Unbelievable by Lori Foster

don’t know it.”
    She nodded again, unable to believe what she was hearing. “Does that mean you want to keep on…”
    “Kissing you? Touching you? Damn right.”
    “You’re not…disgusted? That I was raped, I mean. Or that I’m still carrying my fears.”
    “God, no.” He hugged her tight. “Brandi, I won’t lie and say I don’t wish I could find the bastard who hurt you. I’d gladly kill him with my bare hands. But you’re not responsible for what he did. And your reservations now seem perfectly normal to me.”
    “Do you…do you really want to hear about it?”
    Still holding her, he said, “I want to know everything about you. What makes you smile, what makes you cry. What makes you happy, what makes you sad. I want to know your dreams and your nightmares, because it’s all part of who you are.”
    She licked her lips, trying to decide where to begin. Borrowing his tactic, she closed her eyes and just said the truth. “There were three men, not one.”
    “God.” His entire body trembled, then tightened around her.
    She heard him swallow, felt his deep breaths. But he didn’t say anything else, and she had no clue as to how he felt at that moment, how he might actually react to her very ugly truths. She breathed evenly, calming her mind, calming her heart. Then decided, why not? Perhaps learning it all would repulse him, but then at least she’d know, and it would be over with. Somehow, from the beginning, Sebastian had been able to reach inside her to draw out emotions and feelings she hadn’t known still existed. If he was going to take those feelings away, it would be easier now than later.
    She pasted on a false smile, but she couldn’t quite bring herself to look at him. She would hurry through this, get it over with, then accept the consequences.
    “My family and I were aboard a cruise ship in the Caribbean—the last vacation I’ve taken until now. It was supposed to be fun. I was feeling very grown-up—I’d just turned eighteen—almost a woman, so I flirted. With the wrong men. It was exciting, at least until I started to get tired. I left my parents and Shay at a party on the upper deck and went back to our stateroom. I didn’t know it then, but the men had followed me. And because I thought Shay would be the only one coming in, I hadn’t checked the door. One of my shoes was in the way and it hadn’t closed tight. The men didn’t even have to knock.”
    It was getting harder and harder, and it had been so long since she’d rehashed the details. Her chest hurt and her throat felt ready to close. She became aware that Sebastian was stroking her again. She felt his strength and, at the moment, she needed it.
    Everything was blurred and she realized that in spite of her resolve, tears had welled in her eyes.
    “I yelled and yelled, but they’d slipped in while I was asleep, and I didn’t wake up until the door was closed tight behind them. No one heard me screaming. And they were already on me. They…they called me names. And they slapped me, because I wouldn’t stop crying and screaming.”
    Sebastian lifted her hand to his mouth and held it there against his parted lips. She could feel his teeth, the quickness of his breath. He remained silent, though, and she waited. Waited for questions, for suspicions. There were none.
    “No one knew what had happened till the next day. Shay and I were sharing the cabin, but when she came in, I couldn’t quite bring myself to tell her about it. I should have. It was so stupid of me to just lie there. But I felt numb, almost dead. And so ashamed and dirty and embarrassed. It felt easier to pretend it hadn’t happened. Shay assumed I was sleeping. And very early the next day, when we stopped in a port, the men got off. I never saw them again.”
    Sebastian tapped her knuckles against his mouth, his grip on her hand almost bruising. When at last she looked at him, his eyes were closed, his head bent slightly forward. The muscles in his