My fists clench so hard my knuckles crack.
“He gave me this,” she whispers, voice shaking. “One of the times he beat me. He threw me into the glass window of my porch. It broke, and…”
For a long moment, there’s no sound in the room except both of us breathing hard. Her, trying to get her tears under control. Me, trying to contain my fury.
“Sinclair.” I reach out to wrap my arms around her, and she collapses into me, her back heaving as she sobs. I rub her shoulders in gentle circles, trying to calm the angry pulse at my temple, the fury in my veins.
When she speaks again, her voice is muffled by my shirt. “I ran away to my cousin’s house. For a little while, I thought I might be okay. But then he looked her up online, figured out where I was. He came after me, broke down her door in the middle of the night swearing that if he couldn’t have me, nobody would. He said he’d kill me if I ran again. But my cousin helped me escape to the airport, and I took all the money I’d managed to save up and just… just bought the first ticket I could find for as far away as I could get.” Her breath hitches again, and I hear a sob, and tighten my arms around her.
I wait until she’s cried the worst of it out, before I gently lean back and tip her chin upright. Her eyes remain shut, scrunched tight with pain at the memory.
“Sinclair, look at me.” She opens her eyes. I hold them as I speak, slow and careful, so she knows I mean every word. “Nobody is going to hurt you, not while you’re with me.” I brush my thumb over her cheek, collecting tears and gently wiping them away. “I will never let anything happen to you, understand me? And I’m the kind of man who can keep that promise. What’s the good of all this money and power if not to protect the woman I care for?”
The woman I love. I think it, but I don’t say it, not yet. Not while she’s in this state. It wouldn’t be fair. It would feel too much like taking advantage of her pain, when in reality all I want to do is take that pain away, in any way I can.
Well. That, and destroy the man who gave her this pain in the first place.
She leans further into me, her arms going around my waist. She turns her cheek, resting her head against my chest. I feel her sigh. “You don’t know what he’s like…”
“An abusive creeping son of a bitch who thinks he owns you? Sinclair, men like that are a dime a dozen. Believe me, if you want him gone tomorrow, I’ll make one phone call and it’ll be done.”
She laughs a little, which surprises me, and then she tightens her arms around my waist. “Why do I want to believe you?” she asks, with another faint huff of laughter.
Once more, I tilt her chin back, until she meets my gaze. It’s easier to convince her this time. And she holds my gaze longer, those beautiful with blue eyes of hers filled with emotion. I reach up to brush her red, red hair back from her forehead, then cup her cheek, never tearing my gaze from hers. “Because you know I’m right,” I tell her. “You’re safe now, Sinclair. It’s okay.”
She smiles. It’s a little wavery at the edges, but it’s a smile, and I’ll take it. “You know, when I came here…” She hesitates. Swallows. “The reason I started taking up swimming was because I wanted to face my fears. That’s one thing that always scared me, and I… with him, he was always making fun of me for anything I couldn’t do. Making me feel foolish for even trying. So I thought, if I could learn how to do this one thing, this thing I’ve always wanted to be able to do my whole life but never believed I could… Then maybe it would prove his hold on me was broken. And maybe, if I could overcome my fear of the water, it’d prove that eventually, I could overcome my other fears, too.”
I lean down until my forehead is pressed against hers. “How do you feel about that plan now?”
Her smile widens, just a little. “I’m pretty sure it’s working.”
“Good.” I lean in to kiss her, slow and soft. Then I break apart, and flash her a smile of my own. “Because I think you’re right, Sinclair. It’s time to face our fears. And I for one, am done hiding.”
Her eyebrows shoot upward. “You mean…”
“I mean, I think it’s time to go back to my real life. After that photo leak, there will be paparazzi all over this resort in a minute anyway. Won’t take long for someone to do the math and remember I own property in Maui. Will take the rest of the beachgoers around here even less time to start talking about the swim instructor who moved here a few months ago, as soon as some reporter shows the wrong food stand guy a photo.”