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Liao? You couldn’t have been more than—”

“Sixteen I was sixteen” Self-mockery crept into her voice “I wasn’t forced with repeated beatings, threats and drugs to service hundreds of men, like the other women Oh no! I was Vishenko’s chosen one He raped me, and then he kept me for himselffor two endless years” Her voice dropped to a whisper “I would rather have been a the other women”

Cate’s despair ate at Liaer at the s of shame and worthlessness no woman should ever have to endure He reached out to touch her, to comfort her somehow, but she shied away “Please don’t,” she whispered “I can’t Not after what he did to me”

“Cate”

“You don’t understand,” she cried out, pain and self-loathing in her voice “The scars you’ve seen—they’re nothing Nothing!” She fumbled with the tie on her robe, then the buttons of her pajaers clumsy in her haste “At first he would just rape h for hi her bared back “This is what he did to“When I refused to cry, when I refused to sub hio”

“Oh God” Lia the sickness that rose in hiht of the scars theony Cate must have endured when each and every scar was inflicted

Then he turned his gaze back to her Gently, so gently he didn’t know he had that entleness in him, he pulled the pajaes of the top froether Then he buttoned the buttons with fingers that trehtly

Her breathing was ragged as she tried to drag in enough air “You wanted to knohat Alec knows I didn’t want that Didn’t want you to know” Her face was stony, her eyes bitter “I wanted to keepas I could, but you wanted me to tell you” Her next four words dropped like hard little pebbles thrown into a pool of water as slass “So now you know”

Liam couldn’t bear it Those words were uttered as if she believed he’d turn and walk away fros could carry him As if she believed that would be any decent man’s normal reaction to her revelations As if she was responsible for what happened to her

He drew Cate into his e her by surprise so she had no chance to pull away—and held her close, rocking her like a little girl Co her the only way he kne, the way his mother had comforted him when he threefourfive Then he heard it, a sound he’d never expected to hear froed his heart to hear

He bent and caught her knees, sweeping her into his arainst his chest as he carried her into his bedrooed What do I do? What do I say? How can I ht for her?

He laid her gently on the bed, then followed her down, still holding her—just holding her—as she wept And every sound she ainst his heart It seemed like forever, but when her tears finally subsided, he reached over a grabbed a handful of tissues frohtstand He wiped her face, then held the tissues for her as she blew her nose

“I’ sounds as she tried to catch her breath

“Don’t be sorry, Cate That was co time, I think”

“I didn’t cry—after the first time,” she told him brokenly “Tears didn’t soften his heart” She didn’t have to na me—tears would only have added to his pleasure” She was silent for a long, long time, then added so softly he had to strain to hear, “I have not cried for nine years”

His heart slowly tore in two, knohat she’d endured in silence for two years And knowing, too, there wasn’t a da he could do to take her remembered pain away, no matter how much he wished it

She o “Don’t,” he told her after he cleared the obstruction in his throat “Just let o” What had happened to Cate should never have happened—not to her, not to any wo—avenge her Make Vishenko pay in blood But that wasn’t what Cate needed now She needed to be held Co one