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I steadied my nerves and turned back to him "What?"

"You need to know that it doesn’t matter to me," he said, his eyes open and honest "Well, it matters because it hurt you, shaped you But the rest of it? None of it matters I hope one day you’ll tell me so that I understand you better, but that’s the only reason I read one article that gave vague details, and then I shut it down I wasn’t digging for gory details, or voyeurism I just wanted to know about you"

"Okay," I said, nodding ue anymore I wanted to hide away in private and lick my wounds, both the ones he’d inflicted, and the ones I’d caused with my own very public reaction

He tipped my chin toward his "And I don’t care about whatever physical dahed "You have the body of a Greek god"

A wry smile lifted the corners of his perfect lips "I have more scars than you can count More broken bones than could ever mend You are far more perfect than I will ever be I shouldn’t have looked, but I did And now I know, and you know that I know, and the whole plane knows, too"

I rolled e?"

"Understand you better Learn what et too close, what it’s going to take to break down those walls of yours"

"They’re pretty thick," I ad they were damn near unscalable

"Good news for "

Our eyes locked--anger, fear, regret, and a new understanding passing between us with a si ht, unable tome ample time to pull away if I wanted to

I didn’t

He brushed his lips over ain "Nothing matters to me except how you feel about it no it affects you now What you choose to do about it now"

"I’ the best I can," I answered truthfully

He nodded "I get that But I need you to understand so To know it in your bones"

"What?"

That devilishly sexy look flickered across his features "My nuet into your pants--and stay there as long as possible"

I al his knowledge had stripped away--my confidence

Chapter Seventeen

Paxton

Mykonos