Free A Safe Surrender: A Donnelley Brother's Novel (Donnelley Brothers Book 2) by Alannah Carbonneau Page A

good man.”
    He didn’t smile, but I could see through the storm in his eyes that my words affected him. Lifting his hands, he wiped my tears away with the pad of his thumb. “I don’t like seeing you cry.”
    I laughed, but it was a pathetically sad sound. “Any man that does like to see a woman cry isn’t a man at all.”
    “You’re very right.” He nodded. “Kami, was it your ex?”
    I nodded, but I didn’t say anything. I couldn’t. Voicing those words aloud was so much harder than most people knew. Where many people longed for pity, those who have truly experienced abuse ache for someone to look at them with strength. Admitting that the abuse has happened can make a woman feel as though she’s weak and even deserving. Thinking back, I probably could have fought him and maybe even put up a good fight, but I hadn’t. Not once had I tried to stop a blow to the face, a pull of my hair, a squeeze of my throat, or even his body pushing inside mine - but maybe I could have. It’s that maybe that will haunt me till the end of my days. Maybe I could have stopped him, if only I’d tried. Maybe I wouldn’t feel so terribly worthless.
    “Please, stop looking at me like that.” I pleaded.
    “How?” Kyle stiffened, his hands still on my face, caressing the swollen skin beneath my eyes from my tears. “How am I looking at you?”
    “Like you pity me,” I gasped on the word ‘pity’.
    “I know I don’t know you, Kami, but I loathe your ex for what he’s done to you.” His eyes pierced mine and even though I ached to look away - to look anywhere else, really - I couldn’t. “He had a beautiful, strong, determined woman, and he broke her down with his fist so absent of strength.”
    I snorted spitefully. “That’s where you’re wrong. He was actually very strong.”
    “No, he wasn’t.” Kyle shook his head. “Strength isn’t measured by how hard you can beat a woman, Kami. He had advantages. I’d bet money he towered over you, like I do. I’d bet his fist was twice the size of yours, like mine. But the difference is that, unlike him, who undoubtedly used his height to overpower you, I tower over you and I feel the burning desire to shelter and protect you with my body. With my fist twice the size of yours, all I want to do is use it to shield you from pain. That’s how strength is measured, Kami. Your ex was just a little boy playing at being a man.”
    Leaning my head back against the wall, I pulled in a deep breath of air. It tasted like Kyle’s scent - the perfect mixture of spicy and fresh. I didn’t open my eyes as I spoke. “You’re a good man, Kyle. Men like you don’t exist in the masses.”
    “You’re wrong again.” He said gruffly. “There are good men all over the world. You’ve just gotta find them.”
    “Harder said than done.” I opened my eyes to find Kyle looking down at me intensely. There was so much feeling in his eyes, I felt caught, ensnared in their chocolate pools. “Do you want some coffee?”
    He smirked. “Changing the subject?”
    I nodded, but I didn’t move away from the wall and Kyle hadn’t moved from in front of me, where, if he placed his arms around me, he could cage me against the wall. It was funny how very unafraid I was of Kyle caging me inside his embrace. It should terrify me after the horrors I experienced in the name of Rhett’s embrace, but it didn’t. I sensed something good in Kyle that I had never sensed in any other. The man was sturdy. He was solid. His beliefs held roots and his actions were their stems.
    Kyle was, no doubt, a good man right down to the very soul of his being.
    Shaking the thought from my mind, I nodded. “Uh, yeah.” My heart was beginning to pound at his nearness. “It was getting a little personal.”
    Kyle didn’t move away, but he nodded. “Is personal bad?”
    “No.” I said hesitantly. I thought this man said he was shy? “I would just prefer to get to know people slow from now on.”
    His eyes held