AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Her legs buckled, and I supported her full weight as I slowly lowered us to the floor. She sobbed, though tears didn’t fall.
I slid my fingers into her hair and pressed my lips against her forehead. “It’s okay. It’s okay to feel this.”
She shook her head and struggled against my hold on her again. “No.”
“Yes, it is. Don’t bottle these emotions up. Please, feel them. It’s okay.”
She slammed the flat ends of her fists into my chest. “No, I can’t! Every time I do, someone gets hurt.”
Her eyes burned into me. I knew that look. I knew the moment she meant, because after that day, she tried to suppress her rage—and that was the day the imbalance started. “Ben had what was coming to him.”
“I tossed himthrougha brick wall, Diego. Even with adrenaline, that shouldn’t have been possible. I hurt people.” Her lip quivered. “I hurt myself…”
My chest ached. The anguish in her eyes was too much.
Her chin dipped, and she whispered out her next words. “I dreamt about her… my mom… what she did… what I did to cause it…”
“Do you want to tell me what happened that day?” She had never talked about it. Neither she nor Darius did. I vaguely knew her mom was a horrible person, and went to jail because of it, but Astrid never confided in me about the event or how it continued to affect her.
Astrid shook her head. “I’m not… I’m not ready.”
“Okay.” While disappointed, I understood. I couldn’t push her to open up about it. I’d be there for her when she was finally ready.
A stray tear trickled down her cheek. I reached out and wiped it away with the back of my finger, feeling the texture difference in her skin when I touched her scar.
Astrid sucked in a tight breath and pulled away, rubbing furiously at her face. “I’m sorry.”
I grabbed her hands to make her stop. “You have nothing to apologize for.”
She wouldn’t meet my gaze. “I made your morning more difficult than it needed to be.”
I tucked a finger under her chin and lifted her face. Her stunning green eyes gazed up at me, almost through me, as if she could see into my soul. “No, you didn’t. I’ll always be there to help you,Mi Cielo.”
She squinted. “Your… sky? Or is it heaven?”
Astrid may have learned Spanish from living with Dad and me, but she had always struggled with fluency.
“Both.” I stroked her cheek. “You’re a breath of fresh air—my reason to look forward to the next day, every day.”
The flush on her cheeks from her workout and emotional break deepened, and it didn’t go unnoticed by me.No way…
A wicked grin spread up the side of my face, and she blinked in response. “Besides, I’ve now learned from this. It would be better for me to pin you to a wall next time.”
Astrid’s eyes popped wide, and I caught the quiet hitch in her breath. “You wouldn’t dare.”
I snickered, enjoying this discovery a little too much, and leaned closer. “Watch me.”
Her jaw set and she shoved her hand into my face, pushing me back on my ass. Astrid jumped to her feet and grabbed her water bottle. “I’m going to go shower.”
I watched her go, chuckling to myself.Astrid, Astrid, Astrid. Objectively hot, your ass.
Chapter Four
Astrid
Cold water splashedagainst my face. My shower had helped relax my tense body after my emotional dump, but it’d done nothing to ease the tumultuous feelings Diego had stirred up with his comments. Still, the image of him pinning me against the wall, ravishing me until I was breathless, lingered in my mind.
Unfortunately, it mixed with the shame still present within me, tainting the fantasy. As a therapist, I should be better at addressing my emotions and healing. Diego was right. it was unfair of me to chain my emotions. The therapists I’d seen growing up tried to get me to see and address the same thing.
