Page 39 of Tame Me

“Years?” I ask. “I’m so sorry, Giovanni.”

“It’s not your fault, Ayla,” he tells me. “I knew you were in survival mode. I saw the bruises he left behind, and I was so damn proud of you for getting out of it.”

“I wasn’t beaten anymore, but anytime he was drinking and I came around, he’d rape me,” I say. “In fact… The night he died… Well… Wow, this is weird.”

“I don’t judge. Did you kill him?” Giovanni asks. I flinch a bit, and he grows more confused. “Wait, did you?”

“He uh… raped me as he usually did. As he was coming, it was like his brain let him see what he was doing. For the first time ever, he realized it was me…”

“Uh oh…” Giovanni says, stifling a laugh.

“He died of a heart attack balls deep in me.” I cringe. Giovanni cackles, and I can’t help but smile at his laughter.

“I’m sorry. That’s probably insensitive, but that’s funny as hell. Death by cunt.”

“Yeah… It was… Gross,” I say. “Thank you for not treating me like I’m broken.”

“Pretty girl, we are all a little broken inside,” Giovanni says. “It’s eventually piecing ourselves back together that matters.”

I pull the car into the driveway, and Thane’s truck is parked behind Dad’s truck. I know I can’t sit here for three more hours, so I get out and gather as many bags as I can before Giovanni gets to the trunk and starts trying to take them all. When I get to the front door, it opens.

“Thanks,” I mutter to Thane as I step through. “Wait. How did you get in?”

“The door?” he laughs, taking the bags out of my hands and walking them to the kitchen.

“The door was locked,” I say, following him.

“Uh. Nope. It was unlocked,” he says. “This place is dusty as hell, girl.”

“Thane, I locked that fucking door,” I say firmly. Thane turns to look at me, and I realize that I’m panicking. “I locked it. I swear I did.”

“Take a deep breath. You’re safe,” Thane says.

“I have a doorbell camera on my parents’ front porch. I’ll just see if it caught anything over here,” Giovanni says as he looks at his phone.

“Look at me,” Thane says, lifting my chin. “I didn’t mean to be so indifferent. We both very much wanted you to come home with us, but we knew you needed time and space.”

“I thought you were done with me,” I sniffle.

“Never, baby. I promise,” Thane says, hugging me. “How does it feel? Have you thought about what you’ll do? You have a master’s in psychology.”

“Uh… So between life insurance and Dad’s savings, I have like two point one million…”

“Fuckin’ hell, girl,” Thane laughs. “Well, your options are limitless, then.”

“I want to be a therapist and eventually get my doctorate, but I don’t know if I am mentally stable enough for that,” I explain.

“You need to get used to being out first, but you are stable enough for whatever,” Thane says. “You are welcome to come to Meridian.”

“And do what?” I ask.

“Be a therapist. Instead of me being a trainer or doing scenes with anyone, I can just use you when I need to show someone something. So you can basically do the same as I do.”

“I’ve never practiced before, though,” I say.

“That’s why you’d start with me,” he says. “You can shadow me for as long as you want, and then we can get you one-on-one clients.”

“Uhh…” Giovanni says. I turn to him, and he looks concerned.