One Last Night Read Online Free PDF Page B

hauled off and socked me right in the face. I’d never felt anything like it.”
    “Baby,” Sam said with tears in his eyes.
    “I was in shock, I guess. I just sat there in agony, tears streaming down my face. Phillip seemed kind of surprised too. I wonder if I’d done something different then, what might have happened. But it was too much. My brain and my heart couldn’t handle what he did. So I apologized. Can you believe that? He punched me in the face and I said I was sorry.
    “But that didn’t work. It enraged him. The rest is a blur, still. I remember flashes of his face, twisted with hatred. Fists and nails coming at me. I screamed until I lost my voice, begged and pleaded. I curled up as small as I could, but he just kept coming. Wailing on me like he was possessed. Then there was blood in my eyes and I started to get dizzy.”
    I raised my hands and covered my face, still half expecting to feel the swelling and the bruises. But all of the visible damage he’d done was gone. Only the real destruction, inside me remained.
    “The next thing I remember I was in the hospital. Doctors and nurses talking to me. And then the cops and a counselor. Anna was still my emergency contact so she came to see me. She slept there with me that night, in the hospital bed. Tiny little Anna protected me.”
    “What happened to Phillip?”
    “The cops arrested him the next morning at home. There was supposed to be a trial, but his parents got him out of the country. I guess the case is still pending to this day, but he’ll never come back. Never have to face what he did to me. That was really hard. I used to have nightmares of him showing up one day to kill me. But then I realized the only thing stronger than his hatred of me was his sense of self-preservation. As much as I know he’d love to murder me with his bare hands, he’d never risk getting caught and sent to prison. There wouldn’t be anyone there for him to terrorize. Around real criminals he’s a punk.”
    “Around anyone he’s a punk, Carly. A piece of garbage.”
    I nodded. “I know. It took years for me to understand and start to undo the damage in my brain. To trust myself. To keep the panic at bay. To listen to my own instincts and thoughts again.”
    “And all that came rushing back with me.”
    “Yeah. So when I tell you I’m sorry, please know I mean it. And I hate that I struggle so much to let you take care of me. But the last time I was dependent on a man it almost killed me. I couldn’t survive it again.”
    Sam pulled me into a tight embrace and kissed my forehead. “Baby, you’re the strongest person I’ve ever met. You’ve gone through hell and come out the other side. That’s a miracle.”
    “No. It was a battle. Still is. Every single day.”
    “Thank you,” he whispered, burying his face in my hair.
    “For what?”
    “For telling me the whole story. For taking a chance on me. For letting me love you, even though it scares you.”
    I pulled back and stared at him. “You love me?”
    “How could I not.”

Chapter Four
    A million thoughts ran through my head at the same time, many of them contradictory. But in the end, one thing stuck and so I went with it and kissed him.
    Sam froze for a second, his lips closed against mine. But I pressed on, insistent, and he responded, tightening his grip on my back and sliding his tongue into my mouth. The kiss deepened and heat flared inside me. Our lips and tongues and teeth communicated without words. Need and pain and desire and love. All tangled together as we shared a long, breathless, soul wrenching exchange.
    “Carly,” he gasped. “I do love you.”
    I looked into his dark, shining eyes and wanted to say it too. My heart swelled with emotion but those words wouldn’t come out. I couldn’t explain or apologize. I felt so much and gave so much but this was too far. Something was in the way. Tons of things were in the way. “I…”
    “It’s okay. Don’t say anything. Just kiss