Page 48 of Taking

We’d made a wild mess of her shorter curls. Pink flushed cheeks wiped free of the tear tracks I’d caused. Wide blue eyes still slightly dilated. Lips red and swollen.

Her curvy body—too damn thin but still fucking gorgeous—was like the best damn gift karma could ever give me.

“You’ve changed,” I grunted the truth of what I saw.

She glanced over the width of my shoulders, the thickness of my chest. “Your body has too, but you’re still the same Gideon.”

I tilted my head back and scowled down over my nose at her. “I’m not the young boy you knew five years ago, princess.”

She fucking smiled, a real one like she only used to offer Devon—and same as sunshine, light flooded through me, illuminating parts of the darkness I’d long thought consumed me. The sight stole my goddamn breath.

“I’d like to know the new you,” she said, her lips slowly relaxing. “The one I mistakenly, and to my constant shame, helped put behind bars.”

Shame…

I stared at her—fucking hard as her smile faded, regret filling her eyes.

“I won’t ever ask forgiveness because I don’t deserve it,” she whispered, her hand once more finding my chest and searing me through the cotton between our skin. “You lost five years of your life over my honesty when I should have lied for you. I am sorry, Gideon. Truly. More than you could ever possibly imagine.”

My head stayed tipped back, gaze hooded in attempt to keep from putting myself at her mercy again. I’d thought I could break her, but she’d caused fissures deep inside me instead. Uncertain…I floundered for the first fucking time in insecurities I didn’t know I had. “Lloyd said you hated me.”

“He told me the same about you.”

“He’s a fucking liar.” I practically spat the words, even though I’d thought I had hated her with every cell in my body.

Addilyn’s hand fell away from my chest, and she stepped back, wrapping her arms around her nakedness. “You don’t know the half of it.”

Her bony shoulders hunched while she hugged her tiny frame. Her head turned, gaze flitting away as though ashamed.

A prickle of unease, of foreboding damn near swallowed me whole, settling in to twist my guts. I grasped her chin, forcing her to face me, needing the truth even though I feared it. “Did he touch you?”

Wetness welled to coat her eyes as she peered up at me. Her pain hit me like a stab to the heart, and I knew the truth before she even breathed a single, goddamn word. Tension roused through me, and breathing grew difficult, my heart thumping heavily.

“Yes,” she whispered, causing a roar in my ears.

The same fucking answer that had put me behind bars.

Fuck, how I hated that word.

I forced my jaw to loosen. “Without your consent?” My tone came out level, fucking opposite of how I felt—on edge, tilting toward the type of rage that had caused Devon’s three-day coma. The loss of humanity that would end in certain rash decisions and reckless bloodshed.

“Yes.” A tear slid down her cheek, and I stared as it dripped off her trembling chin.

A knife twisted in my chest. Sliced down my torso, gutting me.

I hadn’t been there for her. Couldn’t have sheltered her from that piece of shit while in jail.

“How long have you been wearing my shirt to bed, Addilyn?” I asked, having to know if my suspicions were right.

“Since you were taken away from me.” Another tear fell. “And when he…started, I thought maybe it could protect me from him.”

Goddamn fucking hell… Fuck!

“I wasn’t there,” I gasped out, my chest constricting even as rage boiled in my veins.

Addilyn laid her tiny hand on my chest as though to soothe the anger rising inside me. “He would have gotten to me one way or another.”

“Tell me,” I demanded through gritted teeth.

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