Page 1 of Love Me Gently

One

Trina

Now

Isuckedat being perfect.No one had to tell me that.

The bruise and cut on my face confirmed it.

I hissed in a breath as I gently applied retinol serum to my face. Normally on nights like this, I was a master at avoiding looking at my face in the mirror but tonight had been worse than it’d been in months. The evidence of the bruise blossoming on my left cheekbone far too evident already.

At least it’d been a backhanded slap and not a punch. But the jagged edges of his ring left a nasty cut that took a while to stop bleeding. The swelling and discoloration would have to heal if I had any hope of being allowed outside tomorrow. I’d need heavy concealer to hide it, and I was running low, so a trip to Sephora for more was questionable.

“What a mess.”

It wasn’t just my face. It was everything. My body. My spirit. My life. My choices.

I could no longer count the messes I’d made in the last twelve years, but I’d never forget the one that was the catalyst for the ruin I’d made of everything since then.

“Come to bed, Katrina.”

I quickly hid my flinch at Jonathan’s voice from the bedroom and swallowed down the bile rising in my throat.

“One more minute,” I called back. I peeked my head out of our bathroom door.

He was already in the bed, covers folded back. He’d been handsome once. Almost the most handsome man I’d ever seen in my life.

To the outside world, he still was, but now all I saw was his ugly evilness.

I plastered a kind smile on my face that did little to soften the irritation tightening the Norse-God features on his. “I need to use the restroom and then I’ll be there.”

“Hurry. You know how I feel about waiting.”

I dipped my chin in acknowledgment, closed the bathroom door, and quickly finished up and prepared myself. I’d learned a long time ago to keep a bottle of lubricant hidden and applied it.

My husband had already taken his pound of flesh, but in a few moments when he took my body, at least it wouldn’t hurt so much.

The pain deep inside, though, would never heal. I had twelve years of life behind me to prove it.

Two

Trina

Then

The hotel glittered with chandeliers.Streamers and balloons hung on every available surface, and my wide eyes, filled with excitement, took it all in.

Next to me, Cole Paxton stood tall and broad-shouldered with his hand at my lower back. I’d almost melted like the wicked witch after being doused with water when I saw him earlier, when he came to pick me up with a corsage that matched the color of my dress and shakily slid it onto my wrist.

Since then, we’d gone to dinner with my best friends, Heather and Ashley, and their two dates, Cole’s best friends. The six of us were always together, walking a fine line between rebelling, being typical high school teenagers, and following the rules. Considering who my father was, with a large target on my back expecting I was perfectly behaved at all times, I was the one usually on the side of following the rules.

Not tonight, though. I leaned into Cole’s hand at my back and briefly thought of the rule we were about to break.

For the daughter of Deer Creek’s, small town Baptist minister, what I was planning to do later was a big one.

“This is awesome!” Heather shouted. She had Ashley’s hand in hers on one side of her and Paul’s in her other. The rowdiest leader of our group, like usual, she was in the front, dragging us all behind her.

My stomach rolled with nerves while my veins bubbled with excitement.

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