Chapter 62

• Ian sat, watching Alec sleep. He’d wanted her to open up and talk to him, but he hadn’t planned on this. He hadn’t expected her emotional eruption to devastate him, but it had. Last night when she’d told him what had happened when she was only fifteen for crying out loud, his heart had shattered to the point where he thought he would burst with the pain of it. What she would have had to do to endure, survive and move forward he couldn’t even fathom.
• Revealing what she had gave him more answers than he’d bargained for. Just knowing that little piece of her helped him understand why she projected that harsh, standoffish persona. Inside she was broken, held together by sheer will and nothing else. For years she’d been blaming herself for something that had nothing to do with her. Whatever had happened to her brother, a child as Alec had been couldn’t be to blame. He didn’t know how to change that, wasn’t even sure if he could.
• He sat forward when she made a soft noise and turned onto her side, cradling her hand under her cheek. She was beautiful, he doubted she realized how much. There were so many things about her that intrigued him, and drew him to her. When she was that boldly aggressive cop, he wanted to challenge her just to see the flare in her eyes. Those times she was soft and yielding, he wanted to possess her and shout in triumph when she let him. Ian wanted to shelter her, protect her, there was just so much...