“Where do you go when you zone out?”
She swallowed hard, wanting to make a joke, to insult him, to do something to bypass the conversation.
He shook his head before she could. “I’m serious, Alison. There is a huge tripwire here we keep getting caught on, and I don’t know what it is. I don’t need you to pour your heart out—I’m not going to try and force you to give anything you don’t have to—but I need to understand where that line is so I stop falling flat on my face over it.”
Alison said nothing at first. She let the stroking of his hand over her back take away some of the anxiety inside her.
Finally, she answered, choosing her words carefully.Tell him only as much as he needs to know.
“My father,” she said softly. “He wasn’t very approving of me.”
A soft rumble came from Kyle’s chest, one that eased her further. “Parents sure can fuck us up, can’t they? What was his problem? I can’t imagine being all that disappointed in a kick-ass daughter like you.”
That praise, small as it was, took up space inside her, space that had always been dark and heavy and full of all the ways she didn’t live up to expectations. It drew more of the story from her. “He thought women should be silent, meek,obedient. I tried to do what he wanted, I really did, but I never could follow the rules enough. I never was quiet enough.”
Kyle let out a low sound, something that implied that he was listening but didn’t want to interrupt.
“He always said I was difficult, that I was stubborn.”
“Is he still alive?”
She imagined his harsh features, the dark eyes, the way he stood straight and could unnerve anyone with a silent stare. “I have no idea.”
Kyle rubbed his forehead against hers, a sweet nuzzle she had to stop herself from leaning in to, from returning. “Is that why you don’t like when we touch your chin?”
Thatquestion hurt. Her stomach rolled and she closed her eyes, the answer slipping from her without her even having to think about it. “He never hit me—he believed if you had to hit a woman, you’d already failed as a man. He’d grab my chin, though, and stare down at me with this level of disgust, like I was the lowest thing he’d seen.” The words came from her like shards of glass, as if they sliced and tore at her on the way out.
Kyle did that low rumble again—a purr?—and wrapped his arm tighter around her. “That’s enough, sugar. I’m sorry he did that, and now that I understand, I’ll make sure we’re more cautious about that. Shh, just relax for a minute.”
Alison wanted to snap, to tell him she didn’t need to relax, that she was fine.
Except, she realized she was shivering. She wasn’t cold, yet her body trembled as though she were naked and wet and freezing. The warmth of Kyle’s body, the strength in his arms and that wonderfully relaxing vibration from his chest all called to her.
So Alison let herself have something she’dneverallowed herself before.
She rested against Kyle and shut her eyes, surrendering for real, just for right then.
* * * *
Daniel chuckled at the way Alison fidgeted. For the first time, they’d bound her. With the meeting tomorrow, they needed to move forward with pressing her, and he had to admit—he enjoyed her reaction.
He wouldn’t have liked fear.
Real fear was sour, acidic and altogether unpleasant. Unease, though? That edge of worry?Thathe found irresistible, and it filled Alison.
She knelt on the floor, a pillow beneath her knees to take the strain off, her wrists cuffed behind her. It made her chest push forward, and it would have been impossible to not notice how lovely her figure was.
Even if he wasn’t supposed to notice, the way her tank top hugged her curves was a thing of beauty. Her chest wasn’t that large, but it also meant that when she wore no bra—or something thin without much support—her breasts were still high on her chest and stunning. Her bare skin was flushed, and her shorts showed off the expanse of her toned legs.
Kyle had sat down with Trent and Daniel earlier, had explained what Alison had told him.
While Daniel was grateful for an understanding of the girl who was so tight-lipped that—despite how close he’d gotten to her—she still seemed like a stranger, he’d had to grapple with his own frustration about her family.
He wouldn’t deny he enjoyed some humiliation. He liked to force a woman to blush when he pointed out things that embarrassed her, things thatshouldn’tembarrass her but did.
However, he only liked that when the woman did, and clearly that was off limits with Alison.
Daniel checked her cuffs behind her, catching a tremble that ran through her when he moved out of her line of sight. “Everything feeling okay?”
