“Are you going to hit me?” She bumped him with her chest. “Hit me!” Her voice climbed to a feverish pitch. “Go ahead and hit me! Prove to me just how you behave when you’re angry. Let me see it now so I can run away from you. So my heart can…” She choked as tears spilled from her eyes.
Zar was about to explode from frustration. Why was his mate acting in such a crazed fashion? What was wrong with her?
“Si-moon…”
She shook her head, turning away from him.
From a young age, Plutonians were taught the language of the female. What a female said from her mouth was only a cover for what she truly felt from her heart.
Instead of getting caught up in Si-Moon’s rage, Zar quieted himself and tried to interpret what she was saying from her heart.
Are you going to hit me?
Why would her first conclusion be that he would abuse her unless…
His eyes burst open and he stared down at her. Grabbing her hand, he held it tenderly and whispered, “Tell me.”
She glared at him. “What are you talking about?”
“Tell me who hit you.” His voice trembled with barely restrained rage. “And I will end them.”
Si-Moon went completely still. Her bottom lip warbled, and her body deflated as if the life had drained out of her. Stumbling forward, she fell into his arms and began to sob.
Twenty-Five
Simone
She hadn’t criedin years. Not like this. Not with the sobs that wrenched out of her chest and the tears that nearly drowned her.
Simone didn’t allow herself the luxury of crying. No one pitied her and so she would not pity herself. But here, on this alien planet, with a beast who had tattoos, blue skin and a tail, she was just letting it flow.
Tell me who hit you.
How many times as a child had she longed for someone to ask her that? How many times had she stood, battered and bruised, in the bathroom, praying that a handsome prince would come storming through the door and save her?
But the prince never came.
It was always the evil giant. Always the heavy hand. Always pain and suffering.
Simone had no idea why she’d gotten so mad at Zar earlier.
No, wait.
She did.
Deep down, she was afraid. She cared about this alien too much. She cared to the point of blindness. Realizing how connected she was to him made her want to push him away. Made her want to test him to see if he would unleash that temper on her.
She wanted to know if she’d mated a man like her father.
The last thing Simone had expected was for a brute of an alien like Zar to see right through her. She’d wanted him to get angry. She’d wanted him to yell at her. Maybe even hit her.
So she could know.
She could know if she would be a whimpering fool like her younger self. Or if she would have the courage to fight.
You’re weak. You can never fight.
Simone closed her eyes to quiet that voice. That weakness was why she never allowed any man to get close to her. Simone was afraid that, one day, the guy she loved would hit her… and she would stay.