Page 19 of Beastly Mr. Buchanan
“He didn’t!Notthere.I got away,” I explain.
He stills and studies my face as though to confirm the truth in my eyes.
“How?”he asks.
“How what?”
“How did you get away?”
“I… I take self-defense classes and fought with everything I had.It almost wasn’t enough but—”
My words clog in my throat when he abandons his attempt to raise my skirt and instead frames the bruise on my knee with his long fingers.
“Was this from him?”he asks.
I nod.The roughened pad of his fingertip tickles my sensitive flesh as he traces the injury.Pressure builds in both my chest and my core.I grab his wrist and take a few calming breaths before trusting my voice.
“It’s just a few bruises.I’m okay.Really, I—”
“I swear, if you say you’ve had worse, I will hunt down every man you’ve ever known and rip them apart with my bare hands,” he snarls.
Alarm and delight somersault in my stomach.
My likening him to a grumpy grizzly when I saw him for the first time in twenty years yesterday seems scarily accurate at the moment.
This isn’t acting.The deadly intent shining in his eyes makes me second guess my assumption of him having hidden motives for insisting I’m the only one he will ever marry.
What would he gain from taking such a ruse this far?What does he really want from me?
None of this makes sense.His sudden betrayal in middle school made no sense.His disappearance made no sense.His reaction yesterday made no sense.
I can’t do this again.
“Declan, I got away.I’m out.I just need to rest.”
A muscle ticks in his jaw so hard I see it above his beard.
“Tell me exactly what happened.”
His demand rumbles from deep in his chest and reverberates into mine.
Frustration and horror collide as every terrifying moment flips through my mind.
“No.I don’t owe you a play-by-play.I’m not putting myself through that again so you can thump your chest like a caveman.I’m not—”
“Did he kiss you?”
I grimace as I recall the disgusting, wet, suffocating violation of Brad’s mouth on my throbbing cheek after he slapped me so hard I fell to the floor.
Two gigantic hands frame my face.The gentle reverence in Declan’s touch steals my breath.
My mind blanks.I blink.Too many emotions tumble through me for thoughts to form.
I should push my skirt down and launch an escape attempt, but I sit like a broken puppet as he skims his thumbs over my cheeks.
Fury glints like steel in his grey eyes as he realizes the right side of my face is healing from a blow.
“Did he kiss you here?”he asks with a pointed caress of my uninjured cheek.
