Page 45 of You Were Always Mine
Her hands fist tighter in my shirt, dragging me closer even as my whole body refuses to move. Her tears hit my skin, hot and endless, every one of them burning me alive.
‘Please, Kai,’ she sobs, her voice breaking apart. ‘Replace his touch. Replace his hands.’
My stomach caves, my grip trembling against her.
She lifts her face, wet, shattered, her words pouring outlike a prayer she doesn’t care who hears. ‘Make me feel something other than this. Please… touch me.’
Her voice cracks on the last word, and it destroys me.
‘Scar…’ My throat burns, my chest heaving. ‘You don’t?—’
‘I do.’ She cuts me off with a sob, shaking so hard I have to hold her tighter to keep her from falling apart completely. ‘Please, Kai. I can’t keep feeling him on me. I can’t stop seeing it. Just… burn it away. Make it yours instead.’
The plea guts me. My whole body goes still, my heart hammering like it’s about to tear through my ribs.
I press my forehead to hers, eyes squeezed shut, breath shaking out of me like I’m on the edge of a cliff with no ground beneath.
Because every word she cries into me is the one thing I swore I couldn’t give her?—
and the one thing I’ve wanted more than air.
Her voice shreds me raw, everypleasedigging deeper until I feel like I’m bleeding from the inside out. My hands cradle her face, my thumbs catching the endless flood of her tears, but I can’t move the way she wants me to.
‘Scar…’ My chest caves as I choke the words out. ‘I can’t. Ask me anything, anything else—but don’t ask me to do that.’
Her sobs tear through me, her body shaking against mine like she’s going to splinter if I let go. She grabs at me, desperate, dragging my shirt into her fists until the seams strain.
‘Please, Kai,’ she cries, her voice splintering. ‘Please take it away. I can’t carry it. I can’t?—’
Her words dissolve into broken sobs, her head pressed hard against my chest. And I’m at war with myself—everyinstinct screaming to shield her, to burn out whatever filth he left on her, while another part of me clings to the last shred of control.
My jaw aches from how hard I’m clenching it. My hands shake as I cup the back of her head, rocking her even as my throat burns with the taste of her pleas.
Finally, my voice breaks, hoarse and guttural against her hair.
‘Where did he touch you, Scar?’
Her sobs falter, her body stiffening in my arms.
And my blood turns to ice.
For a long moment, she’s silent. The only sound is her sobs, jagged, breaking against my chest. I hold her tighter, waiting, praying she’ll give me something, anything.
Then she shakes her head hard, her wet hair sticking to her face. “I can’t,” she whispers, her voice wrecked. “I can’t tell you.”
My throat burns, rage and helplessness twisting together until I can barely breathe. “Scarlett?—”
Before I can finish, she moves. Her small hand trembles as it slips down between us, closing over mine. And then she drags it lower, pressing it against her thigh.
My stomach lurches.
She pushes my hand higher, guiding it clumsily, mimicking the exact movements someone else made on her body. Her tears drip hot onto my skin as she chokes out a sob.
“This,” she whispers brokenly. “He—he touched me like this.”
My vision goes red. My fingers twitch under hers, wanting to tear away, wanting to burn the memory out of existence, but she keeps holding me there, forcing me to feel what she felt.
Her voice splinters as she pleads, the sound carving me in half. “Please, Kai… replace it. Please.”
