“Oh.” She eyed the space next to him.
“You can get back in now.” He patted the sheet and grinned.
Hesitantly, she complied and settled in beside him. He glanced at the miles of linen separating them. “No one could accuse you of hogging the bed.” She’d lain down, taking up only one quarter of the king-sized mattress. “I won’t bite. I won’t even try anything,” he promised. “I just want to talk.”
She maneuvered until she lay next to him. Her delicious scent might make that promise damned difficult, but he knew he would keep it. “Why was your marriage short?” he asked.
“I don’t suppose I could change the subject?”
“Sure you could. But I’d just change it back.”
She propped one arm beneath her head. “Okay. He wasn’t the man I thought I’d married. He changed.”
“And that hurt you.”
She exhaled a harsh laugh. “In more ways than one.”
“He hurt you?”
Her startled gasp revealed his guess had been correct. The anger fueled by that knowledge stunned him, as did the proprietary way he pulled her into his arms.
She tensed. With her back to him, he curled himself around her. When he did little more than smooth her hair and rest his chin in the crook of her neck, her muscles seemed to relax.
“What happened, Chelsie?” This time, he tensed, sure that as much as he’d wanted to hear the details of her past, he wouldn’t like what he learned.
“I’d volunteered at a women’s shelter in college and had seen too many women abused who then went back for more.” She drew a deep breath, causing her body to quiver. “I never thought it would happen to me. For all my parents’ faults—and they have many—they never raised a hand to each other or to us kids. I never thought I’d allow it to happen to me.”
“You don’t always know someone, even when you think you do.” Thanks to his mother and ex-fiancée, Griff had discovered that himself, though not to the extreme Chelsie had.
“Shannon and Jared were lucky, don’t you think?” Chelsie whispered the words.
He nodded in answer. Despite his poor track record with women, Griff envied his brother’s ability to create a happy home with the woman he loved. For the first time in his life, he wondered if he was capable of the same, if a woman existed who would break down his notions and barriers and love just him.
He glanced down at Chelsie. Comfortable silence drifted around them. “What happened?” he prompted.
“We graduated from the same law school. He went to work for a large firm, I worked for the D.A. He wanted money and power, I wanted to help others. Maybe that should have told me something.”
“Come on. Lots of people have conflicting ideals and still make a marriage work. I’d hardly call that missing a sign of something serious.”
“Maybe. Anyway, we were married for less than a year. With the hours first-year associates work, I rarely saw him. The few times he displayed his temper, I fell right into the trap. I accepted his apologies and believed he wouldn’t do it again.”
He sensed her anger at herself and at her ex.
“Obviously the marriage never got off to a strong start,” she said. “One night, we went to a cocktail party at his law firm. One of the associates recognized me from my work at the local women’s shelter. He’d been drinking and caused quite a scene. Blamed me for talking his wife into leaving him.”
“Sounds like the guy was a real winner.”
“Yes, well, when the shouting started, the senior partners weren’t too pleased. Seems they were courting major clients at the time.”
In what had to be an unconscious move, she curled into him. He wrapped his arms around her in a protective gesture, knowing as he held her that he never wanted to let go. Holding her tight, he mentally prepared himself for the untold part of the story. “And then?”
“My husband dragged me out of there. I thought he’d be disgusted with his associate and frustrated with the way the evening had turned out. Maybe he’d rant and rave a little, but a while had passed since he’d raised his hand, let alone his voice, so I figured that would be the end of it.”
“I take it he said plenty?” And lashed out even more, Griff thought with dread.
“The elevator in our building had broken and I followed him up the stairs with him yelling the entire way—about how I caused that scene, how I should keep my nose out of other people’s personal lives, how I should get myself a real job and start earning some money to help support us. You get the picture.”
What Griff pictured was a spineless man too cowardly to stand up for his wife and too selfish to care. “And?” he asked softly.