Page 132 of Break Away
“I’m furious.”
Her face twisted. “That’s worse.”
“No,” I said, my voice rough enough to scrape. “It isn’t. Look at me.”
She turned her face away, breathing too quickly, one hand pressed against her chest like she could hold herself together by force. “Go away.”
“Look at me, Aura.”
“I said go away.”
“And I said look at me.” I reached for her chin, careful but firm, and tipped her face toward mine before she could hide again. “Right now. Eyes on me.”
Her breath hitched.
For a second, she fought it. I felt the resistance in the tight line of her jaw, the tremor beneath my fingers, and every part of her that wanted to slap my hand away and make this ugly enough to survive.
Then she looked at me.
Holy fuck, it broke something inside me.
Aura looked at me with tears on her face and terror in her eyes, and I didn’t know how I had ever thought I understood pain before this. I had seen her angry, jealous, cruel, turned on, exhausted, smug, and untouchable. I had seen her come apart beneath me and put herself back together before I could ask too many questions.
I had never seen her like this. Stripped of the performance, shaking, so ashamed of needing someone that the need itself seemed to hurt worse than the tears.
I wiped them away with my thumbs before letting myself think too hard about whether I had the right.
She flinched, then held still, and that tiny choice almost killed me.
“Easton,” she whispered, and my name came out broken in a way no sound ever should.
“I get it,” I said.
Her face changed.
I swallowed, my throat tight enough to hurt. “Fuck, Aura, I get it.”
She shook her head once, barely. “You don’t.”
“I don’t know all of it.” I kept my hands against her face because she hadn’t pulled away and I needed her looking at me. “But I know they raped you.”
Her mouth trembled. She bit down on it hard enough that I thought she might draw blood, then shook her head.
“You really don’t.”
“We can deal with that later,” I said. “You can hate me later. You can scream at me, cut me up, tell me every single way I failed you, and I’ll stand there and take it. But right now, I need you to stay back here.”
Her eyes sharpened through the tears. “What are you going to do?”
I didn’t answer quickly enough.
Her hand shot out and grabbed my wrist. “Easton.”
I looked down at her fingers wrapped around me.
Even terrified and shaking, she still grabbed hold when she thought I was about to do something stupid. She still cared enough to stop me and hated that she cared so much it made her hand tremble.
I looked back at her. “I’m going to handle it.”
