Redeeming-Love-By-Francine-Rivers

R E D E E M I N G L O V E
around his neck because he knew Duke was not the moral, upstanding citizen
the public thought he was. Duke raping her over and over again. The
dozens of men in the years that followed. And the hunger, the endless,
aching hunger inside herself.
Michael could see her face white in the moonlight. He didn’t know what
she was thinking, but he knew she was tormented by her past. He reached
out to touch her cheek. “I wish I could open your mind and climb inside
with you.” Maybe the two of them could fight off the darkness that was trying
to swallow her whole. He wanted to hold her, but she had withdrawn
from him already. God, how do I save her?
Angel looked up at him and saw the sheen of moisture in his eyes. Shock
ran through her. “Are you crying? For me?” she said weakly.
“Don’t you think you’re worth it?”
Something inside her cracked. She writhed inside to escape the feeling,
but it was there nonetheless, growing with the light touch of his hand on her
shoulder, with every soft word he spoke. She was sure if she put her hands
against her heart, her palms would come away covered with her own blood.
Was that what this man wanted? For her to bleed for him?
“Talk to me, Amanda,” he whispered, “Talk to me.”
“Amanda? What’s this name supposed to mean?”
“I don’t know, but it sounds like a gentle, loving name.” He smiled slightly.
“I thought you might prefer it to Mara.”
He was a strange man given to strange ways. What had become of her
defenses? Where was her defiance and anger? her resolve? “What do you
want to hear, mister?” she said, meaning to sound amused and failing. What
could she tell a man like him that he would even understand?
“Anything. Everything.”
She shook her head. “Nothing. Ever.”
Michael cupped her face tenderly. “Then just tell me what you’re feeling
right now.”
“Pain,” she said before she thought better of it. She pushed his hands
away and went back into the cabin.
She was cold, and desperate to get warm. She knelt down before the fire,
but even its warmth couldn’t permeate. She could lie in the coals and still
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