Page 134 of Dark Lover

Sam walked forward, put her arms around him and embraced him. She wanted to tell him how worried she’d been, how sick with fear, and how much she cared, but she didn’t. She just held him.

He let her. As she held him, he started to tremble. It wasn’t about desire. It was extreme exhaustion—at once mental, physical and emotional.

“You got him,” she whispered, his jaw on the top of her head. She stroked her hands down his scarred back. Tears came. “I was terrified for you.”

He made a sound and slipped his arms around her.

“What is it?” she whispered.

It was a moment before he spoke. “There are too many memories,” he said harshly. “That house…”

She held him more tightly. “Have you been having flashbacks?” It would explain his utter silence for the past hour.

He shook his head, then spoke thickly. “I can’t stop the memories, Sam.”

She didn’t know how to comfort him. “The memories will fade with time.” Or so she prayed. “The past is over, Ian. You did it. You destroyed your captor. The helpless boy is gone. And he’ll never be back.”

He exhaled. “I can hardly believe it’s over.”

“It is over,” she stressed. But then she thought about Moray.

He was quiet for a moment. “There were ghosts, Sam, all the souls of his victims. They helped me.”

She was briefly surprised. “I’m glad,” she said fiercely, clinging now.

He hesitated. “I was so angry…and in the end, not just for myself.”

She started.

“I was angry for all those poor souls he’d destroyed.”

She smiled. “I think that’s a genetic thing,” she said softly.

He held her gaze. “Is a genetic thing why I enjoyed inflicting pain? Because I was thrilled when I made him suffer.”

Sam went still, dismayed, but then she shook her head. “It was a very human reaction, Ian, to the evil that tortured you for so long and took so much pleasure doing so.”

“If ye say so,” he said, releasing her. He walked over to a shelf but simply stared at the T-shirts folded there.

“You’re not like Moray. Your father isn’t.”

He made a sound. “Really? I recall my father being evil for about sixty-six years.”

“You don’t have an evil bone in your body.”

He turned to stare at her.

“I’m glad you tortured Carlisle.”

His brows lifted. “Ye mean it.”

“I think I’d have twisted the knife, too.”

He stared. Sam stared back, thinking about the sex tape in the vault at Loch Awe. Dread churned in her gut. “I need to ask you something. This might not be the best time, but since we’re being so brutally honest with one another, I’ll give it a shot.”

His eyebrows lifted.

“I found a DVD in the safe in your bedroom at Loch Awe,” Sam said, her gaze unwavering on him now.