“I’m s-sorry,” I stammer. “I’m just not used to…I haven’t been touched by anyone. I can’t remember the last time. Sister might have given me a hug on my fifteenth birthday…”
Gage’s breath accelerates, his dark brows slashing together. “I don’t understand. You haven’t been touched at all since you were fifteen?” His thumb brushes my cheekbone and I go limp with a sob, but his strong arms tighten and hold me up easily. “Ah honey. What about your parents?”
My brain is so muddled by the warmth of his hand, the tingles his touch spreads all the way to my belly, I can barely explain. “I was put up for adoption when I was eleven. They needed someone to help out at the monastery and I was adopted. By the church.”
He processes that with a deep look of concentration, his rough knuckle trailing al
