‘Look at what they did to your beautiful face,’ he said, and stroked over her bruises with such hesitancy her eyes misted again. ‘Am I hurting you?’ ‘No,’ she said, snatching his hand back to her cheek. ‘You’ve got a black eye, and the blood, the—‘ ‘Bruises heal,’ she said. ‘Hearing you admit that you care about me... it’s worth every single one of them.’
