For now, she was trembling again, and the urge to pull her back into my arms resurfaced violently.
“Come with me,” I said, taking her hand in mine as I guided her towards the living room where the fireplace had thrown the entire area into orange flickers. “You need to sit down.”
She didn’t argue. She sank into the sofa with a quiet sigh, arms folding around herself as if she were trying to keep her bones from rattling. I grabbed a blanket from the armchair, draped it over her shoulders, and crouched down in front of her. Her knees brushed against my chest, and her breath caught at the contact.
Mine nearly did too.
“Ilana,” I said softly, “look at me.”
She did. Slowly. Carefully. Her eyes were wide and full of honesty.
“You’re safe here with me,” I told her, voice low enough that it barely traveled beyond us. “You’re safe with me.”
Something softened in her expression and turned unguarded. Her lips parted slightly, but she didn’t speak. She didn’t even have to. I felt the subtle shift run through the space between us, the air tightening until it was almost impossible to breathe without tasting her fear and vulnerability and the quiet trust she hadn’t meant to give me.
The moment stretched between us as Ilana watched me with those wide, shaken eyes that had already managed to wedge themselves somewhere deep inside my ribs. Her knees brushed my chest again when she shifted ever so slightly beneath the blanket, and I felt it. The spark. She didn’t even know what she was doing.
How close she was sitting.
How soft she looked, wrapped in wool and moon-pale skin.
Her voice was barely a whisper as she looked at me. “You don’t have to keep… hovering.”
“I am not.”
She gave the smallest, trembling exhale, half laugh, half sigh. “You’re two inches from my knees.”
“Your point?”
“It’s intense.”
Her voice broke on that last word, like she wasn’t sure whether she meant it as a compliment, a warning, or just a truth she didn’t know how to handle.
And the worst part? She wasn’t wrong.
I let my hands settle on the sofa cushion beside her hips, bracketing her gently. Her breath stuttered, eyes flickering downmy chest before snapping back up again. She felt it too. I could see it.
“I’m intense because you nearly got kidnapped again,” I said quietly. “Forgive me for not pretending otherwise.”
She swallowed. “I didn’t mean for any of that to happen.”
“I know.”
And I did.
Even if I wished she’d been smarter. Safer. A little less naïve.
“I just wanted to call them,” she whispered, referring to her brothers once again.
“And instead you found two men ready to drag you into a van.”
Her shoulder shook, the blanket tightening around her as she drew in a shallow breath.
“Please don’t remind me.”
“I’m not trying to hurt you, Ilana.” I softened my tone instantly.
“I know,” she said, barely audible. “I just… don’t want to think about their hands on me.”
