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muttered.
    “I didn’t know what that word meant at the
time, but I definitely called her that when I got older.” She pushed her hair
back from her face. Now that she’d started, the words flowed out of her. “I
told you two I grew up in San Francisco. When I was ten, my mother sent me to
New England to boarding school. She had a new man in her life and thought a
daughter would be in the way.” Kelcey released a chuckle, but it held no humor.
“She never knew how thankful I was that she wanted to be rid of me.”
    “Wait a minute,” Emma said. “She sent you
away instead of confronting her brothers?”
    “She didn’t believe me, remember? Her
brothers could do no wrong. There was no way they’d ever do something so
heinous.”
    “So you stayed in boarding school…how
long?” Alaina asked.
    “Until I was eighteen. I didn’t bother to
go home for visits and that was fine with my mother. She was too busy with her
charity affairs and personal affairs to worry about her daughter.”
    “What about holidays and summer vacation?
Where did you go?”
    “I had a lot of wonderful friends. Someone
always invited me to go with her for Thanksgiving or Christmas or spring break.
I spent the summers with my friend Gail and her family. They had a beautiful
place on Martha’s Vineyard.”
    “I’m so glad you had such good friends.”
    “They were the best. Until you two, of
course.”
    Emma squeezed her hand. “Did you move to
Texas after boarding school?”
    Kelcey nodded again. “I came into the
inheritance from my father when I turned eighteen. I moved to Dallas after I
graduated and started a new life. I started an internship at Tharwood Energy
after my sophomore year in college. I started working there full-time after
graduation.” She pushed her hair behind her ears. “I met some really nice men
and tried dating, but…” Tears filled her eyes again. “The memories would always
take over and I…couldn’t do anything.”
    Alaina draped one arm over Kelcey’s
shoulders. “Is that what happened with Dax?”
    “Yes. One minute we were kissing, and the
next I was screaming at him to get off me.”
    “Please don’t take this the wrong way,
Kelc,” Emma said, “but have you thought about seeing a therapist?”
    “Don’t you think I did? I talked to two
different therapists. I even saw a psychiatrist for a while. I know I should be
able to get past what happened, but I just…can’t.”
    Emma rubbed her hand over Kelcey’s back in
small circles. “Okay, let’s think about this. You said you and Dax were kissing
and then you screamed at him to get off you. I assume that means he was on top
of you?”
    Kelcey wiped the tears from her cheeks.
“Yes.”
    “Is that the way it was with all the men
you tried to sleep with?”
    “Yes. Why do you ask?”
    Emma wiggled her mouth back and forth. “It
sounds like the man on top of you is what triggers the memories. You’re no
longer in control. What if you were on top and in control of sex?”
    Kelcey had never considered that. Since she
knew absolutely nothing about sex—other than from books and movies—she’d always
assumed the man would do most of the work. “Are you on top when you have sex?”
    “Sometimes I am, sometimes Griff is.
Sometimes he’s behind me, or we’re standing, or I’m bent over a table. There
are a lot of positions for sex, Kelc. You just have to find what works for you.”
    She looked at Alaina, who nodded. “Emma is
right. When you find a man who truly cares about you, he’ll do everything he
can to please you.”
    “I don’t know if I have the courage to look
for that man.”
    “Maybe you don’t have to look for him,”
Emma said. “What about Dax?”
    Heat flooded Kelcey’s cheeks at the thought
of being alone with Dax again. “I could never have sex with Dax, not after the
way I acted last night. I don’t want him to know about what happened to me.”
    “I’m pretty sure he already does.”
    Kelcey figured