Page 86 of Beneath the Scars
“Was it okay that I held your hand over your head?” he asks after a minute.
“Yeah. It felt more like we were connected in every way we could be. We’re going to have to play around with that, you know.”
“Mmm.” He grunts, clearly unhappy with the idea. “I hate that binding you might’ve been ruined by someone else’s evil choices.”
“It’s not ruined. We’ll just try things out, and if I get triggered, we’ll stop and do something else. It’ll be no different than the way we’ve been working on you recognizing my touch first.”
Michael slides a strand of hair off my forehead. “Are you sure you’re okay?”
“Yes. I won’t always be. I’m sure I’ll have a flashback or a nightmare that will remind me of how terrified I was, but I know you’ll be by my side to guide me through it.”
“I will be, I swear. Do you promise to talk to me when you’re struggling, though?”
“As long as you’ll promise to do the same.”
He gives me a bland look. “We weren’t talking about me, but I suppose that’s fair.”
I giggle. “I promise to talk to you whenever I need extra support.”
“Then I’ll do the same.”
I lean forward to kiss him. I know that concession wasn’t easy. He’s gotten so much better at talking to me, but it’s something we’ll both have to work at.
When we pull away, Michael cringes. “We need to decide what we’re going to tell our family.”
“About what?”
“Adalaide, your face is swollen, and you have a black eye. There’s no way we can hide that.”
“I can’t tell my family what happened! My dad will never look at me the same.”
“How do you think I feel?” he throws back at me. He has a point too. We cannot tell our families that I was tied up by a stranger because one of his BDSM partners was jealous.
“What if we tell them without going into detail?”
“They’re going to ask questions.”
“So we say that we went to a club in Greensboro and ran into one of your exes there. She clocked me hard in the restroom and knocked me out. You found her, and we’re pressing charges for assault. We’ll skip over the part where she tied me up.”
“What happens if she pleads not guilty?”
I shrug. “She won’t. There’s too much evidence, and she won’t want to get the maximum prison sentence, but if she doesn’t, then we’ll be honest and tell our parents the whole story.”
“I don’t love that plan.”
“It’s the only viable one we’ve got, unless you’d like to explain to my dad how you enjoy spanking my ass until it’s bruised.”
Michael smacks said ass.
“Ouch!”
“Don’t be a brat.”
I huff. “If you have any other ideas, I’m all ears.”
“No. It’s the only option that doesn’t involve flat-out lying.”
“Good. So we tell Ryan after we get up. If he buys the story, then we’ll tell Mom and Dad and your parents. After that, we can have them tell the rest of the family.”
