She did. She’d felt them grow closer. She enjoyed holding him at night. Talking to him. Spending time with him. She loved watching his eyes glaze over with pleasure when she pushed him over the edge with her mouth, how they heated when he looked at her. She wanted more, she just had to get through this first.

“Okay then.” Candy clasped her hands tightly in her lap. “I told you my dad left when I was young and that my mom went through men like she did handbags. She wasn’t a bad mom, not really. She was just too caught up in herself to ever be a really good mom.”

His jaw tightened and he nodded once.

“When I turned sixteen, one of her boyfriends started… I don’t know... I guess, flirting with me. He would do it when she wasn’t in the room. He hugged me just that little bit too tightly, that little bit too long. I would catch him staring at my ass. One night, he let himself into my room and tried to… touch me inappropriately. Even though he told me to be quiet, he even threatened me, I managed to yell before anything could happen.” She gave a humorless laugh. “My mom came running in and the SOB tried to pretend that I had a nightmare and that he was there to check on me. In my mom’s favor, she kicked him out the moment I told her.” She shook her head. “Unfortunately within a week she’d replaced him with another bozo. Some of the guys were okay, but others…” She paused. “I guess I’d reached an age where men had begun to notice me. That asshole that tried his luck wasn’t the last. I put locks on my door and tried to keep to myself as much as possible.”

“You’re right.” Torrents rough growl was unexpected. “This is difficult for me to hear. Go on. I’m sorry I interrupted.”

“It’s just the beginning. I’m not trying to make you feel sorry for me but I need you to understand what my life was like. I was seventeen when I graduated high school. It couldn’t have been two weeks after my graduation. I was still trying to figure out what I was going to do with my life. I’d managed to secure a partial scholarship at one of the local colleges but there still wasn’t enough money for me to attend. I was trying to figure something out. Maybe I could work part-time. Stay living at home. My mom had been with the same guy for about six months and things were fairly stable. Life was pretty okay. The only problem was that he drank quite a lot. My mom started drinking too.”

She paused.