Chapter 98

• She teases, trying to lighten the mood. She expects a laugh, but Nicholas just pulls her back and holds her tighter, as if he needs the reassurance of her bare skin against his.
• He starts to say something and then clears his throat and stops, burying his face back into the curve of her neck. “You’re the first person that’s ever known about those dreams.”
• His bombshell of a confession rocks her mind. In all his therapy dealing with whatever it is that has happened to him, he’s never talked to anyone about this? He’s that hurt, that ashamed, that traumatized, that whatever, that for almost thirty years he has kept this festering inside of himself without any help? My God. Her heart twists for the little boy growing up and for the man that sits behind her—so disturbed by whatever happened that he’s kept it bottled up inside.