eerie but serene backdrop for our camp.
I dig in my bag. "Looks like it's macro bars and fruit for dinner."
"I liked the one last night."
"You're a lucky woman, then."
"Why?"
I whip it out. "I snagged the last one in that flavor for you."
"Aww." She reaches out and takes it then breaks off a piece and holds it to my lips.
I eat it, and she pops a small chunk in her mouth. While we chew, I cut the fruit up with my knife.
A panther growls in the distance, and she scoots closer to me.
I pull my gun out of my bag. "He's far away, but if anything comes close, I'll shoot it."
"Will animals come near us?"
"Not typically. Is this your first time sleeping outdoors?"
She frowns. "Yeah. I don't venture far from my apartment."
"Are you a homebody?"
Sadness creeps into her voice. "I think we already established I'm boring."
"Nothing is boring about you, ma belle."
"I don't need to be lied to. The truth is hidden from me enough. I work from home and only see people through my computer screen. My sister lives with me since I'm a scaredy-cat. Besides yoga and grocery shopping, I don't do much of anything unless it's with Naomi or the few friends I have."
I put my arm around her. "What are you scared of?"
She closes her eyes, and when she opens them, they glisten. "My demons...everything."
The man who hurt her still haunts her.
She needs to tell me what happened.
I pull her tighter to me. "Tell me about your demons."
She draws her knees to her chest and hugs them. "It was a long time ago. I need to get past it."
"When you were ten?"
She gasps and slowly turns to me. "How do you know that?"
"I heard you and Naomi in the tent. You said you weren't a child and ten anymore."
She groans and hides her face in her arms.
I cautiously ask, "What did he do to you?"
She peeks at me. "What makes you say it's a him?"
"Am I wrong?"
She shakes her head. "No."
"It was a man or a boy?"
She closes her eyes again. Her voice is barely audible. "A man."
A storm of rage twists in my gut. The killer in me wants to take care of whoever it was and show him zero mercy. I fear what she may say happened to her, but as sick as it makes me feel, I have to know. "What did he do, ma belle?"
"It's... I don't want you to know."
"Why?"
She buries her face again.
I move her onto my lap, hold her head to my chest, and kiss it. "Sometimes, when we talk about bad things, it makes it easier to deal with them."
"I already have. I have numerous therapy bills to prove it."
My insides spin faster. "Did it help?"
She shrugs. "I don't know. I'm still screwed up, aren't I?"
"How?" I tuck a lock of her hair behind her ear.
"Look at my life. I'm... I'm all alone."
My heart bleeds. A woman like Emilia would have men dying to make her theirs, just as I crave it. "Why?"
"He haunts me. My skin crawls whenever anyone touches me," she admits.
Horrid thoughts about what he could have done to her get more intense. I curse myself for how I touched her the first night and in the river earlier today. Chills dig into my flesh. "Is it crawling now?"
She tilts her head up. "No. It doesn't with you."
"You would tell me if I needed to release you?"
Panic comes into her eyes. "Don't let go of me. Please."
I tighten my hold around her. "I'm not."
She delicately moves her hands to my cheeks.
"Did I hurt you...earlier today?"
She furrows her eyebrows. "When?"
"In the river."
Her face turns a deep red. "No." She drops her hands and gazes off to the side, blinking hard.
"Why are you upset by my question?"
"I haven't even explained what happened to me. I told you you're the only man who doesn't make my skin crawl, but you're assuming you hurt me...that I can't be treated like a woman."
I turn her chin toward me. "I didn't say that."
She closes her eyes, and tears fall.
"I need to know what happened."
"Why? So you can see and treat me differently?"
"No. I won't."
She opens her eyes. "You will. And I'm tired of letting it rule my life. He destroys everything I should have."
"If you don't tell me, I'm going to assume things. Would you rather I create a million different scenarios in my mind about what happened to you?"
She avoids me again but quietly replies, "He was my mother's boyfriend. Naomi