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Dumbfounded, he stared down at her.  “But…you were married.”

She nodded.  “Believe me, I am well aware.”

He frowned.  “How long were you married?”

“Three weeks.”

His eyebrows flew up to challenge the ceiling.  “You sure weren’t married for long.”

“Long enough.  It felt like years,” she muttered bitterly.

He furrowed his brow.  “I don’t understand.  You never slept with your husband?”

She looked pained.  And that bright blush was stealing across her cheeks again.  “Not for lack of trying,” she finally mumbled.

He stared down at her in disbelief.  “Are you saying that he couldn’t…?”

“There’s something wrong with me, Soo Ho,” she admitted, horrified.

“What?” he asked, confused.

She sneaked a peek up at him.  “I don’t know.  But every time he took me into our bedroom and demanded I undress, he became very angry with me.  And told me it was all my fault.  And then he…”  Her voice trailed off.

A deep suspicion assaulting him, he urged her onward, “And then he…what?”

She winced and closed her eyes again.

“He’s the reason you didn’t want me to touch your cheek, isn’t he?”  He reached up then and lightly cupped her jawline, tenderly brushing the pad of his thumb across her skin.  As he imagined it purpled by that evil man’s hand.

This time, she didn’t flinch.  “He struck me across the face,” she whispered.  “Many times.”

She could still feel that pain exploding into her cheekbones.

Soo Ho bent his head, and his lips followed the path which his thumb had just burned into her cheek.  As his mouth ministered tenderness to that once-bruised flesh, a tear escaped her eye, seeking out those sweet lips.  A moment later, he tasted the salt of her grief, and his heart swelled with love for her.

“I am so sorry, Jung Sook,” he breathed against her skin.

“No, Soo Ho, it isn’t your fault.”

“I am so sorry that any man thought he could treat you like you don’t matter.  You are precious.”

His warm breath was still slipping along her skin, enveloping her with his sweet presence.  But it was his last three words that coaxed more of her tears to fall.  He kissed each one as well as the paths that they’d created in their descent down her face. Those gentle lips then traveled across her cheek, inching their way towards her mouth.

Finally, they brushed softly against her lips once more.  And she felt as if her heart couldn’t handle too much more of his kindness.  It was so full now that it might just burst.

He whispered against that sweet mouth of hers, “Tell me the whole of it, Jung Sook.  Right now.  Please.  Leave nothing unspoken between us.”

A sob escaped her lips.  “He hurt me, Soo Ho.  He hurt me badly.  He pummeled me with his fists.  He kicked me.”  She reached up to cradle her ribs gently.  “He broke one of my ribs once, I think.  It hurt for weeks.  Even after he died.” 

He glanced down at her hand, resting above her waist.  He lifted his own hand to cover hers.  And found her hand sliding out from underneath his to leave his own fingers to tenderly cradle that offended rib.  He soothed it with the soft pad of his thumb, brushing gently across that sorrowful bone.

She watched that hand in wonder.  Before Soo Ho, no man had ever touched her tenderly.  He was undoing her with his kindness.  Wrapping her heart around him.

After another quiet moment, she whispered, “He never even kissed me as you have.  There was not one tender bone in his body.  They were all violent.  And he hated me.”

“It wasn’t your fault.  There is nothing wrong with you.  Some men just can’t…”  He inhaled sharply.  “The problem was with him.  Not with you.”

She drew back and glanced up into his eyes.  “Soo Ho, are you telling me the truth?  You’ve never seen me…”  She glanced down at her body.

“I don’t need to.  I can tell you with absolute certainty that his reaction to you – and his lack of reaction – wasn’t your fault.”

When she appeared doubtful, he insisted firmly, “It wasn’t.  Jung Sook, it wasn’t your fault.  And I can promise you that – naked or even clothed – I would still want you.”

He chuckled inwardly as that delightful flush flooded her face once more.  “Am I being too plainspoken?”

She sniffed and shook her head.  “Are you sure, Soo Ho?  I can’t ever go through that again.”

Confused, he furrowed his brow. “Go through what?”

“Being rejected by a man because he finds me…inadequate.”

“Jung Sook, I can assure you,” his eyes slid down her body before traveling back up again, “I don’t find you in the least…inadequate.”

“But I’m dressed,” she whispered.  “Buried beneath these robes.”

“It doesn’t matter…but we could easily remedy that,” he remarked provocatively with a mischievous quirk of one midnight eyebrow.

“Soo Ho!” she gasped, and she was tempted to slap him on the shoulder, but she wasn’t given to expressing herself physically, so she resisted the impulse.

“I’m just teasing you, my love.  We will, of course, wait for that until we’re married.”

She stopped breathing.  Again.  As her eyes riveted to his.  “What?” she finally managed to squeak.

“What?” he echoed.

“You want to…marry me?” she asked breathlessly.

He bobbed his head.  “Well, of course, I do.  I love you, Jung Sook.  I’ve told you that – what? – five times tonight.  And I want you,” he bent to breathe into her ear again.  Then he sighed in disappointment.  “But I realize that I’m not going to get you without putting a ring on your finger first.  Right?”

She drew a deep breath.  “I’m not sure I can, Soo Ho.”

“I assure you.  It’s really very easy most of the time.”

Crimson creeping into her cheeks again, she retorted softly, “I mean, I’m not sure I can even contemplate marriage again.”  Her heart was sinking. 

Did he really love her?  Did he truly desire to marry her?  And was there any way that she could ever find the courage to make that kind of commitment to another man?  Even one as sweet as Soo Ho?

Or had the past stained her soul black and blue as Dong Nam had once stained her skin?  Was she too tender to ever walk the path of matrimony again?