Blackstone Ranger Charmer - Alicia Montgomery Page 0,46
good people. I mean, they never hit me or anything, but all they cared about was getting their next hit. They’d been addicts since I could remember.” The light in her hazel eyes seemed to die, as if she was trapped in some nightmare in her mind and couldn’t get out. “We moved into a motel because we’d been kicked out of our last apartment again, and I had to sleep on the rollaway bed. I went to sleep early because it was exam week. The next thing I knew, I was in bed and everything was hot. I couldn’t breathe. And the burning … I passed out and woke up in the hospital. I was the only one that survived.”
Oh God. Gabriel’s chest was constricted so tight he couldn’t breathe. “Temperance … that’s horrible. I’m sorry.”
She shrugged. “It’s been a long time. I mostly got over it. Had the surgeries, therapy, learned to support myself ….” Her nostrils flared. “Then I met Tony. He was … everything you could want in a boyfriend. He paid attention to me, took me out. He was so out of my league.”
He snorted as ugly jealously crept into his gut but let her continue.
“He moved in right away, then he changed. Lost his job, and I had to support him.” Her expression darkened. “When I complained, he was always reminding me how I couldn’t do any better than him and how no one would ever love me because of my scars. When I cried because I was so hurt, he would tell me he didn’t say those things or say they were just a joke. He also cut me off from my friends, saying that they were all jealous of me whenever they tried to tell me he was controlling. It took me catching him in bed with someone else to finally get the courage to leave him.”
“I’m glad you did,” he huffed. “He was a terrible person, a predator of the worst kind.” His fingers curled into his palms. “He saw you as vulnerable, your self-confidence barely holding together and knew he could take advantage of that. I’m sorry he did that to you, but I’m not sorry he drove you out here so we could finally meet.”
“Why do you keep saying stuff like that?” she cried.
“Stuff like what? That I’m glad I finally found you?”
“Like that!” She gritted her teeth. “Sweet, amazingly kind things that make me … make me want to …”
“Make you want to what?”
“Make me want to hope,” she choked out. “Hope that I could possibly hang on to you and keep you.”
“What?” Genuine shock made his jaw drop. “Baby, you are keeping me. And I’m keeping you.” Unable to help himself, he trapped her in his arms. “Temperance, look at me. Please.” Slowly, she lifted her head to meet his gaze. “You said you liked me too, right?”
She nodded.
“Do you feel this … connection to me? Anytime you see me, even from a distance, something in you just can’t look away, and you want to be near me? Or when we’re far apart—like last night—you just can’t sit still, and all you can think about is me.”
Her eyes went wide with wonder, though she didn’t say anything. She didn’t have to. Hope soared in his chest. “I know this is going to sound crazy … but Temperance, you’re my mate.” He hadn’t planned on telling her this way, but it seemed like the right time. “My soulmate. Us shifters, we have this one person that we’re supposed to be with and while our human selves may not see it right away, our animals always do. Hell, my lion must have known even before I crashed into the kitchen, because I kept coming back just for your cooking.”
“I don’t understand, Gabriel,” she began. “We’re soulmates?”
“Search inside yourself, Temperance. You know it’s true.”
As her lashes lowered, a sense of dread crept into his stomach. Temperance was human. She had no animal to tell her this. What if she couldn’t understand? Or what if she rejected him anyway?
Seconds ticked by, and finally clear, light hazel orbs looked up at him. “Somehow, I always knew. Whenever I was baking, I would always think if you would like this kind of ingredient or that … and when you came in, I would always watch you through the window in the kitchen. I would feel so happy when you ate every single one of my pies. And it wasn’t just because you were