“No, you first.”
“Okay.” He situated his body until he faced her. “I want to tell you how sorry I am for kissing you that way last night. I didn’t mean to scare you. I can only lay blame on the mistletoe. It must have been magical.”
She smiled, and her heart melted a little more. Serenity settled in her chest. “Justin, I’d like to explain why I acted that way.” She paused and took a ragged breath. “Are you sure you still want me to tell you?”
His eyes widened. “Are you going to tell me about your secret?”
“Yes.”
“I still want to hear.” His fingers tenderly stroked her hand.
Taking another deep breath, she began, “It happened my last year in college. I had many friends and my share of boyfriends – one of them was Chuck.”
Bitter memories returned, and she clenched her jaw. Mentally, she prepared herself for the wounded stab of betrayal that had yet to disappear. “At first, we were just friends, which was all right with me. One day he asked me out. He was a charmer and exceptionally hot, which made it easier to go out with him. He was popular on campus and everybody thought we made the perfect couple.”
She paused a moment to collect her thoughts. His thumb caressed the back of her hand. “We dated a couple of times, but during those dates nothing serious happened. During one of our dates, he started kissing me a little differently than usual. Because of his drunken state, his urgency became more demanding.”
Tears gathered in her eyes and she fought to keep them from spilling down her cheeks. Justin’s tender stroke calmed her slightly.
“He forced me to have sex with him, and I hated every minute. Chuck hurt me. He was very rough. Afterward, he left. I cried for hours, regretting everything.”
A tear slid from her eye and she tried to ignore it, but Justin didn’t. His arms circled around her, pulling her against him as he pressed her head to his hard chest.
“It’s okay, Brooke. You don’t have to go on.”
“Yes, I do.” Her voice shook. “I need to say it. I have to release it.”
“Okay, go ahead.”
She breathed slower, controlling her tears. “The next day I tried to break it off with him, but he hit me across the face and called me all kinds of names. I ran away from him, but he followed me to my room and continued beating me until I could hardly move,” she ended, freeing the built-up emotion inside.
Justin’s hand stroked her hair, which comforted her more than she realized. She relished the foreign feeling and nuzzled her face against his hard chest.
Clearing her throat, she continued, “Although he beat me, it wasn’t the worst of it. I reported him to the authorities, but nobody believed me, especially my family. The people who I thought were my friends treated me like I had a contagious disease. Chuck had come from a good family, so naturally, they didn’t think he could have been so violent. Of course, he denied everything, and since there were no witnesses...” Her voice cracked, and she shrugged.
Justin placed a light kiss on her forehead. “It wasn’t right for them to treat you like that. You were the victim.”
“That’s what I thought, too, even after... after...” She couldn’t say it. The pain was still too real. She struggled with the inward battle fighting her heart and mind. Although she needed to release her emotion, it scared her that Justin would turn out like the rest of them. She didn’t want to disappoint him, and especially, she didn’t think she’d be strong enough if she saw the accusation in his eyes. Would he judge her like her friends and family had? She’d absolutely die if he rejected her.
