Page 59 of His Captive

My eyes spread wide with shock when they drop between us.

The skin from her neck to her knees is covered in either bruises or red marks, there’s even a bruise in the shape of a boot sole imprinted in the concave of her stomach. My finger gently touches it, as if I might erase it away.

“What the fuck is this?” I look up at her and her head immediately turns away, her eyes refusing to contact with mine.

“Millie. What the fuck is this?” I ask her again, the blood beneath my skin gushing as thick and hot as lava, ready to erupt.

“It’s okay. Ethan. I’m okay. Please don’t stop,” she begs me, her hands cupping my face, and pulling me back to her.

“Please.” She shakes her head, the tears flowing against her cheeks in tiny streams.

“He did this to you?” I ask, although I really don’t have to. Sorrento’s always been a bully.

She nods, ashamed.

Sorrento has made her body look like the aftermath of an MMA fight and she’s the one looking ashamed.

“I’m gonna kill him.” I make her that promise, starting to kiss each part of her skin that he’s damaged. I will spend the entire night doing that alone if I have to.

“You can’t do that, but you can make it better, for now,” she tells me sadly.

I do as she asks, take all her pain away. I make love to a woman for the first and the last time in my life. It comes easy with her, like second nature. Even though each time I kiss her, every time my cock sinks inside her, it rips another stitch out of the heart I’ve spent years trying to repair. It’s worth it.

We lay on top of the thin, over washed sheets that cover the motel bed. Both exhausted from emotion and relieved of our misery. She’s waiting to say something, I can tell, but she’s holding back on me.

“I have to go back you know,” she tells me looking at our linked hands.

“Not a fucking chance,” I shake my head. “Look what he’s done to you. I won’t let you go back to him.”

“You don’t understand Ethan. Ivan’s a bad man, He does bad things, real bad things. He’d never let us be happy.”

She underestimates me. Of course I know what kind of man her husband is.

“Not if I kill him first,” I point out.

“You’re not him, Ethan. You aren’t capable of the things he is. That’s what I’ve always loved about you”

I ignore the fact she’s just said the words. Have to, because right now I have to focus.

“You are not going back to him,” I tell her again. She offers me an unconvincing smile.

“Just for the next few hours, let’s pretend that’s true,” she whispers as she snuggles into my chest and falls back to sleep.

I’m happy for her to think whatever the hell she wants. I’m taking care of her now, having to leave Sorrento, and all the consequences that will come with it is no longer her burden to carry, it belongs to me now.

I wake up with her still in my arms. And, for the first time in as long as I can remember, I notice how orange the sun is as it shines through the curtains. I gently unwrapped myself from her, careful not to disturb her, then head to the bathroom. We have a busy day ahead of us.

Shower, take Millie somewhere safe, and tie up business.

Fuck Cannonville, Sorrento can keep it. I have everything that ever mattered now.

I remember when we were kids, Millie saying she wanted to go to Europe. And I’ve already decided that’s where I’m gonna take her first. A chateau hidden away in a French village where no one will ever find us. I’d contact the guy I know who can hook us up with some fake IDs, as soon as I get out of the shower,

I’m surprised that the water is actually warm when I step under it. Still, I wash quickly. Millie will want to shower too, and who knows how long the luxury of hot water will last. I take a towel from the rail, wrapping it around my waist, and open the door into the bedroom.

“Wake up, sunshine. We’ve got a busy day...”

Silence.

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