Page 63 of Beautiful Trauma
“That was fucking masochism to have you share all that pain.”
“It’s part of the trauma I carry each and every day.” He stared intently at me. “You can’t understand me without understandingit. Just as I couldn’t understand you fully without knowing what had happened to your mother.”
“I hate it.”
“Sometimes it can be beautiful.”
“Trauma?”
Kellan nodded. “Like they say, the parts that don’t kill us make us stronger. And if we can embrace the pain and use it for good, it brings us to a level of understanding that others can never have.
“Is that why you saved me?”
Kellan’s brows shot wide. “What?”
“The understanding from your beautiful trauma–is that why you saved me from Brian?”
“How could I not?”
“But I was your enemy. I drugged you and used you to gain information for my family. My family deceived yours. Many in the underworld would say I deserved what I got from Brian for my sins.
“Regardless of what she’s done, that is a punishment no woman shouldeverhave to face.”
“How are you real?” I questioned.
“What?”
“I’ve never known a man like you.”
“And that’s a good thing?”
“It’s a wonderful thing.”
Kellan searched my face intently. “That night at Bandia.”
“Yes?”
“Was any of it real?”
“Excuse me?”
Kellan jerked a hand through his hair. “Was it all an act, or was some of it real?”
My heartbeat accelerated in my chest. “Yes, it was real” I whispered.
A shudder rippled through Kellan. “It was real for me, too.”
As regret flooded me for the way I treated him, I sniffled. “I’m sorry about the soup.”
“I know you are.”
I gasped. “You do?”
“You wanted to drive me away.”
I blinked at him in disbelief at his ability to see through me so clearly. Only Dima had that ability with me. I sighed with regret. “It was an awful thing to do when you were just trying to help.”
“You reacted out of pain.”
