Chapter Eight
“You think you can defyme?”
Jacobo’s harsh words hit Lourdes before his hand cracked across her cheek.White-hot pain exploded.The force knocked her into the wall where she crumpled to the floor.The cold tile raked her bare skin.She bit back her cry of pain and held her cheek.
“Stop.Please.”She raised her trembling hand.“Just go to bed.Sleep it off.”
“Now, you’re telling me what to do?”he screeched, spittle flying.He reeked of sweat, tequila, and another woman’s perfume.
Her breath strangled on a sob.Not again.She wouldn’t cower.She wouldn’t lose this baby.“Wait, I’m preg—”
He kicked her in the ribs.
She screamed.Pain ricocheted through her.Tears streamed down her cheeks.Another strike.Another burst of pain.The floor blurred; the room spun.She sobbed, curling in on herself, trying to protect her little one.He loomed over her, his shadow swallowing her whole.
“No, please—”
“Lourdes!”
She jolted upright in bed and clutched the sheet to her naked, sweat-soaked body.Darkness rimmed her blurry vision.Air sliced down her throat.Her heart ached; her ears rang.Phantom pain pulsated in her stomach, the profound sense of loss sweeping through her as it always did when the nightmares struck.The mattress shifted beside her, and aclickresounded before the yellow light from the bedside lamp cut through the shadows.
“Shh, princess.It was just a nightmare.”
Enrique.Strong.Real.Steady.He wrapped his arm around her from behind and grounded her in reality.His warmth permeated her cold, clammy skin.
“You’re safe.I’ve got you.”He brushed his lips on her neck.
A sob tore from her throat.She turned and hugged him tight.
Enrique rubbed slow, soothing circles on her back.His breath puffed into her hair.His faint citrus scent and her womanly musk from their earlier playtime still clung to him.
The onslaught subsided, dulling the memories she could never banish.She leaned back and wiped away her tears with shaking hands.A chill hung in the air.The crackling, glowing red embers in the hearth were all that remained of the once blazing fire.Hiccuping, she tucked the blanket and sheet under her arms and around her breasts.More for modesty and self-preservation than a need for warmth.
“What were you dreaming about?”He feathered kisses over her face.
She ducked her head.Shame burned from the inside out.“J-Jacobo,” she stuttered and swallowed past the lump in her throat.She couldn’t bear to tell him about her miscarriages.Not yet.The pain was still too raw.“He was beating me.”
“Mierda.”Enrique fisted his hands on his lap.The sheet barely covered his nakedness.
“I still remember the sound of his boots on the floor.His stench.The way he’d—” Her throat closed.
“You don’t have to say it.”
“No, I do.For four years, I was trapped with him.He hit me, cheated on me, told me I was worthless and stupid.And I let him.”
Enrique tilted up her chin.“You didn’t let him do anything.That bastard took from you.It was not your fault.”
The heat and anger blazing in his eyes at her defense steadied her upset stomach.She eased out of his hold and trailed her fingers down the swirls inking his chest.“I’ve never talked about this before.I tried once with my mother.Guess what she told me?My marriage was none of her business.Everyone knew about the abuse, though.Makeup only covered so much.”
“Sí, I knew.”He brushed her mussed hair back from her face.“All those family dinners Rubén invited me to at his father’s home, I only went because I knew you would be there.Every time Jacobo spoke to you like you were nothing, I had to stop myself from attacking him.Every time you smiled to keep from crying, I wanted to kiss you.Seeing you with him gutted me.”
“I was so afraid,” she whispered.
“You were surviving.Now, you get to live.”
“Live?That’s such a foreign word.Foreign concept.”Lourdes sucked in a shaky breath and closed her eyes.“When Jacobo died, I was so relieved.God forgive me.”She raised her hand, making the customary sign of the cross, and forced herself to meet Enrique’s gaze.The inky pools of his dark-brown irises threatened to drown her.“Before my engagement to Diego, I thought I was finally free of my nightmares.Hadn’t had one in months.Then I met him, a Jacobo clone.Now, the nightmares come a few times a week.When you barged into my apartment, I was up that early because I had one and couldn’t fall back to sleep.I guess I should be grateful I don’t have them every night.”
