He promised me.
He promised.
“No,” I say, unable to mask the rawness in my voice. “Nothing I do for him is anything like what you made me do. My husband couldn’t be more different than you.” Comparing the two is an insult to Warren even if only to show how vastly dissimilar they are. He would never abuse me or any other woman or child in any way.
“You know your punishment is only going to be worse the more that mouth of yours disrespects me. This is why you need to be with a man who knows how to put you in your place.” My gaze crashes back to Montgomery’s. “But do go on, Mara. I’ll have you back in hand in no time.”
The hell he will. If he thinks?—
I stop my internal tirade when his cruel lips form a flat smile and the hand between his thighs moves more quickly.
He likes this.
The man is getting hard by goading me into earning a punishment.
“I’m sorry.” The apology is like sandpaper to my tongue, but as long as Emmaline is in my arms, I need to appease him. Stroke his ego with my words so I don’t have to touch his cock. “I only meant that no one is like you.”
“Hmm.” I can tell by his tone that he sees through me. He nods down to Emmaline, hand lazily stroking himself. “Is she done?”
Hot bile churns as my stomach twists itself into knots. Not for the threat towards me, but to have him touching himself while looking and speaking about my baby. I switch her to my other breast and cup her cheek to protect her from his gaze. “Not yet.”
A quick backwards glance shows Sullivan cocooned in the blankets again. Please let him be asleep and not hearing any of this.
Montgomery abandons his cock to cross his arms, andhis birthmark is hidden from view. “How did you get a white man to marry someone like you?”
Someone like me. As if someone like me wasn’t worthy and deserving of love. “I didn’t.”
“Oh, come now, Mara.” His brow dips. “You must have done something. What was it, hmm?”
“It was all him.” The simple truth leaves my lips on a sigh as the memory plays out in my head. “He found me. Carried me out of the back of a wagon and into a doctor’s house.”
“Why the doctor?”
I smile faintly at his frown. “Because I was about to give birth.”
“To a bastard child.”
“She’s not a bastard.”
“Don’t be ignorant. Of course she?—”
“She isn’t,” I interrupt with vehemence. “He had a judge marry us before she was born.”
Montgomery throws his head back in a harsh laugh. “He must be a simpleton. Because what white man of sound mind would be so stupid as to take on the burden you and an illegitimate child would bring?”
Let him laugh. He won’t find it funny when he loses the upper hand.
When his mirth fades, he studies me more closely, running his insidious gaze over my breasts. “Perhaps I’m being too harsh on him. If ever I were to settle down and marry, I would most assuredly keep you on as mistress. And you wouldn’t even have to use your womanly wiles to trick me.”
Good God, what complete and utter hell. That’s never going to happen. I fasten my attention to the window and force myself to breathe away the nausea as Montgomery’shand disappears between his thighs again. Raindrops streak down the pane, and a clap of thunder drowns out the quickened breathing of the vile man pleasuring himself in front of me.
It’s just me.
Me against Montgomery, his cane, and maybe his gun if he gets close enough.
Two innocent children who need protection above all.
I run a thumb over my baby’s chubby cheek as her latch grows weaker and her eyes fight the pull of sleep. She’s exhausted, and with good reason. It will be better if she sleeps through whatever happens next. Then this can be only a bad dream that she never remembers. With the rainfall masking her quiet sounds and my hand obscuring her face, Montgomery doesn’t notice when she abandons my breast.
