Letting her shut him out wasn’t an option. He wasn’t about to lie next to her all night and wonder what was eating her. He pulled her against him, sealing his front to her back, and Lee dropped his lips to her ear. “Do you have any idea how crazy I am about you?”
Wren seemed to shrink in his arms.
“Don’t try to run from me now. I’m not letting go.” He’dneverbe able to let her go. He’d sure as hell never want to. As he held her, he wondered how long he’d have to wait before she agreed to move in with him. How long he’d have to wait for her to say yes when he offered her a ring. How long until he could tell her he loved her.
Lee dragged a hand up to Wren’s face, brushing the waves of her hair away from her cheek. In the darkness, he could only make out the pale shape of her face. “Being with you is right. We fit together. I know it because it’s never felt this good. You know it too.”
She rolled back, facing him now, though he couldn’t see the look in her eyes.
“You know it,” he repeated.
“No, I don’t.” The bed shook with her sob, and when Lee stroked her cheek again, he felt fresh tears.
Helplessness gutted him. “Wren, you have to tell me what’s bothering you. You have to.”
She sniffled beside him before going still. She didn’t even breathe. “If I tell you, you’ll leave.” She sounded lost, hopeless. Certain.
“No, I won’t.” And then he let her in on the truth. “I never want to leave.”
“Oh God,” she hissed, sobbing again and bringing her hands to her face. “You’re not making this any easier.”
“Baby, just tell me.”
“You’ll freak.”
“I won’t. Tell me.”
He waited. Next to him, her body gave. Like she was in a tug-of-war, and she just let go.
“Okay… I’ll tell you.”
“Good.” Lee waited. And he waited. “Wren?”
“When I was six…” Wren started to speak, but she stopped and pulled in a long breath.
At the tone of her voice, Lee knew fear. By the time her lungs filled, his heart raced.
“One of Laurie’s boyfriends… did things to me. Sexual things…”
No.
Bile rose in his throat. His vision tunneled, and the darkness in the room deepened.
“He would put his fingers inside me. It hurt…”
God, no.
At the thought of her suffering, her helplessness, his gut twisted.
“He made me touch him… and once he put it in my mouth, but I gagged and threw up on—”
Lee shot off the bed and bolted for the bathroom. He managed to lift the toilet seat just in time to empty his stomach. Hamburger steak, mashed potatoes, peas, and brownies roared out of him.
“He would put his fingers inside me. It hurt.”
Lee felt his insides corkscrew at her words, his dinner mocking him. He’d glutted himself in the home where Wren had grown up unprotected. At the thought, he heaved again. How could he have been so careless? So stupid? He knew she’d been hurt. He knew she’d grown up with an addict. How could he have imagined she had been safe?
Lee pictured the frightened wren tattooed above her heart, and his gut turned over one last time.