Page 7 of Flare Up
He held her gaze, noticing the way her hair gave away her trembling and how she blinked fast to keep tears from filling her eyes.
And even as he cursed himself for a fool, he stepped forward. He opened his arms, telegraphing his intentions and giving her the chance to turn away. To reject him. Instead, a tear spilled over onto her cheek as she moved into his embrace.
He tried not to feel anything. All he wanted to do was offer this woman comfort, but her body fit so perfectly against his. For months, he’d ached for her, and joy and pain ran through him like some kind of fucked-up emotional cocktail.
“I’m not trying to control you,” he murmured against her hair. “Or threaten you or anything like that. I’m trying to tell you that, no matter what it is, we all have your back.”
She whispered something that sounded a lot like that’s the problem, which didn’t make any sense.
Then she coughed, a harsh and ragged sound that reminded him that no matter how emotionally messed up this was, she’d been through a physical trauma.
“Let’s sit down,” he said, hoping that sitting together would not only ease her cough, but might seem less adversarial than standing facing each other. He’d been determined not to touch her at all, but that ship had sailed.
She didn’t resist as he led her to the couch and pulled her down next to him. Rather than putting his arm around her, even though he knew she fit perfectly there, he laced his fingers through hers and squeezed her hand.
“I didn’t want to make this personal, but I guess it can’t be separated. Whatever this is isn’t just hurting you, Wren. It ruined us. It destroyed me.” He watched her face crumple as she closed her eyes, but he couldn’t stop. “It stole the life I thought we were going to have together and I want to know what it is that had that kind of power over you.”
“I’m scared to tell you. Like really scared.”
He felt her body tense as if she was about to get up, and he put his other hand over their clasped hands. “Okay. Is it a something or a somebody?”
He didn’t think it was some dark secret she was ashamed of or she wouldn’t have bolted so suddenly. It was fear. He’d known from the night he met her that she had something in her past. Something that made her wary and slow to trust or open up. But when she had opened up to him, she’d been all in. Or so he’d thought.
“Somebody,” she whispered.
Anger burned through him and he tightened his hands around hers. “An ex?” She nodded. “Ex-husband?”
“No.” He watched her take a very deep breath, hoping it meant she was resigning herself to finally telling her story. “An ex-boyfriend.”
“And he hurt you?” Again, the rage filled him, this time like a surge of energy he had to burn off somehow before it consumed him.
“Don’t.”
“Don’t what?”
“I can feel your anger right now. You’re squeezing my hand and your knee’s bouncing and you’re practically coiled up, wanting to strike at something.”
“Did you think I couldn’t keep you safe? Is that why you left me?”
“No. God, Grant. No.” Her voice was hoarse from the smoke and raw with emotion.
“Then why? Why didn’t you come to me instead of running?”
Wren could feel Grant’s anger, almost like an aura surrounding him, but it was the hurt in his voice she couldn’t bear.
She knew it was time to tell him, though. “I was afraid he’d hurt you.”
“I’m not that easy to hurt, you know.” She felt a pang of guilt when his fingers tightened again because they both knew he meant physically. Emotionally, she’d hurt him badly. “And I have friends. Resources. Contacts in law enforcement. We could have taken care of this guy and we wouldn’t have let him hurt you.”
“He didn’t hurt me,” she said, though her throat tightened up so it was barely a whisper.
“I don’t understand.”
“He didn’t hit me. He...controlled me. He broke me down, I guess. He destroyed me without ever laying a hand on me.” She swallowed hard. “My brother tried to tell me over and over again that he was bad for me.”
“You have a brother?”
She heard the weird sound of distress she made and she tilted her head back, trying to control her emotions. She just had to get it out. “There was a lot. I don’t want to relive it all, but I left Ben so many times. He was so good at getting me back, though, and then breaking me down again. And Alex—my brother—told me every single time that I was making a mistake forgiving Ben. Over and over, he told me that.
