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"Ava! Ava! Godda hell, baby, wake up!" A fa her to pause Mac? Had he come to save her this ti her to wake up Couldn’t he see that she was being attacked? "Avaopen your eyes Baby, look atas a different kind of fear set in As her eyes fluttered open, she struggled to keep the the rooht, she looked at thehorror "No, oh, please no," she whispered as she looked at the blood tricking from his nose and the corner of hishis chest and arms "Please tell h she knew there was no other explanation She had been fighting what she thought was an attack against her when all the while it had been all in her head It was Mac The man ould never physically hurt her
"Shhh, it’s okay, baby," he whispered repeatedly as he pulled her against his battered body She conized as the shelter of his aries
She couldn’t understand how sohtht of her attack, as anyone would who had been through that sort of trauh, several years ago, and she’d never once drea her attacker In her dreams, she was always the victiht hewas back That I was being--hurt again" When she pulled back enough to look into his face and saw the wounds she had wrought there, her sto to be sick With no ti toward the nearest bathroom She barely reached the toilet before her stomach upended what little it contained into the porcelain bowl
Ava tried to protest when Mac walked up behind her, then gently pulled her hair back while she succu her body He rubbed her back,sounds until the spas her around as if she were a child, he helped her over to the bathrooht a spare toothbrush out of the cabinet for her He poured her a cup of water and put the toothpaste on the brush before handing it to her
She stood before hi slept that way After all that had transpired between the from her mind Mac had donned a pair of boxers at some point He reached behind her and started the shower Without saying a word, he checked the water te her into the steamy heat with hi quick work of soaping up his own body Even though he touched every inch of her, there was nothing sexual in his movements They were both still traumatized by what had happened earlier
After he had dried them both, he handed her a pair of his boxers and a clean T-shirt The boxers hung low, but she turned the waistband down a few tied to keep them on The bedside clock said seven, which meant she needed to be at the office in less than two hours Beside her, Mac dressed in his usual business attire of a co her the entire time; she could feel his eyes on her
"Coffee?" he asked as she finally returned his stare When she nodded, he took her hand and led her toward the kitchen By unspoken agree cup sat before each of the sip of the hot brew, she closed the distance between them The water had washed away the blood from his face, but the heat of the shower had made the weltstears welling once again "I’ her against hiainst the crown of her head "What happened, baby? Are you having night her hands around his waist, she let herself sink into his strength "No, I’htmares on and off but not recently But I’ve never had one like this one I was so deterry Even now, I can still rehlike it I wanted to kill hih" She shuddered at the recollection
Mac was quiet for a hts "You said you’ve neverbeen with anothereone to for years to convince him otherwise
"So you haven’t slept with anyone either? I ht with someone else in your bed?"
"No," she answered, confused by his question If she hadn’t had sex, wasn’t it obvious that she hadn’t had a sleepover either?
He removed his arms from her, and a squeak of surprise left her lips as he lifted her up to sit on his granite countertop He laid a hand on each of her legs, opening theh for him to settle between them She put her hands on his shoulders, now that they were at eye level, and waited for hiht sleeper, so you wokehalf under s across the top of yours I think since this wasn’t soht you dohile in the h you were asleep, your subconscious was reacting to a threat"
Feeling a wave of alarain Mac! I--I can’t do this to you again!"
Stroking her hair, he said, "Cal aloud I think this is probably the et into everything this , since we don’t have ht Have you talked to anyone about what happened to you since that night?" When she opened her mouth to answer, he held up his hand to stop her "I mean in detail, Avie Not just that you wereviolated The whole thing from start to finish and what happened afterward"
"No," she ad almost surprised herself Of course, people knew about her past, but she’d never really sat down and gone through everything Even right after her attack, she had glossed over sorandfather’s face shutting down before her eyes as she had told him what happened After that, each time she had omitted more and more until noas almost like a rehearsed speech In fact, she could see that sheabout so raped and not herself