“You can put it back when I’m not with you.” I grab his face. “But they need to think you’re one of them.”
He cups my cheek, stroking my cheek with his thumb as he leans forward so our noses brush. “I love you, so fucking much, you know that, you know I love you?”
“I loved you too,” I admit. “You were the best part of my life, and you were the only place I ever felt safe.”
His eyes dim at my use of the past tense. He’d have to be insane to think I’d ever fully trust him after he left me chained up in a building he set alight. When I thought he carried me out, I’d justified it as another ploy to scare me, but he had every intention of leaving me inside to burn to death.
“Play pretend I’m still that person?” he whispers.
What use is sanity around egotistical fucks, when the only way to beat their sinister minds is to be like them?
“I love you, Kane.” My fingers tighten against his face as I pull him forward, whispering against his lips, “Will you help me now, baby?”
He slowly nods, brushing his lips against mine as he counters, “If I can make up for the pain with pleasure? Don’tcome in front of anyone else, let that be mine. Will you let me fuck you right here with the stars as our only witness?”
Trading my body isn’t an issue, it’s the standard for my life, but this is my choice so I agree. “As long as you’re good, I’ll let you do whatever you want.”
“Have my mind, koukla mou.” He kisses my cheek, his lips lingering as he grinds up into my inner thigh so I can feel him hard. “Make no mistake, I’ll have you in return.”
12
KANE
Metal clinks against metal as I loosely hold the leather loop of the leash while Delilah limps behind me with her chin tucked to her chest. It takes effort to stop myself looking at her as I thread my fist through the loop, wrapping the chain around my knuckles.
Fuck me, she’s so fucking strong.
She doesn’t exude it by arguing or screaming. It’s a mental strength, allowing her to fall to her hands and knees even though she knows she’s going to be mocked.
I’ve been ridiculed, humiliated, had my worst moments announced, yet I would rather die than experience it again. Delilah’s so in control of her mind, she can push the temporary humiliation aside to achieve her goal as I walk her through the kitchen, past her parents and Helene, who pause drinking their tea.
From the age of six, I was enamored by her. Now, as a man, nearly thirty years later, I’m in awe of her. The type of awe that inspires the creation of religions and deities. Dropping to my knees to worship her as she deserves isn’t a possibility, so we’reboth going to be sore from spending the night on the ledge away from Helene’s surveillance.
My beautiful wife forces her arms to tremble as she pushes her weight down to make sure the monsters see me as one of them. I never thought I’d miss hiding my identity from Delilah, but I’m doing the same now as I split my personality, dragging her across the floor with a white-knuckle grip on the leash, biting out, “Do not fucking disobey me.”
My nape prickles as the chairs scrape against the kitchen tile and the sick cunts slowly follow us into the fuck room. The air is colder and there’s a new taxidermy addition seated opposite the bench. My grandfather perfumes the air with whatever chemicals have been used to glue his skin to the frame propping him up. With the bright lights streaming through the domed atrium end of the lounge, his skin looks strange. When we first saw him, he was more lifelike, but now the grey pallor of his skin is obvious.
Delilah slows as she crawls around him, her hand forming a fist to prevent touching him. There’s a really fucked up part of me finding humor in our situation, so I pause beside him, extending my voice to make sure everyone hears me order, “Kiss his knuckles.”
Helene steps ahead of the others to have a clear view as she smiles, eagerly watching Delilah. The tremor in Delilah’s limbs isn’t fake as she sits up on her knees, her muscles pulled taut to lessen it as she slowly leans forward. Her lips are set in a thin straight line, the tendons in her neck are rigid, fighting to pull her back. This ethereal woman with more strength than anyone I’ve ever encountered pushes through the normal, natural urge to run. When her lips brush his lifeless skin, I tug on the leash, pulling her back before they can fully press against his knuckles.
My beautiful wife shines in her anger, glaring up at me. Her eyes are like the most elusive sapphires the earth could produceas I use the leash to throw her onto the bench. I’m unable to appreciate her beauty when Helene steps up to the raised area. The cunt holds her hand out and my jaw pulses, teeth grinding as she says, “There’s a hook for the end of the leash.”
Fuck you.
“Sit down and shut up or leave,” I say. “No one will take away the pleasure of disciplining my wife while I join the two families together.”
Her pride returns in increments as she walks away, tapping her fucking stick against the floor in time with her slow steps until she takes a seat beside her preserved husband.
I kick against the bench leg, making sure Delilah will be covered by my body. I promised myself I would never give a man my back, but I have to make a choice: break the promise to myself or allow Delilah to be exposed to her abuser. It’s an easy decision, so I ignore the sweat trickling down my spine and how my heart beating drowns out every other sound in the room.
I wrap the leash handle around a backwards L-shaped ornate hook embedded into the rock beside the window as her parents get closer. The sound of Harkin’s shoes tapping against the floor echo over my erratic heartbeat.
“Don’t fucking move,” I snap.
“She is no longer your daughter.” Helene raises her stick, pointing the lion’s head at him as she lends her authority. “Do not interfere or mistake my earlier generosity as a blanket invitation.” They sit beside her, both of Delilah’s parents waiting to watch their daughter be fucking raped like it’s a movie premiere.
I can’t fucking move.
