Page 77 of Her Passionate Hero

She slipped into Spanish, “Darling, don’t worry. I’ve made peace with this. I coped. I did the right things. I made sure my mom never knew what he said. She loved him so much, and it would have shattered her world.”

“So, you kept this buried inside you, eating away like acid? You said you didn’t even tell your shrink. What the fuck, Alia? Why not?”

She cringed at his words, and for the first time, being in his arms didn’t feel good. She tried to get up.

“No, you’re not going anywhere. This time, I’m not letting you get away, you hear me? I get it now. I get why you sent me away all those years ago, and it breaks my fucking heart. All those years, Alia. All those lost years. Do you know what we could have been to one another?” Was he saying what she thought he was? It wasn’t possible. She stopped moving and stared up into his eyes.

“You were meant for better things,” she whispered.

“Better than what?”

“Better than me. I would have done to you what my mother did to my father. What I did to my father.”

“Your dad was a headcase. A cruel one, at that.”

She flinched. “I’m a headcase too, didn’t you hear, I had a shrink in college?” She winced as soon as she heard the words come out of her mouth. She knew better than that. Apparently, so did Hunter because he didn’t let it slide.

“That just tells me you had the good sense to get help. Do you know I’ve had to go to the military shrink? Our missions can really mess with our heads. Sometimes, we need help to keep it together. Off the top of my head, I can think of one man, who I really respect, who had to spend over a year on a couch, probably needed meds too. He had to really fight his way back. He wasn’t a headcase, he is a hero.”

She let out a long trembling sigh. “This is a lot.”

“I imagine it is. Jesus, that’s a fuckload of poison you’ve been holding onto.”

“I think I feel a bit better,” she admitted.

“Baby, while you try to sort that out, can I hold you? I’m scared to let you go.”

She looked at him questioningly.

In a display of strength that astounded her, he picked her up, while reclining on the couch. Then he laid her on top of himself. He snagged the afghan from the back of the sofa and draped it over her.

“Will you be comfortable if we sleep like this tonight? I’m afraid if I leave, you’ll disappear behind a wall again.”

She relaxed into the heat of his body, stretching and arranging herself until she fit comfortably.

“You’re killing me,” he whispered huskily.

“What?”

“Never mind, Chaquita. I think we’re going to have to work our way up to some things. Something tells me my Alia is a little naïve.”

“I am not,” she protested hotly as she pushed up on his chest to look into his eyes. “I’m a Vice Principal of a school. I know lots of things.”

“Been kissed much?” he asked.

She dropped her forehead to his chest and whispered, “No.”

“Go to sleep, mi Cielieto. I have you.”

She yawned. She was absolutely drained. She hadn’t thought she would be able to sleep on top of Hunter, but the last thing she heard was the beating of his heart.

Chapter Ten

Hunter got a text from Dalton at one a.m.

“Cariña, I need to go.” He was blanketed by blonde hair, the stuff of dreams.

“Mmmmm?” She woke up languid and sweet. “You’re so warm,” she said in a husky whisper, burrowing closer.