“And he left you destitute?” Kade asked angrily, but his touch was gentle as he clasped her by the shoulders.
“It was my choice. I didn’t think past escaping. I wanted out. I had to get out.” Asha finished on a sob, her heart feeling like it had been torn from her chest. Had there ever been a time in her life where she hadn’t felt unwanted, unloved? If there was, she couldn’t remember it. She’d been happier since her divorce—traveling from place to place, taking jobs where she could get them—than she’d ever been in her entire life. Yes, she’d been alone, scrambling to survive, but the physical and emotional pain had subsided, and she felt like she had almost regained her sanity. “My foster parents no longer speak to me. Divorce isn’t something that’s accepted well in Indian culture, and I didn’t fulfill the agreement my foster father made with my ex-husband.”
Kade backed her up against the kitchen counter, his eyes flashing blue fire. “You’re a woman. A beautiful, talented woman. You aren’t a possession to be sold. Fuck! What kind of man does something like that? How can any of them sleep at night not knowing whether or not you’re safe and happy?”
Asha bowed her head. “I humiliated all of them. They don’t care.” Tears started flowing down her cheeks unchecked, her bottled-up emotions exploding from their hiding place.
Kade grasped her chin and forced her head up. His expression was fierce as he answered tightly. “No woman should ever be sold off and they had no right to expect anything from you. Their problems weren’t yours. They took on the responsibility of being foster parents willingly. And they got money to take care of you. That’s probably why they never adopted you. You were barely grown when they sold you off. You should have had the opportunity to live, to get an education if you wanted it. Dammit, you should have had choices!”
Asha watched Kade’s ferocious expression, but she wasn’t afraid. He was actually championing her, defending her rights as a woman. Unfortunately, he didn’t understand Indian culture. “I might be American, but I was raised Indian, Kade. We’re motivated by duty and guilt.” Was that dysfunctional? Yep. But it was hard to shake the things she’d been taught as a child and a young woman. It had taken her twenty-five years to be brave enough to break from tradition and escape a horrific marriage, and it still wasn’t easy. Shame and guilt still haunted her sometimes. “Since my divorce, I’ve tried to break free and find the American side of my heritage. But it’s still difficult sometimes. I move around a lot and it’s hard to make friends. I’m still learning to be an American.”
Kade moved closer, crowding her, his muscular, hot body pressed against hers. His arms enfolded her as he whispered hotly against her temple, “And was it all a duty? Was being married a duty? Or did your ex love you?”
Asha shuddered, unable to keep herself from wrapping her arms around Kade’s neck as her tears continued to fall. “He didn’t love me. He wanted a child,” she murmured against his chest. “He couldn’t divorce me, but I wasn’t what he wanted. He went into rages over the situation and it made the marriage difficult. Image was everything to him, and I couldn’t provide him with a family.”
Kade’s jaw muscles were twitching, his body tensed as he said hoarsely, “Please tell me he didn’t hurt you. Tell me he never laid a finger on you or blamed you.”
Asha lowered her head. “I can’t. It would be a lie, and you’ve done too much for me to lie to you. You were right. I was running away. I’ve been running since I left him.”
“Is he threatening you? Has he contacted you?” Kade asked anxiously, his tone furious.
“I don’t think he knows where I am and I doubt he cares. He contacted a few of my former clients where we lived in California looking for me, so I hid until the divorce was final and then I ran. I’ve been traveling ever since then,” she admitted quietly. “It got bad when I started taking on jobs. He didn’t want me to work outside the home.”
“What about your website?”
“He didn’t know,” Asha admitted. “He would have put a stop to it.”
Kade pulled his head back and tilted her chin to look at her face. “Tell me where he is,” he demanded, his voice low and deadly. “I’ll kill the bastard.”
“No!” Asha exclaimed loudly. “All I want is peace. I want to forget. Please.” The fact that this man would defend her made her chest tighten in gratitude, but she didn’t want Kade involved in her past. “It’s over. I’m free. That’s all I ever wanted.”
“Did you get any help?”
“I spent the time waiting for my divorce in a woman’s shelter. They helped me as much as they could. I went to their counseling, but I’m still struggling to get free of my past, I guess. I took jobs out of state to get away, start again.”
“Was he f**king crazy? Didn’t he realize what he had?” Kade replied fiercely. “It’s goddamn lonely to be with someone who doesn’t give a shit, but I can’t stand the fact that he actually intentionally hurt you.”
Looking into his liquid blue eyes, she said hesitantly, “You sound like you know what it feels like to be with someone who doesn’t care?”
“I do. My girlfriend of ten years dumped me when I was in the ICU after my accident because I wasn’t what she had bargained for, because I wasn’t able to fulfill her ideal. I do f**king know what it feels like, and it sucks. But I wasn’t powerless. I had money and I had family and friends.”
Asha’s heartbeat accelerated and she could sense Kade’s anger and the same sense of betrayal she had felt when Ravi had basically written her off and made her his target of rage because she couldn’t produce a child. “Then she wasn’t worthy of you. If something so superficial turned her away, then you’re better off without her,” Asha answered adamantly. Kade was a man worth keeping, whatever the circumstances. Didn’t his ex-girlfriend understand that he was the type of man most women longed to have, a man who was constant and would care, no matter the circumstances? “You deserved so much better than that,” she said sincerely, placing her palm against his whiskered jaw.
Kade’s eyes turned molten and hot, his nostrils flaring as he asked hoarsely, “How do you sleep with someone whose only objective is to get you pregnant and beats you up?”