Free Enemy Mine (Unseen Enemy Book 3) by Marysol James

how good it felt.
    She looked up at him. “I’m sorry.”
    “No,” he said, his voice gravelly. “Never, ever say that to me. You have nothing to be sorry for.”
    She nodded.
    “You OK?”
    “Yeah.” She wiped her eyes. “I’m just tired now.”
    “I can imagine… it must be hard on your body.”
    “It is.” Fresh tears spilled down her cheeks. “It’s exhausting when I have a panic attack.”
    “It’s OK now, Jenny. You got through it. You want to lie down?”
    “Yes.”
    He stood up then and she swung her feet on to the sofa. He grabbed the blanket from the back of the sofa and he handed it to her. She threw it over her body and curled up, her head on the sofa cushion. She exhaled, and his heart twisted to see how small and vulnerable she looked.
    “Sleep, baby. I’ll be right here.”
    Her eyes were already fluttering shut but she forced them open again. “Thank you, Chris.”
    “For what?” he asked.
    “For touching me. For letting me touch you. It felt good… at least for a while.”
    “For me too. We’ll work on it, OK?” He sat down in the armchair across from the sofa. “No rush.”
    “Yeah.” Her eyes closed. “No rush.”
    He sat and watched her as she slept, marvelling at what had just happened between them: he’d looked in to those clear blue eyes and he’d seen the fire of arousal. That was when he knew that whatever she’d been through, she could still feel desire, and his relief was huge.
    You’re not broken, baby. Damaged, yeah, a bit beaten around. But broken beyond repair? No way. We’ll get there. I know it.

Chapter Five
     
    “I want to tell you,” Jenny said. “What happened to me. I want you to know.”
    Chris looked up, totally shocked.
    Wow. This Saturday morning has taken an unexpected turn .
    “You do?” he asked cautiously.
    “Yes.” Her face was tight and pale, but she had a determined set to her lips and eyes. “I want you to understand. I want you to know why I panicked the other night.”
    He leaned back, his hand clutching his cup of coffee. “You can tell me as much as you want, or as little. I’m listening.”
    She nodded, took a deep breath. She fucking hated talking about this, and no matter how many times she’d been over it with Zoe – and they’d discussed it ad nauseam over the previous six years, to the point that it was almost like pushing ‘rewind’ and then ‘repeat’ – parts of it still made her physically weak and ill.
    Chris was feeling pretty weak and ill himself. He knew that she’d promised to tell him the whole horrible story, but he was sure it would be later, maybe when they were moving closer to the bedroom. The panic attack had clearly motivated her to say something, though, and so he held on and braced himself.
    Whatever it is, you can help her get past it.
    “It was six years ago this past summer,” she said. “I had worked late at the restaurant and I was walking out to my car. I never saw them coming… they hit me from behind.”
    “They?” Chris asked, his voice thick.
    Holy fuck… there was more than one guy who did this to her. I don’t want to hear this; I don’t want to hear this at all.
    “Yes.” She looked down at her hands. “There were four of them.”
    “Oh, my God. Jenny.”
    “I woke up tied to a bed. Blindfolded and naked.” She stopped. “One of them was inside me.”
    Chris stopped breathing.
    “When he finished, another one climbed on top of me, then another, then another. Or maybe the same ones, I don’t know. It went on like that for two days – I was raped between being beaten. Or maybe I was beaten between being raped. I’m not sure. I was bound and blind the whole time… I never saw any of their faces. I never knew when it was coming, or what was coming.”
    She dared to glance up at Chris and she was shocked at the look on his face. She knew that Chris had killed people in Afghanistan, she knew that he’d been trained to do exactly that. She didn’t know much about