treating her the way I had.
But in no scenario that I’d considered about how this would go down with her had this been what I imagined. It never crossed my mind that I’d show up here and wind up watching her sleep as her body worked to repair itself from the brutal assault that she’d endured at the hands of some monster.
I shuddered every time I replayed in my mind what had happened in my office. The way she’d cowered and stepped back from me. The way her hands trembled, and her eyes had filled with tears.
Never in a million years would I ever lay a hand on her—or any woman—in anger. But given the way I’d treated her, the way Ishoutedat her, I wondered if I was any better than the guy who’d taken his hands to her beautiful face and precious body. It was no secret that the emotional wounds anyone bore could be far worse than any physical injuries. The only question that remained was whether there’d been enough of anythingworthwhile between Natalia and me on her part that what I’d done could have that deep of an impact.
For a long while I simply sat there, feeling nothing but shame and disgust over my own actions. Eventually, those feelings shifted to something else. Something dark and cold and deathly. And foreign.
I hadn’t hidden my brooding since I’d arrived back here in Ohio. I glowered and sneered as a result of some long-ago slights. And yet, none of that compared to this new feeling of…hatred? Vengefulness?
I wasn’t sure there was a word to describe it. All I knew was that it was something that led me to feeling something I’d never felt before in my whole life. A fierce need to protect and avenge this beautiful woman and her joyful heart. A heart that was open and soft and yielding and beautiful. One the very opposite of my own heart of stone, as I’d recently called it.
My eyes roamed over her sleeping form again, lingering a bit longer on bruising, swelling, and lacerations marring her skin.
