Page 94 of Urgent Vows
He sighs. "I am sorry, Catalina. I did not mean to hurt you."
Okay, that is seriously not the response I expected. "I thought you said you don't apologize."
"Apparently, you are the exception."
"Why?"
He just looks at me and I can hear the words between us even though they go unsaid.Because I am me.
And somehow that is special? I don't understand this man.
I look down and notice the phone in my hand. How did I forget? Distress rolls over me in an icy wave, leaving me nauseated.
"Who posted the video?" I ask.
Does he think I did? Is that why he thought I might be the leak? But what does one have to do with the other?
"Videos," he says. "There's a whole channel and it's monetized."
"What does that mean?"
"It means your sister has been making money off of your talent for three years." He almost looks like he feels sorry for me.
I don't need his pity. I am a survivor, but three years? My sister? Mysister?Carlotta wouldn't do that, would she?
"How many videos?" I ask faintly.
"Thirty-two."
I'm really feeling sick now. "I think I need the bathroom."
Severu doesn't ask. He just swoops me up in his arms and carries me to the en suite where I proceed to retch over the sink. I don't actually throw up, but the retching hurts my ribs. Like really, really.
He has a glass of water and goes to try to help me drink it. I take the glass from him and gulp down half of it. It sloshes in my queasy stomach.
He grabs the tube of cream we got from the hospital from the counter because we've been applying it in here.
I think of all the times he's spread it so carefully over my bruises. "How can you be so careful with me one minute and so unfeeling the next?"
"It's a gift."
Was that a joke?
I frown, in no mood to laugh. When he opens the tube, I put my hand out for it. He hesitates.
"Give it to me. I can do it myself." I'm not getting lulled into a false sense of intimacy with this man again.
Because even more than the sex, the way he's been taking care of me has had me creating fantasies in my head about feelings and some kind of relationship that wedon'thave.
He looks like he wants to argue. I glare at him, with my hand out. I've been taking care of myself for years. I don't need him, or anybody else, coddling me. I take the tube from him and put cream on my bruises, using more on my ribs than my face. My hand doesn't need it anymore.
I head back into the bedroom, my boobs swaying, and it's only then that it hits me. We've had this entire conversation while I was naked. Gah!
I should be embarrassed, but I'm not. He's seen it all. He's touched it all. It would be ridiculous to put a nightgown on now, so I don't. I arrange my pillows and climb into bed.
After a minute of silence from the bathroom, Severu makes a sound between disgust and frustration. Then he storms back into the room and starts undressing on his side of the bed with jerky movements.
"What are you doing?"
