Page 101 of Soulless Saint

My eyes burned like fucking hellfire as new, angry tears threatened on their rims.

“I’m not leaving until you get your ass in this car.”

“What is it with you?” I all but screamed, trying to stomp away. “Do you always try to force women into your car, hmm? You know, in most places that’s called kidnapping.”

He had the fucking audacity to smirk at me, but something about it disarmed me. “Just get in, love. Let me take you home.”

I stopped walking and my legs betrayed me, shaking, barely able to hold me up anymore.

“Why?” I croaked.

He thought about my question, and the answer seemed to surprise even himself as he replied, “Because I want to.”

I sniffed.

Aodhán took a long breath, tugging his clover charm from his shirt to rub it between his fingers. “You don’t even have to say anything. We can put the radio on and just drive.”

My body sagged. One look at the comfortable leather seat and I was a goner.

I slid into the car and shut the door behind me, buckling myself in.

Aodhán reached into his pocket and pulled out a slip of discolored white fabric, passing it to me.

“Is this a fucking handkerchief? Are you kidding?”

“Nope. Not kidding.”

I snorted, unable to produce a real laugh as I wiped my damp eyes and Aodhán pulled back onto the residential street where he found me. I wondered how long he’d had to drive around before he got to this place that seemed almost to be in the middle of nowhere.

“So, I know I said I wouldn’t ask, and I’m not, exactly–”

“Aodhán…”

One more word and I was going to tuck and roll right up out of this car.

“I just want to know, did they hurt you?”

“Who?”

“You know who.”

I didn’t want to think about them, I closed my eyes, letting my heavy head fall back against the seat. My subconscious conjured an image of Hardin with his teeth in my thigh, and I clenched my teeth against it, swallowing back more bile. Hating how the thought of him there, touching me like that could still make my pussy throb, even now.

What sort of monster did that make me?

“Becca?”

“No,” I managed. “They didn’t hurt me.”

I caught the furrow of his brows from the corner of my eyes, but he didn’t push me again. And maybe that was what made me want to tell him.

Aodhán wasn’t all twisted up in this mess. He was just some guy who gave me a ride home once. A guy who was nice to me. Showed interest in me. Didn’t know my friends. Or my family.

A stranger.

“Have you ever had someone tell you something that you can’t unhear? Something so fucked up that it makes you want to… to smash your fucking head against the wall just so that you won’t have to think about it anymore?”

My chest ached.

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