The movement is hypnotizing, stealing my thoughts away. I’m getting wetter, hotter by the second.
“I’m what?” I demand when my pussy throbs painfully, turning me embarrassingly desperate. “What?”
“I can’t tell if you’ve changed or not.” His gaze turns inward as his fingers keep working me. “Hard to tell when I don’t think I ever really knew you at all.”
That last sentence hollows out my stomach, crushing me so completely it’s hard to breathe. Knowing something I did caused him that much pain is worse than anything I’ve ever endured.
I have no idea what happened to make him believe I betrayed him, but it hurts.
“Talk to me,” I beg, bracing for the harsh, painful truth he keeps bottled up inside.
“Forget it.” His jaw tics. “This trip down memory lane is pointless.”
He pulls out of my mouth abruptly. His absence cuts me as it has every day since he disappeared from our town. I should be used to missing him by now.
I’m not.
And yet I don’t call for him. Don’t say a word.
“Kick the dress off the pedestal.” We stare at each other. Me, begging to be seen. Him, a statue made of sharp edges. “Get. On. All. Fours.”
As I watch him put old walls back up around his heart, I realize there’ll be no reaching him tonight.
Maybe tomorrow. Or the day after.
This hope is why I don’t tell him to go to hell. To shove his money where the sun doesn’t shine.
As infuriating as he is, he’s mine. I’m not going anywhere.
And since obeying seems like a good way to convince him to let me stay, that’s what I do.
My dress is on the floor. My hands and knees make contact with the smooth surface of the pedestal.
“Good, good.” He pats my head like he would a pet. Another demeaning gesture that sends heat between my thighs. When I notice how hard he is, how big, I’m trembling with need. “Stay.”
He turns off the lamp, then stalks off with it in his hand. Head high, broad shoulders pulled back, he almost looks invincible.
It’s a facade. That of a hurt, furious man.
He can be mean all he wants. Doesn’t change my feelings about him one bit.
Duncan doesn’t leave me with my thoughts for long. He returns, holding a roll of duct tape in one hand.
In the other, he has a polished ivory-colored item. It’s not a dildo or a vibrator. There’s no head at the top. But it looks phallic.
It looks like it could bruise.
My stomach hollows out, both lust and courage slipping away from me, fast.
Was I stupid to trust Duncan, this new version of him?
Maybe I was. Maybe he’s going to use the duct tape to shut me up. Then he wouldn’t hear me begging him to stop. He could,guilt-free, beat me black and blue with thisthingto prove how imperfect I can be.
“Please, don’t.” I gulp, scooting backward until my feet dangle in the air. Blood drains from my face. “Please.”
“No moving.” He shakes his head once. “When I saidstay, I meant?—”
“Stay.” The word is a shaky sigh. “I know. Just don’t hit me. I’ll do anything. Say anything, like how flawed I am.”How missing you turned me into a shadow of myself.“But I’m not going to take a beating from this thing you’re holding. If that’s what you’ll use it on me, we’re done. Forever.”
