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" Nick,” I whispered, pressing my hands into his chest, not to get away but in a gesture I hoped was soothing.
He stilled and the tumult of his eyes calmed.
God, just that, his name and a simple touch from me and he calmed.
Was he that attuned to me?
“Who burned you?” he whispered back.
Oh no.
I closed my eyes.
“Livvie.”
My throat clogged.
No one called me Livvie.
No one.
Livvie didn’t exist.
Not for anyone.
But me.
“Baby, who burned you?” Nick pushed gently.
I opened my eyes.
“Who burned you?” he pressed.
I stared into blue.
“Who burned you, baby?”
“I can’t be with you,” I told him.
“Who burned you, Livvie?”
“I can’t be with you, Nick.”
“Who burned you?”
“I can’t be with you because my father is a piece of shit and I care about you too much to have his stink settle on you.”
Nick went silent.
But the room went wired.
He heard me and he got me.
Every word.
He got me.
He knew who burned me.
He knew, my father burning me, there was no me. There was just Vincent Shade’s daughter, and me not even having me, I couldn’t give myself to someone else. "
― Kristen Ashley , Sebring (Unfinished Hero, #5)