Didmy appearance repulse Vaughn? Did he think me pathetic for not being able to take better care of myself? Did I remind him too much of the mindless boy who’d practically fallen on the pieces of butterscotch candy he’d handed me like a dying man would throw himself into a pool in the middle of the desert?
I let out a little laugh that sounded like more of a whimper.
It wasn’t really those candies I’d been indulging in. It’d been those few seconds I’d gotten to spend with the man who gave them to me. When he hadn’t been scanning our surroundings to make sure we were alone, he’d been watching me peel open the littlenuggets of gold and he’d let out the smallest of laughs when I got my first taste of the buttery goodness.
Vaughn had become one big indulgence for me in the months he’d been working for Father. Besides the one trip outside the house every week Father had allowed me to pick up fresh flowers, I hadn’t ever looked forward to anything until Vaughn had shown up at the mansion. He’d given me a lot more than just candy and that wasn’t a good thing.
Because what he’d given me had been something Brian had made sure I’d let go of long before he’d sold me to my next owner.
Hope.
A chill swept over me. Remembering the shower, I quickly hurried to close the door, ignoring the mental warning in my head that it was against the rules. I started to undo my pants, when I noticed the bundle Vaughn had left for me. I reached for it and realized the top item was actually a towel. Beneath it was a small tube of toothpaste and new toothbrush. And underneath that was a shirt… a really big shirt.
My fingers itched to touch the material. I gave in to the need and let my fingers skim over the softness of it. I didn’t know what possessed me to do what I did next, but I did it anyway.
I picked the folded shirt up and held it to my nose.
Then inhaled deeply.
Definitely his.
God, would he smell like this all over?
I remembered how hot his skin had felt when I’d hugged him after he’d lifted me up off the floor of that van.
More warmth filled my body, so much so that it felt almost wrong, so I quickly pulled the shirt back and opened it so I could see how big it really was.
Something fell to the floor and it took me a moment to find it.
And when I did, I forgot all about the shirt and the shower and my state of undress. And the fact that I’d told myself I was done crying.
The dreaded tears began to flow as I dropped to my knees and silently cursed Vaughn in my head.
“Ignore it,” I whispered to myself.
Jesus, it should be such an easy thing – to ignore it, get up, shower, and leave this place.
But I couldn’t move. Not to get up, not even to curl into a ball on the floor like I wanted.
All I could do was stare in confusion as a little spark of unexpected hope began to curl through my entire body as I stared at Vaughn’s “gift” which glittered like gold against the stark, dingy tiles beneath me.
The jerk had brought out the big guns… and he probably didn’t even know it.
Damn freaking butterscotch.
Chapter 5
Vaughn
My shirt lookedhuge on him. It wasn’t that I was even that big of a guy, Aleks was just so…
Beautiful.
I sighed silently at my brain’s attempt to be logical. The reasonable side of me was fully aware that the now twenty-year-old Aleks had lost some weight over the years, making him look pretty lean. Although Marcus had used food as a means to control Aleks, he’d also prized Aleks’s beauty and had made sure he was physically healthy, so he hadn’t starved him long-term. But that didn’t mean he hadn’t withheld food to punish Aleks. And while I’d never seen Marcus strike Aleks firsthand, there was no denying that the man had physically abused him at one point because I’d seen the scars on Aleks’s back.
His back.
Where admirers were less likely to see the marks when Marcus paraded his pet in front of them.
