From Here to Eternity (Moonlit Ridge, #1)

by A.L. Jackson

“You’ve got no obligation to me, Charleigh. Don’t owe me a thing. But it will be my fuckin’ honor to be the one to show you that you’re a treasure, too. To show you that you deserve to be loved and touched and adored. Only thing I ask is if you get scared? If you feel like runnin’? Then you run to me.” Her nod was soft. “Okay.”

And the girl had come running to me, not because she thought I was some obscure, faceless lifeline, but because she’d known she’d be safe in my arms. And that was exactly where I wanted to keep her.

“Who the fuck did this to you?”