“Hmm, not yet.”
“Why not?” she asked, disgruntled.
“Because my plan is to drive you insane. To make you want us so much that he doesn’t even have a chance to pop into your head.”
It wasn’t a bad plan.
But it might just kill her.
Jared moved them again so she was facing away from him and he was curled around her. With one hand he played with her breasts while kissing the back of her neck.
“I want you to sleep naked while you’re with me.”
Oh yeah.
That was sexy. And then she remembered the problem with that and stiffened.
“Problem? Too much too soon?”
“I . . . I can’t,” she said.
“Hey, it’s all right. We can work up to that.” He rolled her over to face him. “We’re going slow.”
What they’d just been doing hadn’t felt slow. And she hadn’t once thought ofhim.
Until now.
“What is it?” Jared asked.
He deserved to know. Before things went further.
“I have scars,” she blurted out. “And they’re hideous.”
North stilledas he stood on the other side of the bedroom door, listening.
He knew that Jared had deliberately left the door open as an invitation.
“How did you get the scars?” Jared asked.
“Fergus. He . . . he didn’t always hurt me. In fact, a lot of the time I was left alone. But there was this one time when I tried to escape. I should have known I’d fail. It was after around six months of being married to him. I think it was a test because it was almost too easy to leave. His men found me . . . they dragged me back. And . . . and he locked me in the basement. He . . . for days he hurt me. Had his men hold me down so he could whip my back until I bled. I’m not sure how long I was there. How long he hurt me for. But now I have scars on my back. Ugly scars.After that I never tried to escape again. I was too scared. Too terrified of being hurt like that again.”
North felt like he was going to break and that wasn’t acceptable. Leaning his hands against the wall, he breathed in deeply. He was relieved she was talking about the scars. But hearing the details was also breaking him apart.
He couldn’t splinter because if he did there was no putting himself back together. And he didn’t know what he would turn into.
So he stood there until he felt like he was under control. He could hear her distraught voice and Jared’s soothing one but couldn’t make out the words. Finally, there was silence and he left.
Perhaps exhuming Fergus’s body wasn’t a wise thing to do.
But it might help him calm the rage inside him.
45
Angie was spent.
Her confession to Jared about her scars last night had left her drained. And even though she’d slept well, she’d woken up feeling a bit off.
And she couldn’t pinpoint why.
