The Gilded Cuff by Smith Lauren

Author:Smith, Lauren
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Published: 2015-02-09T16:00:00+00:00

His world was reduced to one single action. A kiss. Who was this woman who plucked his heart from his chest? He was a dominant man and should be in charge. Yet she stripped him of years’ worth of armor. Once more he was naked before her, telling her his every secret, his shames, his failings. And his dear, sweet Sophie had told him her own secret.

Rachel.

Her confession forced him to admit a disheartening truth.

We do blame ourselves for the past. When you loved someone you signed on for the worst moments, the darkest hours. Some battles were obvious. Soldiers went to war on battlefields, giving their lives for their friends. There were other struggles where people were just as brave, though more quiet in their suffering. Mothers who held sick children in cancer wards, parents gazing at the empty bed where their child should be, or a little girl on the playground, watching a gray van drive away, leaving only a black cloud of pollution behind, as her friend was stolen from her.

It was all the same in the end. Some lives were snuffed out too soon, but many of those lives had been filled with love, surrounded with those who stayed and fought to support them till the bitter end. It was those survivors who were faced with the hardest battles. They had to forge ahead without their loved ones and exist with the pain of loss.

Shame burned through him like a roaring fire, searing his insides. He’d hidden from the people who cared about him. His parents hadn’t been able to break through his carefully erected defenses. He’d kept them out. And he might have continued to do so until he died, if it hadn’t been for Sophie. She’d dragged him kicking and screaming out into the light, and he couldn’t go back. He didn’t want to.

She broke free of his mouth and buried her face in his neck. A cold dampness soaked through his shirt where she’d tucked herself against him.

Tears. Sophie was crying for him. Another wall was obliterated inside his heart. His own eyes burned and he blinked rapidly. Her empathy for him, her own suffering, told him she wasn’t anything like the cold-hearted journalist he’d wanted to paint her as. She was so much more. Sophie Ryder was all heart, and right now her heart was bleeding for him. He wasn’t worthy of her tears, yet they filled him with a sense of healing reverence.

“Shush.” He rubbed her back in slow, smoothing strokes. “Don’t cry, please, Sophie.” He tightened his grip on her body as she inhaled a ragged breath.

“I’m okay.” She insisted, sniffling once or twice. She pushed at his chest as if determined to separate herself from him.

With a heavy reluctance he let her go, feeling as though his entire existence was ripped to pieces at the distance she put between them.

She stepped back, dabbing at her eyes with her fingers, rubbing stray tears away. “I’m sorry I lost control.” She looked as though she wished to say more but he fixed her with a stern glare.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.