Page 31 of Broken Dreams

She sighed. “Not until after I was too close. Then when I tried to back off, he grabbed me. He was so angry, nothing I said got through to him.”

He wondered if her wrist was bruised as well and vowed to take a closer look once they were inside. They crossed the mostly vacant parking lot of the motel. He hesitated outside the door to his room. His packed duffle was standing just inside the door. Well, there wasn't anything he could do about it now. With a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach, he unlocked the door and helped her in.

The muscles in her body stiffened the moment she caught sight of his bag.

“You're leaving?”

“Yeah.”

“Tonight?”

He hid a wince and nodded.

“Without saying goodbye?” Her tone was incredulous.

He escorted Amber over to the bed, where she could sit and take the pressure off her knee. This was exactly what he tried to avoid. The wounded expression in her eyes sliced him like a scalpel.

“Sit down. I'll get you some ice.” Once she was settled on the edge of the bed, he grabbed the ice bucket and a plastic bag, then headed out to the ice machine at the end of the row of rooms. Filling the bucket halfway only took a minute, and when he returned to his room, the wounded expression in her eyes was still there.

Awkwardly, ignoring the pain in his leg, he knelt before her and gently pressed the makeshift cold pack on the swollen part of her knee. Because she kept staring at him accusingly, he felt compelled to respond.

“Amber, not long ago I discovered you were moving to Florida without mentioning that to me. And today you're upset because I was going to leave without saying goodbye?” He ran his gaze over her ivory cheeks, noting how her freckles stood out in sharp contrast to her pale skin. “We don't want the same things. I never intended to hurt you.” He hid a wince at how that sounded just like Roland.

“So where are you going?” She stared at his duffel, placed neatly against the wall by the door. Slowly she brought her gaze to his. “I know you're going home, but where is home? In Chicago?”

Chicago? Where had she gotten that idea? Then he remembered telling her he'd grown up there, that they were practically neighbors. There wasn't any specific place he ever thought of as home. It was on the tip of his tongue to admit the truth, but then he caught himself just in time. “No, not Chicago. I have a condo across from the Fairfax hospital in Virginia.

“Oh, I see. It sounds nice.”

Nice? His condo wasn't nice. It was empty. Lonely. And about as impersonal as this motel room. He'd bought it furnished a year or so ago it would have been ashamed to show her the place. He didn't have any personal belongings there. No books, no art, no family pictures.

Other than his clothes, there was nothing in the place that he’d personally purchased.

His so-called home was as far from the noisy, crowded Monroe household, with its comfortable eclectic furniture and wall of framed photographs as you could get.

Before he could gather his thoughts, she pushed his hand holding the ice on her knee. “It's too cold,” she protested. “I'm fine.”

Dark smudges encircling her wrist caught his gaze, and he set the ice aside and took her hand in his. “Look at what that jerk did to you.”

“I'm fine,” she repeated in a stubborn tone. But he didn't believe her. The tremor in her fingers ripped at his heart. And what would Roland have done if he hadn't gotten there in time? Would that jerk have gone as far as to sexually assault her. The thought made him burn with a fresh wave of anger.

Before he could talk himself out of it, he bent and placed a quick kiss on the bruises marring her wrist. “I'm so sorry. I'm here for you.”

There was a long moment of silence, before she spoke. “For a minute, when I was pinned underneath him, I couldn't breathe...” She didn't finish.

“I know.” He reached up and smoothed a hand over her hair. “I wish I could have gotten to you sooner.”

She shook her head. Her lack of feistiness bothered him more than he wanted to admit. He stood, ignoring the jolt of pain in his leg, then settled beside her on the edge of the bed. The mattress dipped, bringing her body closer to his. He wrapped his arm around her shoulders and pulled her against him.

To his shocked surprise she slid one arm around his waist and turned into his embrace, tucking her face into the curve of his shoulder.

He wanted to erase the awful memories from her mind. With a quick motion he lifted her knees and turned her so she was sitting on his lap. Tense, he waited for her to break out of his embrace, but she didn't. Instead, she held on tight.

He didn't know how long he held her, only that he withstood the pain in his leg for as long as possible, before shifting her weight to the other side.

She muttered a soft moan, but didn't stir.

With a wry smile, he realized she must have fallen asleep. He wasn’t sure if he should be irritated, or flattered.

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