Page 181 of Savage Hearts

More tears fell down my cheeks when I did, and his expression was the usual cold and emotionless Killian that got to me harder than I dared to admit to anyone, even to myself.

He wiped the tears on my cheeks gently.

“I will never forgive you for this,” I choked out.

He nodded, as if he had thought of that, and came to accept it.

“Never,” I repeated to drive it home, as if my forgiveness would have meant anything to a man like Killian Tiernan.

He uncuffed me and pulled me into his lap before I could really think of fighting him.

I sagged against him when he locked his arms around my waist, and I did something I would hate myself for later.

I cried in his arms, seeking the comfort I knew would be there.

He rubbed his hand over the small of my back, holding me close and letting me cry it all out.

All the emotions and stress and fear since the brothers took me.

And I knew it didn’t change anything.

Didn’t change my situation, and now, thanks to Killian, it was even harder for me to leave.

Still, I didn’t try to leave his arms.

28

KILLIAN

I heldher tightly in my arms and listened to her cry.

Tears had never scared me.

I wasn’t like Silas.

I didn’t fucking care when a woman cried, and they certainly couldn’t manipulate me with their tears, but sitting here, holding her in my arms and listening to her cry…

Fuck.

I tightened my arms around her and wondered why each tear that hit my skin was like a fucking lash that burned.

She pushed away from me, heartbreak and hatred vying for a spot in those bottomless eyes of hers, and I didn’t know which I hoped would be the case.

Did I want her heartbreak or her hatred?

My brothers and I knew she would hate me for this.

Tracking might have been an idea agreed on by all three of us, but I was the one doing it.

And for a moment, I gladly welcomed her hatred if it meant she couldn’t run away from us.

If it meant she would be ours for the rest of the days in which my brothers and I spent breathing.

But this hatred of hers…

I swallowed hard and guided her face back to my chest, and perhaps the fight had left her after, because she let me.

We didn’t say anything.

---