Awaken to Pleasure - By Nalini Singh Page 0,19

starting backing up. I dropped the basket and tried to get away but he - he grabbed me and pushed me hard against a linen closet down there." Tears streaked down her face and she was that terrified young girl again. "I was so scared. He said he could understand my fear. He'd teach me not to be afraid. He'd make me like it. And you know what made it worse?"

"Tell me, piccola ."One big hand was stroking her hair, while the other was pressed flat on her lower back.

"I kind of had a crush on him before that. He was a university student working part-time. Good-looking.

Smart." She pressed her cheek againstJackson's chest, wrapping her arms around his waist. "I didn't think he'd be vicious like Lance was to my mother. God, I was a fool." She took a gasping breath and admitted the most horrible part of it. "It was my first kiss. He split the inside of my lip. The bruises on my arms and back didn't fade for weeks."

"Taylor."Jackson's voice was gruff, giving her permission to end this if it hurt too much.

She couldn't stop now. "He was pressed up against me and I could feel him ... being aroused. I fought but he was too strong. I thought he'd keep hurting me but then someone came down the stairs. He'd forgotten to lock the door."

"You had a chance to escape?"

"Yes." She'd thanked God over and over while she'd thrown up in the bathroom.

"Did he touch you again?" The quiet rage inJackson's voice somehow soothed her.

She shook her head against him, unwilling to lose the steady sound of his heartbeat. "He watched me but I stopped going anywhere in the building by myself. I encouraged the children in the other apartments to tag along everywhere. Grant - the maintenance guy couldn't risk offending their families by scaring them off. Some of their parents wouldn't have thought twice about taking care of him."

"Grant? Grant who?"Jacksondemanded.

"I won't let you get in trouble." She set her jaw.

"I promise you I won't. But I need to do something - you didn't let me have Donald." There was such ferocious anger in his request that she worried about him.

"No!"

" Cara mia, please."

She bit her lip, undone by the softly spoken endearment. Sometimes she forgot thatJackson's father was Italian, but right now, she could very well believe that this man came from a land that believed in vengeance and an eye for an eye. "I can't prove it."

"You don't need to prove it to me other than by your words and I am the only one who matters." He was holding her so close, so very close, but she wasn't afraid. There was just some part of her that refused to place him in the same category as other men. Did that make her a fool, or was she being given a precious chance to fight the lessons of the past and seize something glorious?

"Grant Layton." It was too hard to resist the temptation to tell the one man who'd ever cared about her.

"Thank you, piccola . Thank you." His embrace tightened, his potent masculinity surrounding her.

Close contact didn't scare her. It was only when anything sexual happened that she was that fourteen-year-old again, backed up against the door of the cupboard, with the handle digging into her back. Her mind had been black with fear and betrayal as the object of her teenage crush had destroyed her innocence before it had a chance to blossom. But perhaps her childhood heart might've recovered from that, if something worse hadn't happened.

Jackson's hand moved up and down her spine, soothing strokes that relaxed her. "Thank you for telling me."

"You had to know," she whispered. "I won't steal your happiness to find my own. I'd run with Nick before I'd do that." He deserved better than a woman so damaged she'd resigned herself to a lifetime of loneliness.

"You're traumatized." He kept stroking her. "We can get you counseling if you want."

She started shaking her head before he could finish. "The thought of exposing my thoughts for a stranger to pick through ... no. I'd rather trust you with my secrets."

He was silent for a long time and she thought that she'd asked too much of this man who guarded his emotions so carefully. He'd offered her a pragmatic bargain. There had been no mention of gentler, softer feelings.

"I am honored." His heart thudded under her cheek. "But, I might not