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“All of it.” She looked up at me, the tears on her cheeks glistening in the moonlight. “You can’t sleep with her.” Her fingers curled around my shirt. “You told her no. That should be enough. She’s blackmailing you. What she’s doing is…it’s demented. It’s a violation of you in the most personal, private, vile way imaginable. I refuse to just stand here and let you fall for this, especially because of me.”
I just held her, saying nothing. When she trembled in my arms, I knew what I had to do. I pictured her trembling exactly like this, scared and fearing for her life because of that monster who’d tried to kill her. No way was I going to let her go through that again, not if I could help it. I’d do anything for Reese.
She wasn’t going to like this—hell, I wasn’t going to like it—but I cupped her face and eased back enough to read her expression.
“Is it true?” I asked, even though I already knew it was.
She sniffed and her tears thickened. “Yes. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. I should’ve told you sooner, but—”
“Shh. It’s okay. It’s all right.” I pressed my mouth to her brow and wiped at her wet cheeks with my thumbs. Then I found her scar to remind myself why I was doing this. She sobbed out a dry heave and clutched me tighter.
“I swear, Reese,” I told her. “I’ll never let him find you. He won’t ever hurt you again.”
Then I dropped my hand from her and took a significant step back.
“Mason.” She reached out, but I spun away, evading her grasp.
Patricia waited in the doorway, the sight of her robe sliding off one shoulder making me feel sick to my stomach. She looked so smug as I stepped up onto the back porch that I took the perverse and trite pleasure of purposely knocking my shoulder against her and unbalancing her as I stepped past her, entering the house.
From that point on, my brain went blank. On autopilot, I crossed through her laundry room and then strode into her kitchen. Limbs numb, heart pounding, throat constricting, I couldn’t believe I was doing this. The one thing I swore I’d never do, yet here I was in the devil’s den, about to do it.
Just as I swore to myself I’d stay away from Reese, I couldn’t keep my word on this promise either, and I felt like shit.
I kept repeating in my head that it would keep Reese safe, but that didn’t help. Nothing helped.
Patricia had always been my most dreaded client. She and I had totally different taste when it came to sex.
She liked restraints and control games, calculating wordplay, and merciless punishments, not to mention her fixation of sticking unnatural objects in orifices they didn’t belong. I didn’t care what kinds of kink people got into in the privacy of their own home, but that didn’t necessarily mean they were things I liked doing too.
I think that’s why she was so fond of forcing me to do them, because she knew I never had fun, and that control of getting me where she wanted me was like a high to her.
God only knew what she wanted me to do tonight.
I went straight to her bedroom, rolling my eyes when I found it lit with candles, and the sheets on the bed pulled back neatly. None of her toys were out, however, so that was a good sign.
I fisted my hands at my sides and tried to control my heart rate as I remembered all the times I’d told myself I would never step foot into this room again. All my nightmares had originated in this place. Why was I back here? How had she maneuvered me right where she wanted me?
A cold sweat trailed down my spine. My vision went blurry, the edges fading to black until I blinked repeatedly, trying to see better. My heart wouldn’t stop beating out of rhythm, letting me know my body was going into distress, believing I was being threatened and endangered. I wasn’t sure if I was about to have a panic attack or a straight-up heart attack. I kept battling the flight-or-fight instinct to either run out of there or start swinging, punching walls, mirrors, or even Patricia herself as she stepped into the room, smiling victoriously at me.
Fuck, I couldn’t believe I was doing this.
My equilibrium went wonky. Vaguely, I knew I’d just lost Reese; half my soul felt ripped out of my chest from that realization alone, but I swear the other half was going to wither and die the moment this woman touched me.
“Damn, I’ve missed seeing you standing in my room just like this.”
I rolled my eyes, not moving a muscle except to bunch my jaw and brace against her touch when she started toward me.
“So, now would be my turn to say I told you so,” she sang softly, crowing over her win as she trailed her fingers across my shoulders when she walked a slow circle around me. I gagged and swallowed down the taste of bile. Stopping directly behind me, she stretched up on her toes and whispered into my ear, “I told you that you’d see the inside of this room again.”
I shuddered in disgust, my stomach revolting at her words.
She chuckled and stopped once she was standing in front of me again.
“The shirt.” She made a motion with her index finger. “Take it off.”
I shot her a look to kill, my hands fisting at my sides. She arched her brows meaningfully. “Unless you’ve changed your mind. I’m sure Teresa’s boyfriend would just love to get a call from me.”
