Total pages in book: 136
Estimated words: 125037 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 625(@200wpm)___ 500(@250wpm)___ 417(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 125037 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 625(@200wpm)___ 500(@250wpm)___ 417(@300wpm)
“It wasn’t enough for her that she hurt Lucy. Our mother ripped that little rabbit from the sling Lucy made, and she flung it across the room toward the fireplace. It hit the pipe and landed on the floor. Before our mother could stomp on it, I snatched it up and was gone. I was fast, really fast, and once in the forest, even Rubin wouldn’t be able to find me if I didn’t want to be found.”
“You knew she would punish you.”
“I’d stopped giving a damn what she did to me a couple of years earlier. In any case, Rubin blocked the doorway, giving me even more time to get under cover. The rabbit was in bad shape, with two broken bones. I wasn’t going to allow it to die. I knew I could heal it. I felt a well of heat and energy rising when I put my hands over the little body. Weirdly, I could see inside the rabbit’s body just by laying my palms over it. I could easily map out every bruise and every broken bone.”
“Was it scary to realize you were seeing inside the rabbit? I think that would have both elated and horrified me.” Leila couldn’t imagine making that discovery or knowing what to do with it after she found out she was able to look inside a creature.
His gaze swept the trees and along the ground, then he took a seat next to her. She noticed he did that often. Searching for tracks, always alert to his surroundings. She had always thought she was wary, but Diego was clearly a cut above her when it came to vigilance.
“I can’t say I was horrified. I was overcome with the need to fix everything wrong. I could feel heat rising in me, radiating through my palms. It was difficult to control the temperature, and I was fearful of killing the baby rabbit myself. It took time to figure out how to use that energy to heal the bruising and the broken bones.”
She didn’t understand the sorrow in his voice. It didn’t show in his expression, but his dark eyes had taken on a haunted quality. She couldn’t help herself. Uncaring that he might reject her, she stood, swayed only for a moment, and took the couple of steps to his side. She straddled him, sitting fully on his lap, half expecting him to push her off. It was just that there was too much pain in his eyes. Comforting him was a compulsion impossible to ignore.
Diego looked shocked. He hadn’t expected her to notice his distress, let alone react to it. She had the feeling no one had ever made an effort to comfort him. Or no one had cared enough to see he needed it. She leaned into him and brushed a kiss over his lips.
“Did the rabbit die?” She nuzzled his throat and then laid her head against his chest. She wanted him to tell her what had happened next to cause that look in his eyes.
“No.” He cleared his throat, and his arms circled her with unexpected fierceness. “No, the rabbit lived. It’s just that Lucy…”
He trailed off and buried his face between her shoulder and neck, sending a million goose bumps rising on her skin. She shivered and burrowed closer. Diego’s arms tightened to steel bands. He brushed a kiss on top of her head.
“I worry talking about my life will give you nightmares.”
The way his tone stroked velvet caresses over her skin was a revelation in just how easily Diego could bring every nerve ending in her body to sizzling life. She hadn’t known she could ever react to a man physically the way she did to him.
“I want to know every detail of your life, Diego. If it’s something that causes nightmares, I want to share that with you. Hopefully, by telling me, it will lighten that burden in you.”
He caught at her chin, forcing her head up until she had no choice but to meet the full intensity of his dark gaze. She felt color rising beneath her skin. She hadn’t ever considered that she would flirt with a man or, in this case, be brazen enough to tell him the truth. Her truth. She was all but declaring her growing feelings for him.
“My sister was horrified that I had saved the rabbit. She was the only one I told. I showed her the little guy, and she backed away from it. She told me only the devil could have done such a thing and I had to get rid of it. She told me never to tell anyone I could do such a thing and not to do it again.”
Was there shame in his voice? The hard lines in his handsome features remained exactly the same. She was staring into his eyes, and she couldn’t see shame, but she still felt it in him. In his heart. In his soul. His own sister had said those things to him. An older sister. One he admired and thought of as practically the shining light in their home, yet his saintly sister copied his mother when it came down to it. She had all but destroyed her younger brother in that moment.