Free Adrian's Wrath by Jenika Snow Page B

down. I’m not telling you this to upset you. I want you to hear everything.” When he was sitting beside her again, she continued, “I wish I could say it only happened that one time, that I was a stronger person and had been smart enough to leave, but I’d be lying.” Her tear-filled eyes cut across to him and he didn’t hold back the need to wipe the tears away. “The abuse only escalated from there. First he used his hands to hit me, then it was his belt, then it was anything he could find.” Adrian swallowed hard. “The rape soon followed and didn’t stop until I finally found the courage to leave.”

Chapter Ten
     
    The air left Adrian in a quick rush. Not even when he was hit in the gut did he become so breathless. This strong woman before him was a fucking survivor. Pain in his palms alerted him to the fact that his hands were clenched so tightly his nails were digging into his skin. Easing up on his death grip, he ran his hand over his hair.
    “Fuck, Brea.” The words tumbled out of him, but he hadn’t meant to say them aloud. “There wasn’t anyone you could have talked to about it? Gone to for help?” The idea that she had been all alone, suffering through that kind of abuse made him sick.
    A small shake of her head answered his question. “I was a loner. Even after four years in college I hadn’t made any real friends. Sure, I had talked to my peers, but Cameron was always there, spending time with me, keeping my attention. He didn’t make me feel lonely for one second.”
    So the prick had been isolating her, making sure she was dependent on him.
    “Now that I’m away from him I can see what he had been doing. Slowly he had been making me dependent on him.” A soft sniffle came from her. “I’m an idiot. I can admit that now that I can look back and see how I let my life be controlled. I was just so damn desperate for someone to be there, to love me.”
    God, he wanted to tell her he loved her, that he wouldn’t let anyone hurt her ever again. The realization that he did love her, that he would give his life to her shocked him to his core. They might not have known each other for that long, but there it was. He loved this girl with a passion that rivaled anything in his former life. Guilt ate at him that his heart had fallen for another woman, but it had been so very long since he had allowed himself to feel anything but malice. But as he looked at Brea, heard the pain in her voice, felt it as if it were his own, he knew without a doubt he had fallen hopelessly in love with her.
    “I stayed in that toxic relationship for far too long. My medical file is as thick as the dictionary, and although I know the doctors and nurses suspected my bruises, broken bones, and numerous concussions as more than just my clumsiness, I never had the strength to confide to anyone. Besides, it was my word against his, and Cameron had become a very renowned psychologist.”
    “You’re so strong, Brea. You finally left him and that’s all that matters.” Her head was shaking before he finished.
    “No. Don’t you see how weak I am, Adrian? Cameron was never going to let me leave. The only reason I am away from him, alive, is because he went to a convention out of town. I had come down with something and was held up for days in bed. Maybe it was fate that I wasn’t able to go with him. He was a very jealous man, so jealous that I wasn’t allowed to speak to the opposite sex in any capacity. I was never to be away from his side for long periods. He was just always there, so I knew when he left out of town I had to go because there wouldn’t be another time.” The look of conviction in her eyes made her look like a warrior. She was his strong little warrior and he loved her even more for it. She. Was. His.
    “So, that’s my story. I left him less than a year ago with not even a letter telling him where I was going or why. I’m not who you think I am, Adrian. I had to change my last name, move from