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“Well, we’ve already established you are a terrible full-time submissive.” He laughed lightly, then sobered when he saw I wasn’t finding his comment funny. “Seriously, I’m not asking you to give up everything. I thought you understood that. There’s no need to rehash what we’ve already discussed.”

“Wait, there’s more. A lot more. I’m not sure if you want to hear it.”

Alexander reached up and tugged at my hand to pull me down onto the sofa. I broke free of his grasp and shook my head. I didn’t want to sit, as I found it easier to talk while standing, and I began to pace the floor again.

“Krystina, just tell me,” he prodded.

“Trevor was abusive—not at first, but over time. It started more verbal than anything else, and I easily ignored it. He shoved me a few times—once in front of Allyson. I fought with her a lot over that. She called Trevor out on his shit pretty regularly, and he hated her for it.”

“Ally sounds like a smart girl,” he said dryly.

“She saw what I couldn’t see. So, Trevor did everything he could to keep Ally and me apart. I let him.”

“Everything is okay with you and her now, though, isn’t it?”

I caught Alexander’s eye and smiled wistfully.

“Yes, Ally and I are fine. She saved me.”

I saw his brow furrow in confusion.

“Saved you?” he asked.

“From Trevor.”

As much as I told myself I wouldn’t cry, I felt a tear slide down my cheek. I hastily wiped it away, annoyed I was showing signs of weakness.

“Krystina, it’s okay,” Alexander assured as he came over to where I stood. He wrapped his arms around me and held me tight to his chest. “It was a long time ago. He’s not worth it.”

I looked up and saw the hurt in his eyes.

He thought I was crying over Trevor.

“I’m not upset over him. I’m upset because of what I have to say next. I’m sorry, but I’ve never talked about this in detail, not even to Ally. She only knows what she knows because she’s smart and connected the dots. I don’t think you understand how hard this is for me.”

His face paled, and I could see panic begin to set in.

“Christ, what the hell happened? You’re starting to scare me, Krystina.”

I removed myself from his embrace, unable to meet his eyes while I told the ending of my tale. For some reason, I was awash with humiliation, even though I knew I had nothing to be ashamed about.

“For the first time, I stood up for myself,” I continued. “I decided to leave him after he cheated on me. Well, he was having none of it. You want to talk about fatal attraction—I lived it.”

“You don’t have to tell me any more if you don’t want to,” Alexander said. His voice wavered uncharacteristically. It was as if he were afraid to hear the rest.

But what Alexander didn’t understand was I had to tell him. This wasn’t only about building trust between the two of us. It was more about me. If I truly wanted to move on from my haunting past, I had to admit certain things to myself.I needed to speak the words aloud, something I had never done before.

“No, I have to get this out. For me,” I added. He nodded his head once, accepting my need to finish. “About a month after I left Trevor, he showed up at my apartment. He had been drinking a lot before he came. I should have just slammed the door in his face, but I was worried because he had driven to my place. I didn’t want to send him off to get behind the wheel again, so I let him come inside. I figured once he had time to sober up a bit, I’d tell him to leave.

“One thing led to another, and we started to argue. Eventually, I lost patience with him and stormed off to my bedroom. I hoped he’d sleep off his drunken stupor on the couch and be gone by morning. But he followed me instead,” I paused and took a shaky breath.

Don’t cry. Don’t cry.

My vision narrowed, and I felt like I was in a trance, as if I were looking down on the scene taking place in the penthouse. I didn’t even notice Alexander was right by my side until I felt his hand on my cheek. Using his thumb, he brushed a tear away.

“You don’t have to finish,” Alexander said beseechingly.

I looked up into his beautiful eyes, so full of patience and understanding. A weaker version of myself may have folded right then and there, seeking the comfort of his embrace to protect myself from the rest of the world. However, I wasn’t that person anymore. I knew I was stronger than that. Determination settled in my bones with a renewed confidence that turned my spine to steel.