Page 31 of Toy Shop

“Red.”

“All right.” The verbal stop sign registers in a heartbeat. “I’m curious about other aspects of your life. Is that okay?”

The appreciation of me standing by my promise brings levity to her expression. “Yes.”

“Roger approves of your work, I assume.” I tread lightly toward the subject.

“He hasn’t fired me for the past four years. I must be doing something right.”

“How do you…” I lower my chin, giving her a pointed look. “Please don’t take it as anything other than sheer curiosity. How do you recommend products matching the clients’ tastes without any experience?”

“That’s actually not a horrible question.” Her butt shuffles a little on the cushion while angling herself to face me. Not like I let go of her in the process. Not like I can.

“Rhodes explains most of it to me. Talking about it doesn’t feel menacing when he speaks of his experience or when one of his girlfriends do. Other than that, it’s about doing your best to be a decent human, to understand someone’s needs and help them.”

It doesn’t escape me she used the word menacing, nor have I forgotten her apprehension earlier. My care and need to remove the shit from her life consume me, propelling me to venture deeper. Until she safewords me again.

My voice is a caress, my words bare of judgment. “What happened? Why the inhibitions?”

There’s a crack in her, a doubt. “I’m afraid it’ll make you think less of me.”

“Not gonna happen.”

I refrain from adding how I can sense that by the end of this conversation, someone will have hell to pay for what they’ve done to her. My face is as sealed as my lips are, and I shut up and listen.

CHAPTER TWELVE

Nola

“It was a stupid high school thing.” I try to stir my gaze away, to avoid the judgment that will inevitably arrive.

“It’s not stupid if you got hurt.” Alistair isn’t having it. His fingers at my chin drag me to his harsh glare. “Whatever anyone else has done, it does nothing to diminish my opinion of you.”

His nostrils flare in response to my glossed-over eyes. “Give me the word, and that person perishes off the face of this planet. No one will find him once I’m done with him.”

The man who pounded and spanked and rammed into me intended for me to hurt. It wasn’t the kind of pain a cold, brutal heart inflicts. He tortured me just enough to awaken my senses, have them salute him, acknowledge Alistair was the captain sailing my ship to a haven.

This Alistair staring at me has vengeance screaming out of his pores. He leaves no room for doubt about how serious he is about making good on his promise.

Which I appreciate, though, won’t be accepting. I place a palm flat on his chest, drawing from his power, releasing the past. “Thanks, but no. We were young—”

A hint of a smirk slips past his rough exterior.

“Ugh.” I roll my eyes. “Younger. I’m sure—I hope—Reggie regrets it by now.”

“What. Did. He. Do?” The smirk evaporates in a flash. Alistair’s control is hanging by a thread, every word being drawn out carefully.

Once I navigated us out of the murderous zone, I’ll have to tell him the killer look is one he should wear often, as in all the time.

That is, whether he’d stay or not after he hears what an idiot I’ve been.

“I wasn’t raped. He…um…fuck.” I glance at the high ceiling, collecting myself. “Sex always interested me. Reggie and I were friends for years, and at fifteen, he offered me a thousand reasons to believe he was safe for my heart and to experiment. And I loved him.” My shoulders sag. “Like a Taylor Swift song.”

There’s no way I can hold Alistair’s intensity, not a second longer. I break out of his hold, pulling my feet to my chest and resting my forehead on my knees. Alistair, the box of surprises that he is, doesn’t force me into anything.

A large, compassionate palm rolls up and down the curve of my spine, pausing at my nape to massage it, then down again in soothing repetitions.

“Which is so stupid in retrospect,” I murmur into the body-shaped cave I created. “Her songs don’t have happy endings. But I was blind to any of it. An idiot.”

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