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Madeline blinked up at him. She was the most perfect mixture of tough, sassy, independence, brains, innocence, and alluring beauty. “Nolan …” Her eyes were bright, and her lower lip trembled.
She stepped farther away from him. All he wanted to do was reach for her, but she’d been attacked and he didn’t know if she would welcome his touch, or if any man’s touch would remind her of the assault right now. He knew she was fiercely independent, but he wanted to be there for her. How in the world was he supposed to help her right now?
He waited, but she only stared at him and then tears traced down her smooth cheeks.
“Madeline.” He couldn’t take it. He scooped her off her feet and cradled her against his chest. She was taller than Kiera, but she didn’t weigh much more. She felt perfect in his arms.
“I’m fine,” she insisted, brushing the tears off her face. “I don’t cry. I’m fine.”
“It’s okay to cry, love. You’ve been through something horrific.” He carried her to the couch they’d kissed on last night. Settling down, he held her on his lap. “Are you all right with me holding you? Am I hurting you in any way?”
“How could you hurt me?” she demanded, sounding more like her feisty self.
“I don’t know where your injuries are, and if you’re hurt emotionally, I don’t want to push you too hard.”
Madeline drew in a breath and then jutted out her chin. “It was awful. The man was awful, but I’m all right.”
Nolan wasn’t sure how to proceed, but at least she was letting him hold her. “Do you want to talk about it?”
“No.” She shook her head and then leaned into him, resting her head against his neck. Her silky hair brushed his skin. A minute of quiet peace passed, then she started talking slowly, calmly. “I was out running. I slammed into this monstrous man. He was as big and strong as Ray.” She shuddered. “He said … lots of awful things. About you, and me, and what he wanted to do to me …” She broke off and burrowed into him as if she couldn’t get close enough.
Nolan cradled her against him and tried to push away his fury at that man. Minutes ticked by and he simply held her, not sure how else to help. Her hand slid up his chest. He captured her hand and lifted it to his lips, but stopped short when he saw the scrapes on her palm.
“Ah, Madeline. Your hand.”
She finally glanced up at him. “I’m a little scraped up, but I’ll be fine.”
Was she fine? He’d never foreseen she would cuddle into him like this. She was clearly terrified.
“He’s been following us on our morning hikes,” she muttered before he could check her injuries. “You can’t keep hiking, Nolan. What if he hurts you?”
“They captured him,” he said quickly, realizing he should’ve told her that earlier. “Jensen is interrogating him. He won’t come after you again.”
“He kept talking about his boss. He carried me into the trees, said he wanted ‘privacy,’ but then he said he had to stop playing and follow orders.” She shuddered. “He wanted to … do more awful things to me, but his boss must have told him not to. Just to scare me so I’d do what he said and get you away from your guards so they could hurt you. They can’t hurt you.”
Anger like he’d never experienced surged through him. No one would ever dare do ‘awful things’ to Madeline. He’d keep her safe. It touched him deeply how protective she felt toward him. “That man will never touch you again.”
“What about his boss?”
“Jensen will get him to reveal everything, and we’ll find his boss. It’ll be all right. You’re safe.”
Madeline pushed off of him and stood. She paced away from the couch and then whirled back to look at him. He stood, hoping he could say the right things to help her feel secure and to know how deeply he loved her.
“That man and his boss want to use me to get to you.”
“We won’t let them. Ray and Jensen and all their people will protect you. It will be all right.” He didn’t know if he should add the next part in, but he had told Ray he would. “You can’t go running by yourself, though. Will you promise me to always stay with your guards?”
Her mouth twisted. “Do you know how many runs I’ve gone on by myself? In Traverse, where there are thousands more people and significantly more danger?”
“I know you’re very capable of taking care of yourself, but things are different now. You’re with me, and I’m the king. You could be a target like you were today.”
Like Anne had been.
Madeline folded her arms across her chest. This image of her—independent, beautiful, in only that white robe. He would hold this picture in his mind forever. He loved her. How could he keep her safe without ruining her independence?
“Nolan … I’m not with you.”
His eyes widened, and his heart seemed to stop. That was a curve ball he hadn’t seen coming. “You’re not?”
