Page 29 of Same Thing
“Nory,” he murmured.
“I sent him a picture of two puppies I groomed today, but I thought I was sending it to you. I feel so gross right now.”
“That’s it? No nudes or anything?” he asked.
“I don’t do that!” A sob escaped her, and she closed her eyes against an oncoming panic attack. “I have to go.”
“Stay on the phone.”
“No, I really have to go. I don’t want…” She couldn’t breathe. She couldn’t think straight. “I don’t want you to see me like this. Or hear me. I’m…I’m…I have to go.” She hung up the phone, and hit the ground, curled in on herself as she remembered all the times she’d been vulnerable in those text messages today. She felt so stupid. So naïve. That’s what her dad had always told her. She saw him every other weekend growing up, but he had pounded it into her head that she didn’t see the world right. That it was a dangerous place. That she wasn’t safe, because she was just a naïve little girl who believed in the good of monsters. And she knew he was right, but how did a tiger change their stripes? She was born naïve, and would die naïve, and there was nothing she could do about it.
This disgusting feeling that snaked around in her gut was all her fault. People like Jackson preyed on the weak, and she had always been weak.
Always had been, always would be.
She’d known it, but today was the first time it had felt utterly unacceptable.
She had talked all day to the person who unsettled her the most.
She couldn’t breathe. She couldn’t breathe!
And then the door opened, and Liam was there, taking up all of the space in the room. And then he was scooping her up like she was a child, and his voice was steady against her ear. “Breathe. You’re okay. Everything is okay.”
“I’m too much,” she squeaked out as she fell apart against his chest.
“You are just right.” He eased back and brushed her hair out of her face. “You did nothing wrong. This was done to you.”
“It’s building,” she said between the hiccup breathes. “I can feel it. He’ll never stop.”
“He will.”
“He won’t. I talked to police already. They said I probably wouldn’t even be granted a restraining order. I have to move. I have to get away from here.”
“You aren’t moving—”
“But I—”
“Nory,” he said sternly, his blazing frost-blue eyes boring directly into her soul. “You shouldn’t run from him. That’s not what we do.”
“It’s what I do,” she said. “I’m not strong like you or Werewolf Barbie.”
“Werewolf Barbie?”
“Yes. The goddess with the model body and also incredible biceps.”
He rolled his eyes closed and huffed a laugh. “Good Lord. You’re talking about the Arrangement.”
“You make a very strong looking couple.”
“Well, you’re recovered enough to try and piss me off. Go pack a bag.” The humor was still in his voice.
“Can we never talk about what just happened again?”
“Your panic attack?”
She nodded.
A soft, understanding smile graced his lips. “Sure. It’s nothing to be ashamed of though.”