He would have to agree with that in terms of his past. "My parents have been wed over thirty years, although their marriage was arranged. However, they seem genuinely fond of each other."
"Fond isn't the same as love. I sincerely hope for Piper's sake that forever love does exist. But I'm certainly not looking for a charming prince to ride in to rescue me."
"You do not strike me as a woman who needs to be rescued."
"Are you sure that's not what this is all about?" she asked. "The noble sheikh attempting to save me?"
He would be foolish to believe he could save her when he had already failed another. Yet in some small way he needed to try in an effort to atone for his transgressions. "I am an ordinary man spending time with an extraordinary woman who needs a respite."
"You're definitely not ordinary, and I'm anything but special. But I do appreciate the compliment and that you're concerned about my well-being."
He reached out and touched her face. "As I have said before, I appreciate a beautiful woman whose humility prevents her from realizing her true worth. However, beauty is not only about physical traits. It involves the soul, even one that is injured. Yours might be wounded, yet it makes you no less attractive."
"Before we head in that direction," she began, "I'd rather talk about something more pleasant."
At some point he hoped she would talk to him about her experience. Since that would not happen in the imminent future, he opted for a suggestion that did not involve conversation. Perhaps not his first option but one that best suited her situation. "Would you wish to swim?"
She averted her eyes. "I'm not sure I'm ready for that."
"Did you not pack your suit as I suggested?"
"I have it." She finally raised her gaze to his. "I also have a reminder of my recent experience. A not so pretty scar."
"Show me."
"Maybe later."
Needing to encourage her, Rayad pulled his shirt over his head and tossed it aside, revealing his own scars. "I received this six years ago," he said as he pointed to the jagged line on his left side. "The bruise on my right is from the broken ribs. On my back you will find a random pattern of slashes, compliments of a murderous insurgent who held me hostage and attempted to beat information from me."
Her green eyes widened. "How did you escape?"
Barely with his life. "My captor made the mistake of freeing my hands to move me to another chamber. He suffered a broken jaw for his efforts, and I managed to steal away without detection."
"I know all about fighting for freedom." Her tone hinted at a very real fear.
"Each scar we earn in our lifetimes has a story, Sunny. Every wound marks a challenge that we have overcome. If you will not show me your scar, then I implore you to tell me your story."
She drew in a deep breath and exhaled slowly. "If I do this, will you promise not to tell Piper the details?"
He worried the details were much worse than he had first presumed. "As I told you previously, what is shared between us, remains between us."
"I'll try to be brief."
"Take as much time as you need."
When a long span of silence passed, he thought she had reconsidered. Then finally she began to speak. "We were staying in a small village in Angola, covering a story on a group of aid workers. We knew going in that the area drew a dangerous criminal element due to the diamond trade. I don't think I realized how dangerous until that night."
As she hesitated again, Rayad took her hands into his. "You believe your attackers were a part of this element?"
She shook her head. "I'm not sure. I never saw them. They spoke broken English, and their accents had a Spanish note to them, but that's not what they were speaking because I know Spanish."
"How did you come upon them?"
She shifted on the pillow, a certain sign of discomfort. "Cameron and I were staying in a small bungalow in the center of the village. We'd had an argument about our future. He wanted to settle down and return to the U.S. and get married and have kids. I wasn't ready for that, and he knew it, but he kept pushing me. When I told him it might be best if we parted ways since we didn't want the same things, he demanded I leave and find somewhere else to spend the night. He insisted he didn't want to spend even one more minute in my presence. I decided to go for a walk until he calmed down."
He muttered an oath aimed at the man's disregard for his partner's safety. "He should not have allowed you to leave. He should have been the one to leave."
She sighed. "He realizes that now. He feels very guilty about the whole incident."
"As he should." In an effort to return to the abduction, Rayad asked, "What happened when you went on the walk?"
As if she could not tolerate the contact, she wrested her hand from his and gripped the pillow on either side of her thighs. "I was upset, so I wasn't aware of my surroundings. I passed by an alley and was ambushed. Someone pushed me to the ground and taped my mouth shut before I could even scream. They blindfolded me before I could get a good look, but I know there were at least two of them. One held me down, and the other tied me up."
"Is that where they kept you captive?" he asked, though he knew that most likely was not the case.
"No," she answered, confirming his suspicions. "Someone carried me to a small house, although I didn't know that at the time. I only knew I was put in some sort of tight space, like maybe a closet. I heard a door close, but I couldn't see a thing, and I could barely breathe, thanks to the tape on my mouth. I felt like I'd been buried alive."
"And that is the cause of your fear of enclosed spaces."
"Yes, it is," she continued. "I did get a periodic break when every now and then, I'd get yanked out, put in a chair and slapped around for unknown reasons other than I was an American journalist, or so I assumed."
His stomach pitched at the thought of anyone raising a hand to her. He had to pose a question that, depending on the answer, could change everything. A question he had presented Piper, yet he could not trust the answer. "Forgive me for asking, but were you sexually assaulted?"
She released a laugh that held no humor. "One of them tried. He came into that closet, closed the door and pawed me. He whispered things in my ear that I didn't understand, but I could just imagine what he was saying, and it wasn't pleasant. I still remember the way he smelled, like booze and sweat, as he climbed on top of me and tore at my clothes. I try not to think about it."
When Sunny seemed to mentally wander away, Rayad asked, "Do you wish to stop now?"
"There's more," she said, as if unburdening had become a total necessity. "The second time he came to me, he was more forceful, and that's when I started to realize it was only a matter of time before he...before it happened. And after that, I sensed they would kill me. The fight-or-flight response took over because I knew I had to find some way to escape."
"You fought him?"
She sent him a slight smile. "No. After he ripped the tape from my mouth, I knew what was going to occur if I didn't get away from him. I started to retch and told him I was going to throw up when he tried to kiss me, which wasn't far from the truth. I said I needed air or a bathroom or something. He dragged me out of the room by my wrists, pulled me to my feet then barked out an order to his partner. The next thing I knew I was being dragged somewhere. When I felt a breeze I realized I was outside, but I was terrified over what might transpire next."
"Clearly, you evaded them, or you would not be here," he said after a long pause in the conversation.
She drew in a ragged breath before continuing. "Luckily, my tormentor's partner untied my arms and legs, and that's when I saw my chance to kick and bolt. Before I could do that, I heard a voice whisper in my ear, 'Run.' And I did, as fast as I could. I stumbled while trying to remove the blindfold, but I recovered quickly and kept running. Then I heard the gunshot and a bullet whizzing by my head."
Rayad gritted his teeth against the force of his fury. "He gave you your freedom and then attempted to kill you?"
"It wasn't a he."
That temporarily shocked him into silence. "Your captor was a woman?"
"Yes, and I believe she wanted me to escape. I also believe she shot at me in an effort to convince her partner she tried to prevent me from getting away."