Page 85 of The Billionaire's Virgin

“It’s not a flimsy reason,” he said. “I love you too, Taylor; that’s the only reason I can’t ask you for space. Because that would hurt me as much as it would hurt you, and Jenna too, for that matter, and that’s something I can’t abide.”

“So… you don’t mind if I continue to stay here?”

“No,” Reed said heavily. “You can stay; we’ll get over this.”

I reached out and touched his hand. “I really am sorry I didn’t tell you immediately,” I said again.

He turned to me and looked me in the eye. “I believe you.” He nodded. “And I suppose I understand why you were nervous to tell me.”

“I should have told you anyway.”

“I agree,” Reed said. “But you didn’t. There’s no point looking back now.”

I nodded and let it lie for a moment. He was offering me up a second chance, and I wasn't foolish enough to question that.

“Did he ever hit you?” Reed asked suddenly.

I turned to him in surprise. “What?”

“Brady,” Reed repeated. “Did he ever hit you?”

“Oh… a few times,” I admitted. “Only when he was really drunk though.”

I saw Reed grit his teeth in anger and his knuckles turned white underneath the moonlight. “That fucking bastard,” he spat. “I didn’t think I could hate him more.”

I put my hand over his white knuckles. “It was a long time ago; it lost the power to affect me a few years ago.”

“Doesn’t change the fact that he hit you.”

I shrugged. “In a weird way, I was grateful for that.”

Reed’s head snapped to me, and I realized how that must have sounded to someone else. “Let me explain that.”

“Please.”

“What I meant was that I was thankful that he was hitting me and not… molesting me,” I admitted. “I knew a girl in school who committed suicide. It turned out that her stepfather was sexually abusing her. I suppose after I heard that story, I kind of thought I had it a little better than she did.”

Reed raised his eyebrows at me. “That’s an odd way to look at it.”

“I figured I’d gotten the lesser of two evils.”

“Wouldn’t the ideal situation have been to avoid both evils altogether?”

I smiled. “That had never been my life, Reed,” I said. “I wasn’t a normal kid, and I wasn’t raised in a normal, happy, healthy environment. I didn’t even know what that was like. I had come to expect some form of darkness and Brady Holloway was mine.”

“I never even thought…”

“What?” I asked, stricken by the pained look on his face.

“I never thought that by expelling him from our lives that he would move on to try and destroy someone else’s.”

“He didn’t destroy my life, Reed,” I said, squeezing his hand. “He tried… but he didn’t succeed. It turned out I was made of stronger stuff than even he could have suspected. We both were.”

Reed turned to me and pulled me towards him. The feel of his arms around my body was like heaven. I basked in the warmth and marveled at how comfortable and safe I felt in his embrace.

“Promise you won’t keep anything from me ever again?” he asked.

I turned my face up to meet his. “I promise,” I swore fervently.