“Where.” My voice comes out harsher than I intended it to and she flinches. At my words, the memory, or my demand for her to tell me, I don’t know.
“My—my chest,” she says, pressing against her right breast. “And then he—and then he touched me between my legs too.”
A growl rips from my chest, making her eyes fly up to mine.
“It—it wasn’t for very long!” She says, squeezing my hand in a panic. “He actually stopped pretty quickly. I vomited all over him. He didn’t like that.”
“Fuck,” I whisper, resting the palm of my free hand on my forehead, ignoring the throb of my eye that’s swollen shut.
“I—I’m sorry, did I say anything wrong?”
Jett assaulted her. And it was bad enough she threw up all over him. How scared was she? How terrifying must that have been for her?
I can’t muster up an answer to her stupid question. There’s nothing she did wrong. This entire situation is just fucked.
Instead, I tug her down so she’s laying on top of me.
“What—what’re you doing!” She squeaks out, holding herselfup so she’s hovering above me, concerned that she’s going to hurt me.
“Just let me hold you,” I mumble. “Please, Sugar.”
“But you’re hurt!”
“I don’t give a shit,” I hiss. I force myself to take a deep breath. I need to calm the fuck down if I don’t want to freak her out. “You told me you were okay, that you weren’t hurt, but I think anyone who went through what you just went through would be hurt.”
“Oh,” she says, still hovering above me, her brows drawn down in confusion.
“I’m not making fucking sense, am I?” I say, letting out a small huff of laughter. “I just want to hold you to make sure you’re actually okay. That you’re here with me, you know? I was terrified when I woke up this morning and you weren’t here.”
“Oh,” she says again, her expression going soft.
It’s impressivehow she’s able to infuse so much meaning into a single syllable.
“You don’t have to if you don’t want to,” I add, letting my hands fall to my sides.
The last thing I want to do is force her to do something she doesn’t want to do. She’s had enough of that here to last a lifetime. With the way the family farm works, she’ll have a lot more of it in her future, too.
She shakes her head.
“No, I want to,” she says. “I’m just worried I’ll hurt you.”
“It’s okay, I’ll let you know if I’m in a lotta pain.”
Lie.
I’d walk over coals if it meant her embrace was on the other side.
She nods before slowly lowering herself so she’s tilted on her side, putting the least amount of weight on me possible. She’s also almost falling off the couch, so I take the opportunity to wrap an arm around her waist so she doesn’t fall.
Only because I don’t want her to fall.
Not because I want to touch her.
“I like this,” she mumbles, nuzzling her face into my side.
“Cuddling?”
“Mhmm,” she says, her eyes fluttering shut.
