Her smile faded. ‘I know you lived on the streets, and you survived.’ That he’d had to protect himself and he had never learnt how to stop; it wasn’t a matter of didn’t, he couldn’t seem to open up to anyone.
‘Selene?’ he growled as he strode out at a pace that made her skip to keep up with him.
‘Don’t blame her, she assumed I knew already. You ran away from your uncle, the one who died?’
He nodded.
‘And you never went back?’
His face was in shadow and when he finally responded his voice was wiped clean of all emotion as he reacted to the question. ‘I went back looking for what... I suppose some sort of closure. He was gone. Dead, I found out later, and my grandmother...dementia, final stages.’
Kat gave a little gasp, feeling his pain as sharply as if it were her own as she fell into step beside him once more. ‘What happened?’
‘Nothing. I put her in a home and haven’t been back since the first time.’
‘So, she is having the best care?’ It said so much about him that he would do that for someone who had abused him so badly.
‘Oh, I can provide her with the best care, but I can’t...feel...anything.’
She reached out in the dark and curled her small fingers around his. She could feel the raw tension emanating from him in waves. ‘Sorry.’
‘I suppose you think I should forgive her?’ he flung out.
‘No, I think that you should celebrate the day you escaped every year. I’ll help you if you like?’
He looked down just as the moon came out from behind a cloud. It illuminated her beautiful face with breathtaking clarity, toasting her skin with moon gold.