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“Yeah, she said she will meet me there in a bit.” I couldn’t seem to get many words out. Every time Kace was nearby that seemed to happen.
“Looks like you got me for now.” As the words left his mouth, he frowned.
Not sure what the look was about, and not about to ask, I turned and walked back through my open door.
“I have everything ready,” I told him, not looking back.
Hearing his booted feet following behind me, I worked hard not to panic. That little voice inside me said this man was not going to hurt me, but the other voice told me not to ever turn my back on a man again. The second voice won and my breathing picked up pace as another panic attack started to kick in.
I was tired of getting them. They had plagued me since I was a teen and my mother was no longer in my life and my father became someone I didn’t recognize anymore. He certainly wasn’t the man who raised me for the first fourteen years of my life. As more of my past sifted through my mind, the attack got worse and I felt like I was going to blackout.
Trying to control it and moving further into the room, I lost the battle and started to fall. Two strong arms wrapped around me from behind and Kace’s palms rested on my huge stomach. Although it had stopped me from plunging to the floor, my body almost buckled from the contact and fear.
He will not hurt me. He will not hurt me. He will not hurt me.
My mind fought to control the alarm that set in at his touch and the horror of where his hands were placed. Then his smooth voice washed over me, whispering gently in my ear.
“Teal, I’m not going to hurt you. You’re safe with me.” He paused for a minute to let that sink in I think and then continued. “I’m sorry I touched you, but I couldn’t let you fall.”
He sounded sincere and he hadn’t hurt me. On top of that, my body started to relax a little with each word and his soft tone. The more he spoke the more I calmed from the panic and fright that had claimed me seconds before.
“I promise as soon as you're steady I will let you go. You have nothing to fear from me, honey. And with me around, nobody is ever going to harm you again.”
All the oxygen I had left swooshed from my lungs at his words. My body sagged and I let him take my weight. Something he did without complaint and with ease. Instead of feeling afraid I felt like I was cocooned in a warm blanket, safe from the monsters that invaded my mind every day.
Even though he said nobody would ever hurt me again, I knew he couldn’t promise something like that, and I also knew promises got broken. But I gladly took those few minutes to feel secure and not scared, even if it only lasted a few minutes.
Kace hadn’t harmed me. He had helped me. Acknowledging that, my muscles relaxed even more and a single tear slipped down my cheek.
A tear of relief.
“You okay and ready for me to let you go?” he asked me softly, his breath fluttering feather-light against my ear and causing goosebumps to break out over my skin.
I knew we needed to get going and load up the truck. At this rate, Summer and Gyth may beat us there. But I was having a hard time giving up the way I felt in his embrace.
“Just a few more minutes, okay?” My voice sounded desperate and pleading to my own ears so I could only imagine how I sounded to him. But he didn’t seem to mind when he replied.
“I got you. Take all the time you need. I’m not going anywhere.”
Sounded good to me.
ChapterEleven
KACE
I hadn’t meantto scare her.
It was the last thing I wanted to do. But when I sensed and heard her panic attack start, then saw her sway, instinct kicked in. I couldn’t let her fall and I automatically reached to catch her.
When she tensed and terror rolled off her, seeping into my soul, I wanted to rip anyone apart who’d been responsible for putting that fear in her.
The need to protect her was strong, while the feel of her in my arms felt right. And the softening around my heart and the big wall I had erected in place crumbled when her body relaxed and I knew she feared me no more at that moment.
Right then and there I knew something within me had changed and running from this woman wouldn’t be possible.
I wanted to slay all her dragons.
I also realized standing there, holding her, that I needed her. And that had terror racing through my veins. Because of my past, I knew now that one person could change my whole world in a split second and rip it apart.
