Page 77 of My Heart Still Beats
“Do you, though?”
“I do.” I scratch an itch that springs up on the side of my head. “Objectively, anyway. Believe me, I’ve been over and over it with my therapist.”
He smiles. “Good. I’m glad you’re getting the help you need. Is there anything I can do?”
I look at him, then.
And for the second time, I feel the urge to touch him.
I reach forward, feather my fingers over his stubbled cheek. It feels scratchy, but also…good. It feels good to touch another person. Another man.
He doesn’t move. Doesn’t try to touch me. He just lets me do what I want to do.
“You’re such a good-looking man,” I say.
“Thank you. You’re a beautiful woman.” He lowers his voice. “You’re the most beautiful woman here.”
My cheeks warm in the moonlight. It’s nothing I haven’t heard before.
I never minded it before, but these days it seems like a curse.
When a man looks at me now, all I feel is the glare of his eyes burning holes into my flesh.
But Ben is looking at me…and for the first time in a long time, I don’t feel that.
I don’t feel like he’s burning two holes into me.
No. To the contrary, Iwanthim to look at me. I want him to see me. Because I know he sees more than just my beauty.
He sees what I’ve been through, the haunting within me.
And though he may not understand, he’s trying to. In his way, he’s trying to help. He tried to help by taking the burden of the bachelorette party off of me.
He’s a good man, and I’m glad he sees beyond my looks, but I’m more than what I’ve been through, and I want him to seethatpart of me too.
I drop my hand back to my side.
“You can touch me, Tessa,” Ben says. “I don’t mind.”
I say nothing.
“Is there anything else I can do for you tonight? See you to your room?”
I resist the urge to lash out at him, to tell him there’s more to me than some fragile woman who went through a tragic ordeal and nearly died.
“I’m not done walking yet.”
“Then I’ll walk with you. Because as I said, I don’t want you out here alone.”
Chapter Twenty-Two
Ben
Hell no, she won’t be alone. Not after that asshole bartender threatened me. Tried to blackmail me. Does he have a clue what kind of security I have? He’ll pay for mentioning Dirk Conrad and for trying to get Tessa handed to him on a platter.
Right about now, he’s being escorted off the premises.
Fucking Dirk Conrad.
