Tempted by a Dangerous Man Read Online Free PDF Page A

him.” I swallowed as I remembered it clearly. “Not hard, but if I hadn’t touched him, he would still be alive.”
    “It was a freak accident,” Corbin insisted. “If you shoved him a thousand times, even if you tried to kill him, I don’t think you could have managed it twice. Look at me.”
    I blinked open.  
    “For him to have hit as hard as he did, I think he would have done you serious harm if you hadn’t reacted. It was your body’s natural response. Push away the danger. Your body doesn’t regret it. I don’t regret that you’re here, with me, in one piece. If I had seen him trying to hurt you, I would have snapped his neck with my bare hands, and not a court in the world would convict me.” The intensity in his eyes made me shudder. “Say it,” he said. “Tell it back to me.”
    “Tell you what?” I whispered.
    “Tell me again about how he came at you, but instead of blaming yourself, tell it objectively. Just the facts. What an outside observer would have seen.”
    I blinked. “I guess he grabbed the photos from me. I snatched them back and ran into the main office. Zachary… tried to tackle me, but I pushed him away, and he hit his head on the desk… and died.”
    My last words hung in the quiet mountain air.  
    “Take a deep breath,” Corbin said. “Now let it out.”
    I exhaled and stared at my hands in my lap. Corbin drew his thumb down my cheek. “How are you?”
    “Worried,” I said. “And I still feel shitty about it.”
    “You can regret that he put you in that position, but don’t regret protecting yourself. Don’t you ever regret that.” He released my face and stood, then sat on the rock and handed me my sandwich.
    “Can you tell me the story from Zachary’s point of view?” Corbin asked.  
    Ugh. “I would really prefer sex therapy. I’m not a big talker.”
    “Neither am I,” Corbin said. “But maybe we can try, together.”
    “Thought people don’t change.” My lips twisted wryly.  
    “Not unless they have a good reason to.” He ripped open a bag of dried apricots and shook a few into his large palm.  
    I took one, ate it, then said, “Henry sent Zachary to the office to see who triggered the alarm. The woman tried to run past him but he tackled her and sat on her.” I winced, remembering how rough Zachary had been. “Then he called Henry who said to let her go, so he did.” I snuck a glance around at Corbin. “Do you think it’s a problem that Henry knows I was there?”
    “We’ll deal with that later. Continue.”
    “Zachary… he took the photos. The girl grabbed them back and ran. He lunged at me.” My mouth had gone dry, the words choking up inside. “At her . And she pushed him away. He slammed—” My voice broke. Somehow, it was easier to feel empathy for the nameless girl than for myself. “Into the desk.”  
    Corbin pulled a lip balm from his pocket and handed it to me. “Ok, just one more question,” he promised, calm determination in his eyes. “Would he have tried to grab you if you were Rob or me? Or if you had been holding a gun?”
    “What?” Even as I spoke, realization dawned on me, and the horrible, heavy weight seemed to shift.  
    That was the thing I had needed to hear. Not that it was a freak accident. Not that Zachary was a despicable person.  
    I didn’t reply to Corbin’s question, because we both knew the answer. Zachary would never have tried to take advantage of a man in such a way. He had decided, based on my size, that I could be physically handled. Restrained. Treated like a child instead of an adult. He saw me as harmless and therefore inferior to him.  
    If I had been Corbin, Zachary would not have snatched the photos from me in the first place. He damn sure wouldn’t have dragged me around by my hair. And Zachary would still be alive.
    “What a fucking bastard,” I whispered. New resolve eroded the edges of my guilt. I would not carry this blame with me. I refused. Even as I promised myself