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I could fucking smell the trouble brewing in the air.
Living up to my road name, I pinned her with a stare. “Why are you desperate?”
4
MARY CATHERINE
WITH EVERY HEARTBEAT - ROBYN, KLEERUP
Why was I desperate?
What a question.
I recognized him. How couldn’t I? The guy had been the star of my first fumbles beneath the comforter as I shrugged off Catholic guilt and decided to touch myself.
He looked different now.
He’d had a haircut and it was brushed. He appeared well-kept.
If anything, he looked better than he had before, confirming my initial suspicion that he was pretty-boy handsome.
That level of masculine beauty couldn’t be hidden away by a mop of hair.
His cheekbones made him seem gaunt, but he was too bulky for that. His eyebrows were thick and with a high arch, but not bushy, strong enough to frame his face. They shielded velvet brown eyes that I felt certain could see deep into my soul.
A stupid, unnecessary thought.
But damn, if he didn’t make me think stupid, unnecessary things.
Even in the middle of a crisis, apparently.
Still, he didn’t recognize me from that day in Westchester. Even if hedidknow my name. His interest was purely because of Padraig,Sin, who wasn’t goddamn here.
With all my efforts to escape, and the sheer amount of sweat I’d perspired as I fled the college campus without my guards finding me, I could feel the clock ticking. It was only a matter of time before they showed up.
They always showed up.
I knew that from Mother.
How many times had she tried to run away but had been hauled back to the house in Westchester like she was a missing cat?
But this morning’s terror was for nothing if Sin wasn’t here and this guy wouldn’t help me.
“If my guards find me, they’ll…” The words were choked in my throat because how could this guy understand what it possibly felt like to be forced into marriage? To have no choice? To have no say?
He lived his life on the road.
He was an outlaw.
He was a rebel.
I was a monster’s daughter.
I had no freedom.
“Mary Catherine,” he rasped. “It’s okay. Whatever you’re running from, we… I won’t let them get to you.”
His correction had me blinking at him. “You won’t?” I clung to that.
