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“Then you might have a different idea of exactly what’s consensual, and what isn’t.”
My eyebrows shoot to my hairline. “Owen was arrested for this?” I look down at the photo. Of course he’d be arrested. Whatever he did to her, it looks painful. Malicious, almost.
There’s a hard knot in my stomach.
What the fuck was I thinking being alone with this guy? He could have done anything to me. Hurt me, like in the photo… or worse.
I shudder, looking away. Kat quickly locks her phone and sets it down, her mouth working as if she’s biting the inside of her lip. “I dated a guy once who was into this kind of stuff,” she says, almost reluctantly. “I quickly figured out it wasn’t my thing, but I didn’t break it off immediately because I really did like him.” She drops her head, mutters, “I fuckinglovedhim.” Then she’s looking up at me again with wide green eyes. “In the end, it didn’t work out. He needed something I couldn’t give him. And he understood that. He never pressured me into anything.”
She taps a nail on her phone’s screen. “This girl? Penny? I think she got herself into something she couldn’t handle. Whether that was her fault, or Owen’s, no one knows.”
“Did he have to serve time?” Knowing how rich he is, his lawyers probably got him a great deal. A few months, time served, something like that. Maybe a few hours of community service.
Kat laughs dryly. “Oh, the case was dropped.”
“She changed her mind?”
My roommate shakes her head. “It got changed for her. She arrived in school in a Bentley her family couldn’t possibly afford. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that the Daltons bought her silence.”
My jaw drops. “And you want to try and convince me this guy is an acquired taste?”
“Forget about that.” Kat waves away my question with an impish grin on her face. “YouslappedOwen Dalton?” She studies me for a second, and then snorts through an abrupt laugh. “You’re kinda my hero right now.”
I remember the flash of surprise, then the anger in his eyes. I’m only just starting to realize how dangerous this guy is. No wonder he was so shocked—he probably thinks I knew about all this stuff.
Does he think I like it rough too? Slapping, spanking, throat grabbing? Is that why he took me up to the bell tower… as an experiment, to see how far he could push me?
Kat claps her hands, laughing. “Ah, man, I wish I’d been there to see it.”
“Yeah?” I shove her out of the way so I can go to the bathroom. “Well I wish I’d never fucking met him.”
“Trust me, you’d have met him,” she calls after me through the closed door before letting herself in.
“I’m peeing!”
“And I’m telling you, you’d have met Owen one way or the other. Or have you already forgotten how small this town is?”
“Then I wish I’d never come here in the first place!” I’m busy washing my hands in the basin as the yell bursts out of me. It’s a combination of the dull ache in my backside, the way my body tingles at even a mention of Owen, and the annoyance of trying to explain to someone just howfuckedin the head this day has left me. But it all comes out wrong, like I’m attacking Kat.
“Oh.” She sidesteps, crossing her arms over her chest. “I thought you were having fun.”
“Fun? Getting stuck in this musty old place instead of a nice dorm room on campus isfun?Having some sex-sadist stalk me through the hallways and do shit to me that Ididn’twant him to do, that’sfun?”
Kat frowns at me. “What are you saying?”
I know she’s prying, but I will go to my fucking grave before I admit what happened between me and Owen. And one half of the reason is because I didn’t want it to happen.
The other reason? Ilikedit… and I have no idea why.
I don’t know what shames me more.
“I hate this place, and everyone in it.” I glare at her as I retreat to my room. “Now leave me the fuck alone.”
