Read Online The Three by Meghan O'Brien - Free Book Online Page B

right?”
    “I have a good idea.”
    “Yeah, well, it’s not like I’m the first woman to go through that.”
    “That doesn’t make it any less horrible.”
    “It was always this specter hanging over my head, you know?” She kept her voice low, not wanting Kael to overhear them. “It was the reason I never strayed far from my tribe alone. But when it actually happened, I just lay there at first. It was like I just couldn’t believe it.”
    Elin stroked Anna’s belly. “I can’t imagine.”
    “I don’t want you to even try. I never want you to know.” Anna shook her head, frustrated with her inability to express her jumbled emotions. “I had no idea what it would be like. I thought it would be just another injury, a battle scar. I thought I would be able to handle it better.”
    “Even the strongest people…that’s a lot more than a simple injury. It doesn’t matter how strong you are, Anna, it’s going to hurt. It can hurt for a long time. Please believe me that everyone, even the strongest person you could imagine, would hurt after that.”
    Anna closed her eyes, letting her mind travel back in time. Her nightmare. That day. “They were so mad at me. I fought with a baseball bat then, too, and I killed one of their companions. Hit him right in the head. I heard his skull crack.”
    Elin flinched, and for a moment Anna was frightened that her innocent friend would pull away from her in revulsion. Instead, she tugged Anna closer. “Had you ever killed someone before?”
    “He was my first.” Anna flashed back on his face for a moment, his dark hair. “It didn’t even feel real to me.
    I was knocked out only a minute or two later.”
    “So they took it out on you.”
    Anna rolled onto her back. Elin drew away to let her adjust, then repositioned herself with one arm across Anna’s chest and one leg insinuated between her thighs. “See?” she murmured as she settled her head down on Anna’s shoulder. “You’re getting good at this cuddling thing.”
    Anna held her breath as her body reacted to the new position, humming in pleasure when she finally exhaled. After only a slight hesitation, she eased her arm around Elin’s narrow shoulders, grateful that Elin couldn’t see the rising color of her cheeks in the dark. “You make everything easy. Even talking.”
    Elin lifted her head so she could look into Anna’s eyes. “I’m glad.”
    Soaking up the warmth of the soft body pressed against hers, Anna stared up at the stars that were visible through the treetops over their heads. “I thought they were going to kill me,” she said eventually. “The third one, especially. He had a knife. That’s how I got the scars.”
    Elin pressed the palm of her hand flat against Anna’s upper chest, just above the breast that bore two jagged white reminders of that day. “I wondered.” Her voice took on a profound sadness, and she nuzzled her face into the side of Anna’s other breast. “You’re beautiful, you know.”
    Anna bit her lip as traitorous tears slipped from her eyes and rolled down her cheeks. “I don’t feel that way sometimes.”
    “You are. So, so beautiful. Inside and out. Every line, every curve, every scar.”

    “You’re the beautiful one.” Anna blushed at the boldness of her words, but Elin made her confident, and she let herself be carried along by that feeling. “I’ve never met such a beautiful person.”
    Elin gave her a loving smile and leaned up to plant a slow kiss on her lips. Anna closed her eyes at the first touch of Elin’s mouth, trembling when the warm lips didn’t pull away until after long moments of breathless connection. Her heart thumped hard beneath Elin’s hand.
    “How did you escape?” Elin asked when she’d settled back down with her head on Anna’s shoulder.
    The question snapped her back into the moment, hitting her directly in the gut. “Garrett.”
    “He found you?”
    “He stopped them. One of them had left, and the other two were