Page 61 of Breaking Blaze

“Blaze?” she murmured into his neck. “Tell me what you meant by he threatened my life.” If it were possible, he stiffened further, tensing to the point Anna swore he might break in half.

“He saw us. Knew that I cared about you. That night, he came to my room, sneering, evil glee dancing in his fucking eyes. He said, ‘You looked pretty cozy with that chubby chick. She your girlfriend?’ I refused to rise to the bait, knew that if I showed him any vulnerability, he’d strike at both of us. It didn’t matter, though. ‘I took your ma, your car, your fancy ride to that school in Georgia, and I’ll take her, too. You’re devil’s spawn, boy. You don’t get the good life. You get shit.’”

“Fuck, baby, how did you stand living with him? By then you were almost nineteen. Why didn’t you just leave town? You could have started over somewhere else.”

Clear, haunted, beautifully dark eyes rose to meet hers. Her breath caught at the stark pain and weariness she saw there.

“Because I couldn’t leave you, Anna. When I didn’t remark on the shit he was spewing, he started throwing things, ranting about how since I couldn’t be man enough to stand up to him, I wouldn’t be man enough to protect you. He said he was going to wait until you were alone, vulnerable, and then he was going to grab you. He was going to take his time with you…doing things to you. Then, he was going to slit your throat and leave you where I would find you.”

Bile slithered up her throat, the acid burning her insides. She swallowed.

“He couldn’t have meant that,” she rationalized. “He was probably drunk—and definitely insane.”

Blaze reached up, cupped her face, his rough thumb rubbing her cheek slowly. Gently.

“I couldn’t take that chance, Anna,” he murmured, his voice a deep whisper of agony and guilt. “Not with you, my Anna.”

“So…instead of confronting him, telling me what happened, and talking to the police, you run to the Navy to get away from me?”

“Anna….” His grip on her face hardened. He raised his other hand to hold her head in place for a quick, hard kiss that knocked the thoughts from her head. For a second.

“You ran to protect me,” she forced out. “Is that what you’re saying?”

He pressed another kiss to her lips but she refused to let him in, to let him distract her from what she was slowly and painfully realizing.

“And what about the women. All. The. Fucking. Women? Were you running from me then, too? Was that what you were telling yourself every time to flaunted your hook ups in my face. Every time you fucked a woman who wasn’t me. Were you telling yourself ‘this is for Anna?’”

He gasped sharply.

“It wasn’t like that, Anna. Fuck.” He dropped his hands and she stood. He followed, beginning to pace.

“Your five minutes are up, Blaze,” she sneered, her heart clawing for purchase as it fell into her feet. “You’ve said what you’ve come to say. It’s time for you to leave.” She pointed to the door, her arm and hand trembling.

Hell, she was going to need a lot of vodka and cake after this.

“No!” he roared, turning to bear down on her, wrapping his thick, strong arms around her to trap her against his chest. “Fucking listen, woman,” he growled, making her yelp.

Damn. Blaze was running hot.

Am I nuts that I’m turned on by this? Bad, Anna! Not the time!

“Yes, I am a piece of shit. A coward. A little boy so scared of his own father, of his own feelings, that he ran like a pussy to enlist. I realized my mistake the moment I signed on the dotted line, but by then I couldn’t take it back. So, for the next four years, I sucked it up, living day by day knowing that once I was done, I was coming home to you.”

“You came home, alright, and promptly turned into Jackson Key’s very own mechanical bull—only naked chicks can ride,” she sassed, unable to keep the pain from her tone.

He sighed, bending down to brush his lips against the tears tracking down her cheeks. Tears she refused to acknowledge.

“I’m sorry. So fucking sorry, baby.”

“You can say that until you turn to dust, Blaze. It still doesn’t make up for all those nights—1095 of them—where I went to bed alone, full of heartache and jealousy, while you went to bed with your next sleazy hook up—who was. Not. Me!”

Anna struggled, wriggling against his hold, desperate to put some space between them. She needed to breathe without Blaze’s scent invading her nostrils.

He only held tighter.

“The week after I got back, I got a call from one of my dad’s old buddies. He had some of my dad’s stuff in his garage and wanted me to come pick it up. I told him to fuck off, but he said that I would want to see what was in the boxes. Curious and a little drunk, one night I headed over there.” He paused, his big body shuddering. “There were pictures of you in a box. Dozens of pictures, Anna. Pictures of you by yourself in front of your house, with your friends in the park or at the beach. There were even some of you taken through your bedroom window.”

It was her turn to shudder, numbness quickly following.

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