With Every Breath (Slow Burn #4) - Maya Banks Page 0,70
He just stayed there, deeply embedded inside her. He just wasn’t ready for the moment to be over with. And neither was she. She nuzzled against his chest and buried her face against his male flesh, inhaling sharply and savoring his scent.
Guilt flooded her as did grief and she gripped him even tighter, afraid that if she let go she would fall apart.
“Eliza?” he asked quietly.
Tears burned her eyes and she blinked furiously to keep them away.
“I’ve just marked you for death, Wade, and I can’t bear the thought of losing you,” she said, her voice thick with grief.
His voice and touch were so infinitely gentle that it made her tear up all over again. He stroked over her body and then finally his hand came to rest at her cheek before he tilted her head upward to meet his gaze.
“Don’t you think it’s time to tell me what’s going on?” he asked gently.
FIFTEEN
ELIZA stiffened and would have withdrawn, would have pulled away from Wade’s arms, but he tightened his hold on her to prevent her escape. He’d had enough of her putting distance between them and now, when she was lying in his arms after he’d made love to her, there was no way in hell he’d ever let her put any distance between them again.
Her barriers had been down when he made love to her. He could see so clearly the things in her eyes she never wanted anyone to see. Pain, vulnerability . . . fear. And so much grief that it had hurt him to look at her. His heart ached for this woman. This beautiful, brave, fearless woman.
For too long she’d been the protector. Had made it her life’s work. Always putting others first. Risking herself so that others would come to no harm. Never had she had anyone willing to do those things for her. Until now. Until Wade. He’d die before ever allowing anyone to hurt her and he’d damn sure die before ever allowing anyone to make her cry again.
“Baby,” he whispered, watching as her eyes became cloudy and then shiny with tears when he murmured the endearment. As though she mattered to him. Didn’t she understand she was the most important thing in the world to him? No, she didn’t. Not yet. But she would. “Lay your burden down. It’s time to let someone carry it for you.”
He’d said it before but this time it seemed to really register with her and hit home. For a brief moment there was a spark of hope and so much yearning in her eyes that he automatically squeezed her tighter in his arms.
She wanted to lean on him. He’d seen that in her eyes right before defeat registered and with it her loss of hope. She truly believed that no one could help her, even if she wanted it. How to make her believe in him? How to make her believe that there was nothing he wouldn’t do for her, to alleviate the pain and guilt in her eyes, to permanently remove those bruising shadows? That he would lay waste to any threat to her. To anything that caused her such sadness and grief. Maybe she’d never had that before but that had all changed the moment he’d laid eyes on her in his gallery and wanted nothing more than to kiss her. And a hell of a lot more.
“You make it sound so simple. So easy,” she said in a strangled tone.
“It’s only as difficult as you make it,” he said gently.
She closed her eyes and emitted a bone-weary sigh. As though the weight of the entire world was bearing down on her, suffocating the life right out of her. Her eyes were already dead though. Lifeless. Without hope.
He gathered her more tightly in his arms, conveying without words that he was here. Solid. Real. And he wasn’t going away. Ever.
“Oh God, Wade. I don’t even know where to start.”
“At the beginning,” he prompted. “We have all night, Eliza. I’ll wait. Take as long as you need. I’m here. I’ll listen.”
Tears slithered like silver strands down her pale, hollow face. She seemed to cave inwardly in defeat and when she opened her eyes again, dull resignation was a shadow in her beautiful gaze.
“It was ten years ago,” she began. “I was sixteen.”
He cursed under his breath. Ten years she’d suffered the unimaginable, never sharing with anyone the hell she endured on a daily basis. Jesus, she’d been just a child.