She smiled, a little wry. “Am I that obvious?”
“I may not know everything that’s happened to you, but I know someone hurt you.”
Sadness darkened her eyes. It might not seem like a scarred professor had much in common with a beautiful college student, but their similarities weren’t on the surface. They both knew about loss and about grief. About holding yourself together with the broken pieces. He wore the story of his pain on his skin, but hers was buried deep. He didn’t know her secrets, but he was patient and determined. Eventually he would.
“It’s incredible that you trust me, especially after what you saw. I don’t think most people would have. I’m not even sure I could have so quickly. But there’s something that scares you too, and I don’t want you to have to hide that from me. You don’t have to spare me anything. I want to see all of you, everything. I want to touch you, to kiss you—”
Her eyes brightened again. “Is everything always about sex?”
“Around you? Yes. I deserve a goddamn medal for not touching you in that dress.” She was liquid sex sheathed in desire, and he forced himself to recline on the sofa, stretching out his legs. Then he raised his eyebrows at her.
She put her elbows on her knees. “I shouldn’t have gotten jealous.”
“Yes, because the masses of women chasing me are truly a threat.”
A fraying throw pillow was lobbed at him. With a small grin, he caught it and tucked it behind his head, still reclined on the sofa that was too small for him. He’d rather be holding her, but she needed the space. Besides, the damned furniture might buckle and break if she so much as breathed on him.
Looking far away, she said, “It was two years ago. Met a guy, started dating. The usual stuff. It seemed amazing. We got along great and we’d go to all these shows and museums…I couldn’t afford to go out much, but he was pretty loaded and insisted on paying for me anyway. He said it was being a gentleman, no big deal. I was so eager to go with him I didn’t really consider what the imbalance did to our relationship, the way he thought of me.”
By slow degrees, Blake’s muscles tensed with her retelling. He’d expected to hear the story of some idiot boyfriend who didn’t appreciate her. Worst case, the asshole cheated on her. But he didn’t like the sound of this at all. A rich guy pulling a subtle power play, charming at the beginning… That could go downhill fast, and he already knew this story had an unhappy ending.
“And the best part was—” The way she said it made it clear it meant exactly the opposite. “We came from the same hometown. Laredo. A small place but still big enough to have a few high schools, and I’d never met Doug before seeing him on campus. So that winter he drove us both back home in his Lexus, my stuff packed in the trunk alongside his. We were going to meet each other’s families.”
She paused, looking a little lost.
When the moment stretched, he prodded, “What happened, your parents didn’t approve?”
Her laugh was hollow. “No, Mama didn’t approve. But it was worse than that. We stopped off at his place first. His mom and dad were pretty nice to me at first. Naturally they asked about me living in town, where my mom lived, what she did. And found out she used to be their cleaning lady.”
Hell. He hadn’t even known her mother cleaned houses for a living. He could imagine that didn’t go over well with the uptight assholes.
“Yeah,” she said, correctly interpreting his grim expression. “His mom was kind of shocked, but his father was downright rude. He actually kicked me out. Asked me to leave.”
Jesus. No wonder she’d been hurt by Melinda’s words at the office today.
“Doug didn’t defend me or anything. He drove me home and barely said a word.”
Fuck it. She looked so small, so alone. He pulled her into his arms, pressing his lips to the crown of her head. “I never should have let her talk to you.”
Erin took a shuddering breath, but she allowed him to hold her, even curled into him. “When I told my mom about it, sh
e flipped out, saying I had to stay away from the whole family. We fought and finally she told me the reason why she stopped going there. Apparently when she had worked for them, Doug’s father had hit on her…like really pushy. She said that’s as far as it went, that she’d said no and then quit, but I don’t think that’s the whole story.”
A shiver went down Blake’s spine. Rape. That’s what they were talking about, and Erin had been in this guy’s house.
“I talked to Doug on the phone that night. His dad had some other messed-up story about my mom stealing something. We fought about it. Then he stopped taking my calls, even though he’s the one who drove me there. The bus ride back took twelve hours.”
“The fucker,” Blake burst out, unable to hold it in any longer. When she jerked in his arms, he soothed her. “Sorry,” he muttered.
She burrowed into his chest. “It’s good to hear someone say that. I was half afraid you wouldn’t believe me either. Honestly I was more shocked than anything. One day he’s laughing and kissing me and making these promises about the future. And the next, it’s like I’m dirt.”
“He didn’t bother you after that, did he?”
“Nope.” She laughed, a little uneven. “I thought we were just having a fight. I mean, they were big problems, but I thought we were serious about each other. So we’d cool off over the winter break and patch things up later. Except when I got back to town, he avoided me. And then I saw him on campus with another girl. He didn’t even look in my direction.”
“Good riddance. Look, baby, I don’t know whether this Doug is a predator or just a guy stuck with a shitty dad, but you know, you know it wasn’t your fault or your mom’s, right?”
“Yeah.” She sighed. “I know, but it’s hard to remember sometimes.”