Page 151 of Broken
Tap-tap-tap.
“Come in,” she said.
The door opened and her heart skipped a beat. Prescott filled the doorway, dressed in nothing but a pair of shorts, his damp hair framing his handsome face. His massive chest and washboard abs sent a surge of adrenaline racing through her.
“I can’t sleep if you’re not okay.”
She melted.
She turned on the table lamp. “You can come in.”
He sat on the edge of her bed, collected her hand in his. “We just told each other we’re falling in love, then you run away from me. If things are moving too fast, we can slow down. The last thing I want is for you to feel pressure from me.”
“I don’t.” She ran the back of her fingers down his chiseled cheek. “I don’t feel pressure and I don’t want us to slow down.”
With his gaze drilling into her, a growl rumbled from him. “I love your touch.”
As she stared into his eyes, she started to shake. He pulled her into his arms and he held her. No words, no judgment. He just rocked her until his confidence seeped into her soul and she stopped trembling.
She didn’t deserve to feel happy. She didn’t deserve to feel his love.
“Is this really happening?” she whispered.
“What?”
“Us.”
He dipped down, kissed her. “It is, for me.”
“Will you hold me?”
He lay beside her, and she snuggled close. When he enveloped her in his strong, protective arms, she felt safe.
“I want to tell you why I put up a wall,” she whispered.
“Okay.”
The images of that terrifying night came rushing back and she shuddered in a shaky breath. “During my junior year at college, I was abducted.”
“Jesus, Jack, I didn’t know.”
“Very few people do.”
He kissed the top of her head, his tender touch urging her onward.
“My sorority sister, Janey, and I had been studying at the library. We left around ten to walk back to the sorority house, which took about twenty minutes. It was Thursday night, so the area near the library was pretty busy with students going to bars.”
She inhaled a deep breath in the hopes of calming down, but she’d started trembling again.
“When we left the library it started raining, but about ten minutes in, it was pouring. An unmarked police cruiser pulled up, his rooftop beacon flashing. He asked where we were going and offered us a ride. We were soaked, so we jumped in.”
“Okay.”
“I got in the front, Janey got in the back. He was scolding us, in a nice way, about walking by ourselves at night.”
“Why?” His deep voice rumbled through her.
“There had been five abductions around our campus and several more at a small college nearby. They’d named the perp the Campus Killer.”
