Page 61 of The Anguish of the Scottish Lairds
She spit on him.
His hand swung out in a wide arc and slapped her hard just as a door slammed down the way.
“What the hell do you think you are doing, D?” a man asked.
“O, I was just getting a little taste. I’ll let you go first, if you wish.” The man backed away, though he kept his hand on her arm, pinching tightly.
She kicked him and he raised his clenched hand to punch her, but the man named O caught his fist. “You do not touch any of the merchandise. She will earn us a good price because of her beauty. I’ll cut off your sac if I catch you with her again. Understood?”
The man paled but nodded.
“I’ll take her back. You get to work. We don’t have much time. Dawn is upon us, and we leave at high sun.”
The man took off, not saying another word, while O marched Eva back down to her cell, unlocking it and tossing her inside before locking the door again quickly.
Eva fell onto a pallet next to where Sloan leaned against the outside wall. The man had touched her, licked her cheek, nearly attacked her worse. She was so disgusted that she couldn’t speak.
“Eva, you are hale? That wasn’t the same man who took you. What happened?”
Eva shook so hard that her teeth chattered. She closed her eyes to rid the view of the evil bastard from her mind but failed.
Sloan rubbed his wrists. “I managed to get free of my bindings, thanks to you, so here is your axe back.” He set it near her, but she shied away.
“Sloan, don’t touch me. Ever again. I’m so soiled.” Tears slid down her cheeks, the shame overpowering her because of all that had happened. Grateful that O had come in, it didn’t stop the feeling of being sullied by the malodorous brute who took her away.
“Eva, what can I do to help you?” Sloan moved over and sat on the pallet next to her, his soft tone beginning to make its way through the cobwebs that possessed her mind, tangled webs of the past fighting with the present, seeming to tie up tighter and tighter.
“Eva, I know you can hear me, so I wish for you to listen. I don’t know where this fear ofmytouch comes from, but you need to try to rid yourself of it.”
She shook her head, her tremors continuing, not abating at all. If he only knew what she’d gone through back in the stable, and in the other cell, perhaps he would understand, but she would not tell him. She couldn’t. Her embarrassment, the shame, wasn’t something she wanted to deal with now. Shecould still smell the man, and the pain in her face from the brutal slap ached more than she would admit.
“Eva …” Sloan moved closer. “Whatever happened, I’ll help you deal with it. This has naught to do with my offer of a betrothal, this is an offer from one person who cares for you as a friend, who wishes to help you get past whatever is tormenting you. I believe you can. You are a strong woman, and you can deal with it.”
Eva opened her eyes at what she’d heard. Had Sloan called her strong? No one had ever said she was strong. Lennox was. Meg was. Eli, Tamsin, Dyna, and Marta all were strong, but not her.
Never Eva. She was invisible.
But Sloan saw her.
“Why?” she whimpered, wishing anyone would help her to get past her fears. Could Sloan do it?
He moved a touch closer to her on the pallet. “Because our captor knows your weakness now. He’ll continue to taunt you every chance he gets. Until you can show him touch doesn’t bother you, he’ll continue. He has one of those sick minds that loves to torture people, in any way they can. They enjoy it.”
“What do I do, Sloan? I hate him. He hits and pinches me, and I can’t forget how awful I feel when he’s close.” Her voice came out in the lowest whisper as cold began to course through her. The cold of the cell, of their situation, reaching its tendrils into her deepest parts until she shivered from the inside out. A new form of torture she’d never experienced before.
“Help me, Sloan. What do I do?”
“I’ll tell you, and I’m going to do it, but you have to trust me.”
“Anything but touch.”
“I have to touch you.”
Her head shook involuntarily as she thought of all the touches she hated. “Nay, nay, nay.”
He set his hand next to her, not touching her, but close.
“Don’t touch me. Please. I’m disgusting.”
