A Deal with Demakis. Tara Pammi

      “Your size...I mean...you are a big man.”

      Amusement glittered in his gaze. “Yes. I’m six foot three. I am big, everywhere. And so far, you’re the only woman who has not been spectacularly happy about it.”

      “What does your size have to do with women being hap...” Heat rose up through her as she realized his meaning, tightening her cheeks, and there was nothing she could do about it. “Oh.”

      He laughed and she couldn’t help but smile back. He looked gorgeous, down-to-earth and not at all like someone who should have scared her so much. “You gave me the perfect opening.”

      She nodded, and made a movement to stand up when he threw out his arm to stop her. He did it slowly, as if to not frighten her again. “Once again, you’ve made me extremely curious. And you owe me an explanation,” he said, rubbing at his jaw.

      Lexi pulled up her feet and hugged her knees. “This...it’s nothing that is useful to you,” she said, dragging her feet.

      He didn’t bat an eyelid at the insult. “Tell me anyway.”

      “I was transferred to a new foster home when I was twelve.” She smiled, warmth filling her despite everything else that had happened. “I loved it immediately because the last one, they had always been kind to me but I was the only kid. The new home was perfect because there were six of us and it’s where I met Tyler.

      “But our foster parents had a son. Jason was almost seventeen, older than any of us, and was this huge, burly guy. From the day I walked in, he picked on me. Every month, it got worse. Sometimes he would just lift me up and throw me down, sometimes lock me in the closet. I got pretty smart about avoiding him for the most part. For two years, it went on but it was the place that I had been the happiest. Except for those moments with Jason. The worst was when...”

      Nikos’s hand clasped hers, his fingers strong and rough against hers. Holding back the urge to pull away, she took a breath. Her hand was tiny in his, but it felt good, strong, a spark of comfort filling her up. “You don’t have to continue.”

      Lexi looked up, but didn’t let go of his hand. She hated that the shadow of that fear that had been her constant companion in those years was still there with her. She swallowed the hot ache in her throat. “No...see, I thought I was over it. But I guess, the way I’ve been reacting around you...” Her fingers twitched in his grasp but he held on tight. “I...I refuse to give him any power over me.”

      She closed her eyes and instantly she was back in that room where she had slept again, on the metal-framed bed that had creaked with Jason’s weight, the scent of his sweat, and she could feel his body pressing down on hers. “One night when I was fifteen—” her words came out in a ravaged whisper “—I was sleeping and I guess, I don’t know...I don’t know why he lay down next to me. I had no idea that he was even back in the house. One minute I’m sleeping peacefully, and the next, I wake up, and he is all over me.” She shivered and her short nails dug into Nikos’s palm. “He pinned me down with his huge body, locked my arms over my head. I can still feel his breath over my face. I don’t know for how long. But I couldn’t breathe, or move.”

      “Did he—”

      The utter savagery in Nikos’s words broke the hold of the memory. “No. I don’t know what he intended. And thanks to Tyler, I never had to find out.”

      “Of course.” The two words were laden with a vehemence that jerked her gaze to his face. “That’s when you ran away?”

      “Yes. I couldn’t take it anymore. Except within a week, we realized how hard it was to feed ourselves. But Tyler refused to leave me.” And she wouldn’t leave him now.