Page 61 of Silent Girl

Lust?Sure.Borderline obsessed with my vagina?Absolutely.But love?I don’t know about that one.

“You lied to me to keep him safe. That means you care about him too, because you’ve never lied to me beforethat onecame along.” Dad juts his chin towards the door, in the direction of Liam’s room.

“You’re right. I haven’t.” Because I never had something worth lying about, I guess.

ChapterTwenty-Eight

I’m pacing up and down the room. I want to go and knock on her father’s door and demand he give her back to me. Which is absurd. She’s not a fucking possession, but sheismine. I don’t give a fuck who tries to tell me otherwise.

I pick up my phone and send her a message.

Me:

Please tell me you’re okay.

I throw the phone down on the bed when there’s a knock at the door. Opening it, I find Aliyah standing on the other side. I take my time running my eyes up and down her body.

“Get in here.” I grab her hand and pull her into the room, before shutting the door behind her. I wrap my arms around her waist and tuck her up against my chest. She’s so much shorter than I am. Her head rests right under my chin. “Are you okay?” I ask while holding her tight.

“I’m okay. I had a good talk with my dad,” she says.

“How likely am I to end up as fish food?”

“Not as likely as I would have thought,” she tells me. “I don’t get it. My whole life, he’s warned me not to date. Even before you arrived, I made some off-handed comment about letting the whole team do what they wanted with me, and he threatened to paint the rink red with their blood.”

“Wait… You said what now?” I pull back to look down at her.

“Relax. I was trying to make a point, stress that they couldn’t control what I did. Trust me, I’m usually a three-date minimum kind of girl.”

“Three dates? It took me a gazillion.”

“Ah, we’ve never officially even been on one,” she says.

“I’ll fix that. When we get home, I’m taking you out. Maybe I’ll hire an air-writer to scrawl a message across the sky, so that all of Vancouver knows we’re official.”

“Do not do that. You still have my brothers to deal with. They’re not going to be as understanding as my dad appears to be. Which I still find bizarre.”

“What’d you talk about?”

Aliyah steps back to look at me. “My mother, mostly. I had no idea my parents had an arranged marriage.”

“Some arranged marriages end up the happiest,” I tell her.

Aliyah shakes her head. “For as long as I can remember, I’ve blamed myself for what happened between them. My father lost his wife, and it was all because of me. It was my fault.”

“Why would it be your fault?” Shit, this is a topic I haven’t been able to figure out how to approach. Ever since she sent and immediatelyunsentthat message, I’ve been wanting to ask her.

“My mother tried to kill me. More than once,” she says, looking down. “She would say that it was my fault, that I wasn’t a lovable child.” Aliyah touches the scar on her wrist. “This was her last attempt. That’s what my nightmares are about, her slicing into my arm. It was the worst pain I’ve ever felt in my life, and there are some nights where I can still feel it. Like it’s really happening.”

I blink, pulling her in and holding her a little tighter. “I think you just might be the most loveable person I know, Aliyah Monroe,” I tell her.

Do I love her?I’m pretty certain I do.Does it scare the fuck out of me?Absolutely.I’m just not sure I’m ready to tell her yet.

“That’s exactly what my father said.” She smiles up at me.

“Well, he’s a smart man,” I tell him, then add, “He did acquire the best player in the NHL after all.”

Aliyah laughs. “He did. But if you tell Gray I said that, I’ll deny it.”

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