Total pages in book: 84
Estimated words: 79587 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 398(@200wpm)___ 318(@250wpm)___ 265(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 79587 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 398(@200wpm)___ 318(@250wpm)___ 265(@300wpm)
“Tell me about it,” Grath said, doing his best to keep his voice measured and his rage in check. “All of it—I need to know and I think you need to tell it, little girl.”
“Well…all right.” She swiped at her eyes again and took a deep breath. “Here goes. I wasn’t very popular in high school—that’s part of our education system here on Earth,” she explained. “The part you go to when you’re in your teens. It’s…not always a very nice place.”
“Go on,” Grath murmured, stroking her shoulders. “Why were you not popular?”
She took another deep breath.
“Mainly because of my weight—and because I was shy.”
“You? Shy?” Grath couldn’t keep the incredulity out of his voice.
She gave a broken little laugh.
“I know, right? I’ve changed a lot since high school. Anyway, I mostly kept to myself because the other kids teased me.”
“Because of your curves?” Grath asked, frowning. And when she nodded mutely, he shook his head in confusion. “But…that’s like making fun of someone for having beautiful eyes or thick, shiny hair. It doesn’t make any fucking sense.”
“Maybe not in the Kindred culture, since you guys seem to like curvy girls,” Madeline told him. “But down here on Earth, it makes perfect sense. Most men don’t want a girl with curves—the popular girls in school were always really skinny.”
Grath made a face.
“Well, there’s no accounting for taste, I guess,” he muttered. “But it still seems weird for you to be teased about something that makes you so damn beautiful.”
“Well…thanks.” Madeline shifted against him. “It’s nice that…that you see it that way.”
“I do,” Grath assured her. “What I don’t see is what any of this has to do with that male in the park.”
“That was Luke Hartsford,” Madeline said. “He asked me to go with him to the Prom my senior year—I’m pretty sure one of the popular girls put him up to it,” she added.
“What’s a ‘Prom?’” Grath asked, trying to get the details straight.
“Oh—it’s kind of a big dance party,” Madeline explained. “Also kind of a rite of passage—a sign that you’re moving from adolescence into adulthood.”
“And what happened at this ‘Prom’?” Grath could hear the growl creeping into his voice but he couldn’t quite help it. She was going to tell him how she had been hurt—and who had hurt her. As her Protector, that was hard to hear. But he knew she needed to tell it—needed to get rid of this old pain that had been gnawing at her for years.
“Well, first of all, I could hardly believe that someone like Luke wanted to go with someone like me,” she said in a low voice. “I was sure he was going to stand me up—leave me waiting for him, I mean,” she added, explaining the Earth idiom for him.
“But he didn’t?” Grath asked, frowning.
She shook her head.
“No. He came to the house. He picked me up. Acted like the perfect gentlemen—he…he fooled my mom and dad completely.”
Grath felt a jab in his heart as she spoke the words. Wasn’t that what he was doing—fooling her parents, pretending to love her?
It’s not pretend, whispered a little voice inside him. It’s all true—you just can’t let her know it.
“Go on,” he said, trying to push past his own guilt and concentrate on her story. “Did something happen at the, uh, Prom?”
She nodded.
“I…I think Luke spiked my drink. Luckily, I didn’t like the taste of alcohol—I still don’t, very much—so I barely sipped the cocktail he bought me. But I got enough to get really woozy. The Prom was being held at this big hotel in the next city over—Hampton Falls—it’s way bigger than Christmasville. Anyway, Luke had rented a room for the night and he dragged me up there, stumbling and stuttering, because of the drink. The next thing I knew…” She took a deep breath and Grath sensed they were getting to the bad part.
“Go on, little girl—when you’re ready,” he murmured.
“The next thing I knew, I was on the bed and Luke was leaning over me,” she went on at last. “He was…was fumbling with my dress—he already had the top part open so he could feel my breasts. I remember feeling so confused—wondering where the dance floor had gone to and why was he doing this to me?”
“I thought you said he didn’t rape you.” The growl was out now, reverberating through his chest, but he couldn’t help it. It was fucking difficult to hear this—to know how that bastard had hurt the female he cared for!
“He didn’t,” she said, lifting her chin. “But I’m pretty sure he would have, if I had taken even one more sip of that drink. If I had, I would have been out cold and he could have…” She swallowed hard. “Could have done anything he wanted to me.”
“The fucking bastard,” Grath growled.