“This is our paradise for now. We won’t go further, baby. God knows how much I’d like to make love to you. But I know it wouldn’t be right.”
“Thank you,” she whispers breathlessly.
God, it turns me on even more. My eyes scan her beautiful face. I move a lock of hair behind her ear, and my gaze moves to her neck. The scarf has shifted a little, and I stiffen. What the fuck?
She understands this and straightens up, trying to fix the scarf properly.
“Take it off!” My voice is harsher than I want it to be. It’s not what I think, it can’t be.
“Danny, it’s nothing. Just a little irritation.”
“I want to see,” I say, and she starts shaking.
I look into her eyes and see something new.
Fear.
The terror.
Her hands begin to tremble as she unties the scarf. When she begins to remove it, she closes her eyes.
“What the fuck...” I move her hair and what I see sends me on a rampage. “Oh my…what happened? Was it him?” Her eyes are still closed. She doesn’t want to open them.
“Hailey, what the hell happened?”
“Nothing. I told you, a little irritation.”
I’m furious. She’s lying to me, and badly. “Hailey, what the fuck happened?” I growl.
She squeezes her eyes tighter, shaking. “Nothing, a little accident. Nothing serious.”
“Look at me! Nothing serious? You have a fingerprint on your neck. Is it not serious? This is a bruise, for God’s sake!” I slam my fist on the marble, and she jumps.
She opens her eyes in fear, and when she meets my gaze, she bursts into tears.
Fuck. I feel like I’m dying inside for every tear.
I hug her instinctively, “Shhh, baby, everything is fine. Please tell me what happened. What called this bruise?”
“Danny, it’s nothing.”
I look into her eyes and wipe her tears. “Baby, I’m here for this, too. I want to know please.”
“The gala dinner. Jeremy drank a little too much, and when we got back to the hotel, he said that everyone was looking at me because I was beautiful. He got jealous.”
“You were beautiful. I saw the photos. How much I wanted to be in his place. But that doesn’t explain the bruise.”
“Danny, I can’t...” she says, looking down.
“Look at me. What the hell happened after the gala dinner?”
“He had me...I didn’t want it to happen...but him...” She lowers her head again, and I feel her close into her shell.
“He didn’t rape you, did he?” She doesn’t respond, and I feel her tears falling on my hand.
I’ll kill him if it’s the last thing I do in my damn life.
“Hailey, love, please,” I beg her, trying not to let my anger show.
