“Enough!” he barks and then leans in close to my face. “No daughter of mine will have a bastard born out of wedlock. It’s bad enough you’re now damaged goods.”
“He … he raped me,” I whisper.
“Because you’d spread your legs for another man!” His hand connects with my cheek, and I choke out a sob. “You’re a disgrace to this family, and when they’re done taking the bastard out of you, you’re coming home.”
I close my eyes and blink back my tears, not wanting to give him any more of myself. And when I open them, a gentleman in a white lab coat is standing over me. With his dirty-blond hair, soft green eyes, and a small belly hanging over his belt, he doesn’t appear to be threatening, but right now, he’s the most dangerous person in the room … because he’s about to take my baby—and destroy my heart in the process.
“Before we do the procedure, I need to confirm there is a pregnancy,” the doctor says.
I watch the screen as he moves the probe around my belly. And when a loud whooshing sound hits the quiet room, I release a sob, unable to hold it back anymore.
My baby.
My sweet, innocent baby is going to be taken from me before he or she ever gets a chance to breathe.
The doctor nods and then lifts a mask over my face.
“Don’t worry,” he says as my head becomes fuzzy. “You won’t feel a thing.”
If only that were true …
1
Brielle
Six Years Later
“Please, harder!”
Theo nods, and his arms come down on either side of my head.
For a moment, I think,This is it—he’s finally going to give me what I need.
Until he gently glides inside me. His mouth curves against mine, and his tongue slides in. And I can’t help thinking that he kisses the same way he fucks—like I have ahandle with caresticker attached to my forehead.
I try to shift my hips, hoping to somehow find the sweet spot that will send me over the edge, but it’s nowhere to be found.
“Harder,” I beg, craving the release that I already know I’m not going to get—at least not until he’s done and I’m alone in the bathroom so I can do it myself.
“I’m trying,” he says, his face scrunching up, as if it physically pains him just to think about doing what I’m asking of him. “But I don’t want to hurt you.”
“You’re not going to hurt me,” I tell him, pushing him off me and clambering back, wishing I had never confided in him.
“Brielle,” he sighs as he edges off the bed and runs his fingers through his dirty-blond hair. He’s still partly dressed, his shirtunbuttoned and his pants undone. He stuffs his still-hard cock back inside. “I’m trying, but you’re asking me to do things I’m not comfortable with. I love you. I’m never going to hurt you. You’ve been through a lot and …”
I stumble off the bed, taking the sheet with me to cover myself up.
“I was there,” I hiss. “I was the one who was thrown onto the bed and held down while a man I despised raped me. So, don’t tell me what I’ve been through and what I need.”
I turn my back on Theo and stomp into the bathroom, slamming the door behind me.
“Brielle, please,” he says through the door as I grab my clothes and get dressed. “Come back out here so we can talk about this.”
“I don’t want to talk!” I bark. “I wanted to fuck …hard,but you ruined the mood.”
The same way he always ruins the mood.
Not that there was ever really a mood to begin with.
