The love bombing, the making you feel secure, the gifts, the dates… in the moment it doesn’t look like what it is. It feels good to be wanted that way, to be desired so intensely until you’re in so deep it’s hard to find the exit.
“Don’t think I didn’t see you,” Cal grabs my wrist, hard, fingers tightening enough I know he’ll leave bruises, “Once a slut, always a slut.”
“What are you talking about?” I feel the sting of tears, but I push them back, despite the pain and humiliation.
“You want to fuck him, right?” He laughs cruelly, “A man shows you even a little bit of interest and those legs just fall right on open.”
“Cal,” I whisper.
“Am I wrong?” He pulls away from the hand trying to clean him up, “You did it for me.”
I didn’t.
That’s not how it went with us. This was him. He manipulated me, used me… fed off my need to be wanted.
“Please,” I swallow, “stop.”
“He could never fuck you the way I fuck you.” He growls.
I bite my tongue. Cal doesn’t fuck me like he thinks he does. I fake it every time to save myself the argument.I’m hard to please. He’s dismissed my pleasure so many times, it’s easier to give him what he wants, but this man doesn’t know where the clit is even if you drew him a fucking map.
“I’m not interested in him,” I lie.
“Good,” he spits, “You’re mine, Juniper. I’ll never let you go.”
There’s an underlying threat to the words. I’ve heard it so often that I know what he’ll do to make sure he never lets me go.
I feel the tension brimming between us for the rest of the day. Cal pretends none of it happens but his workers whisper behind his back, and I know damn well he hears it all. I’ve watched him grow more tense as the clock ticks down, and everything in me prays something happens to keep him from coming home.
Does it make me an awful person to hope that he gets hurt?
I grip the counter in the kitchen, shaking my head. Of course it makes me a terrible person. Who the hell wants that?
I move through the kitchen, preparing dinner for the two of us, thankful for the time alone for now, though it doesn’t last very long.
I tense as the door slams open. It’s so loud and violent, I swear the whole house vibrates with it.
Bracing myself behind the kitchen island, I turn to face Calvin.
“You fucking dirty little liar,” he snaps out.
It’s been several hours since Silas left, and I escaped to the house. I’ve come to terms with never leaving here; I just want to go through my life quietly. I don’t want to make sound waves; I want to be quiet, one with the walls. It’s the only way to survive.
“What are you talking about?” I breathe as I face my husband.
He slaps a card down on the counter, and I feel the blood drain from my face.
Silas’s business card stares back at me.
I thought I’d hidden it well.
Cal never goes into Ginger’s stall. My girl fucking despises him, goes for him whenever he is closeenough to her, and he’s learned to stay away. I’d tucked the card into my saddlebag, right down deep to hide it in case I ever needed it.
I fought with myself after he slid it under that bucket. Tried to ignore that it was there, but that only lasted a few minutes. I’d fished it out and read over the information on the front.
Silas Knight
Knight Falls Ranch, Sunstone Ridge, Montana
