Page 81 of Hide From Me

This time she stopped fighting me, and I wouldn’t put money that the fight was running out of her, but rather that she was now back to a runway brain.

“I don’t understand. The rent? It was cheap. Was that you too?”

I just nodded.

“What? How did you know I was going to come back? Why did you know my plans?”

It’s like I could watch all the little light bulbs coming on.

“Oh my god. The questionnaire? My counselor was very pushy about it being accurate. She even gave me contacts. You?”

I pulled her closer.

“I promised I would protect you. I thought I could let you go once you left here, but I couldn’t.”

I expected more questions. Her eyes darted one way, then the next. Her lips opened and closed and opened and closed.

“I will answer all your questions in a few hours, blossom. I need to sleep. It was a long fucking night.”

I tossed her phone next to her as I emptied my pockets. I had to let her go to get the knives strapped to my thigh off and the knife in my boot. The gun that had been in my shoulder holster was already soaking and getting ready to become part of the next art installation. Normally, that’s where I would be. In my art, to ignore the bullshit of all this.

Tonight though? I had her. She was here to chase away all the demons that I housed in my dark soul.

“Has anything in my life really been a choice?” she asked.

I hated how vulnerable she looked as she asked me that. I nodded.

“You chose to come back here even though I never wanted you to.”

I dropped my jacket and everything else on the floor. She sat on her haunches. At least she didn’t look like a wounded animal at this point. No. I was pretty sure the way she looked at me right now was more of a death glare.

“Look. Rylee, I did everything I could to keep you far away from me. From here. And yet here you are. Back in my city, and hell if I was going to let you out of my sight.”

She narrowed her eyes. This couldn’t be a good thing.

“You tried to keep me away?”

I nodded, but damn if I didn’t have a fucking clue what she was looking for. Still, the way her breathing pushed those breasts higher, and the dress strained as she did so. Fuck if she was calming down or not.

“You sent me away to a life that wasn’t much better than what I’d had here.”

What in the ever-loving fuck was she saying?

I reached over the bed, seeing nothing but the abusive prick of a father that accepted money to let men rape her.

I slipped my hand around her neck, forcing her down under me as I climbed over her.

“Not much worse than here?” I asked.

I slid my other hand under the short skirt, sliding my fingers over her thigh, gripping the skin far more roughly than I’d ever touched her.

“That’s not,” she said, but I squeezed a little tighter, not enough to choke her, but enough that she took it as a warning.

“What, Rylee? What did you mean then? Where I sent you. Did you ever have to endure the touch of a man that you didn’t want?”

I used the strength of my legs and my size advantage over her to push her legs wide.

“Did you ever feel powerless like your father wanted you to feel?”

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