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she didn’t want to risk running into someone who would tell her parents they’d seen us together. We’d always gone back to my place and spent the night in bed.
    I expected the lawyer to question her about under-age drinking, but he let that slide. My lawyer leaned in, whispering something about cross examination, but I couldn’t focus on anything other than the words coming out of Maura’s mouth. I was waiting for her to acknowledge our connection, to tell the crowded courtroom that I was a decent guy who’d always treated her with respect and she knew I could never hurt a woman. I was waiting for her to save me. She was my only hope.
    “Witnesses at the bar the night of your attack said your exchange with Mr. Cooper looked more like a lover’s quarrel. Were you and the defendant lovers, Miss Lancaster?”
    She winced. The silence was deafening as everyone awaited her response.
    The prosecutor obviously wasn’t pleased. He’d probably spent hours prepping his star witness for her time on the stand. “Please answer the question, and remember you’re under oath.”
    “We had sex a few times,” she acknowledged.
    A few times? We’d had sex a few times every night. We couldn’t keep our hands off each other when we were together, and we were always together. From the first time I laid eyes on her, I’d wanted her, and the feeling was mutual. She didn’t subscribe to the three-date rule, and I couldn’t wait to get her in my bed. So I didn’t. The first night, we ended up back at my place. When she found the handcuffs in my closet, she wanted them on her all night long.
    “Did you and the defendant have sex the night of your attack?” the lawyer asked.
    She cast a quick glance in my direction. I felt the intensity of it ricochet through my body, touching me in places that had been cold and lifeless since the guard ushered me inside that prison cell. We still had amazing chemistry. She could deny it, but the heat between us had to be as obvious to everyone else as it was to me. Surely the jurors had to see it. I just had to try to engage her, get her to look in my direction so those twelve people could see and feel what I did when she looked at me.
    Maura hesitated as long as she could before she said, “We did, but we had an argument. I ran out on him.”
    “Tell us about the argument,” the prosecutor said. “Did Mr. Cooper become violent during your encounter?”
    She snuck another peek at me. I narrowed my eyes, pleading with her to tell the truth, to set me free of this hell. That’s when Maura started to cry. I could see how confused she was. The trial was obviously tearing her apart, and suddenly, I wasn’t thinking about the years I may have to spend in prison for a crime I didn’t commit. I was thinking about the hell she had endured at the hands of a monster.
    “No, Coop was never violent with me.” She bit her lip. “He had a bad temper. He got jealous sometimes, but I was never afraid he’d hit me or anything.”
    “He got jealous sometimes?” the prosecutor said. “Is that why you argued the night of your attack?”
    “Yes. My ex-boyfriend was at the bar. Coop saw us slow dancing. He got angry and demanded I leave with him. I feared for my ex-boyfriend’s safety. Coop was a professional fighter, and I knew my ex wouldn’t have stood a chance against him.”
    Rage ripped through me. She was worried about protecting her ex? She’d sworn she didn’t feel a thing for him, that it had been over for a long time. Did she have sex with me that night just to placate me?
    My lawyer touched my forearm, obviously sensing the tension in my body. I withdrew my arm. I didn’t need him to remind me we would get our turn to question her. The damage was already done. She’d made up her mind that she wanted me to pay for this crime.
    “So you left the bar with Mr. Cooper that night?”
    “Yes.”
    “Did you fear for your own safety, given his state of mind?”
    “Some of my girlfriends were