Page 42 of Vienna Betrayal

Around the dungeon, other scenes were starting up and the ambient noise level had risen in sync.

But an invisible bubble had formed around them, creating an intimate moment, almost like pillow talk. It was easy to imagine that instead of laying on a spanking bench, she was laying in bed beside him.

“Who hurt you?”

“It doesn’t matter.”

“It does.”

“Heavy impact implements. Beatings. They bring up stuff for me. Stuff that makes it impossible for me to stay in the scene.”

He was silent for a moment, then said, very softly, “Did you make them pay, the people who hurt you?”

“Do I seem like the kind of person who would waste time on revenge?”

“Yes. And it would not be a waste.”

Alena opened her mouth, but didn’t know how to reply.

Because he was right. She’d gotten her revenge, and no one else had ever asked about it. People who knew details of her past asked if she’d gotten therapy, rather than revenge.

The face she presented to the world was audacious and sophisticated. A woman who could handle anything with a wink and laugh.

But Alexander saw through that mask.

He understood her.

And she was going to betray him.

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