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Giggling, I stole his empty bowl and stacked it with my own so he couldn’t retaliate. Pushing back my chair, I left the howling men behind as Thane’s eyes heated. The heaviness of his gaze followed me all the way to the kitchen while I sucked the remnants of dinner off my finger.
It felt good to flirt and tease. It was almost… normal.
Depositing the dishes into the sink, I turned on the water to wash them by hand when heat suffused my spine.
“There’s a dishwasher for that,” Jamison murmured as his large hands found my waist. The stroke of his thumbs over the curve of my hips sent pleasant tingles skittering throughout my body. Leaning down, he kissed the crown of my head.
“I know, but I don’t mind. It gives my hands something to do.”
I waited for him to make some sexy remark about finding other, morepleasurabletasks to occupy my hands. Fates knew after my little display at the table, it would have been perfectly placed amidst our banter, but it didn’t come.
“Demi.”
I paused, dripping soapy water. Jamison slowly turned me to face him. With a dishtowel, he dried my skin and then lifted me onto the countertop. Those same large hands landed on my thighs and he spread my legs to make room for him to move closer.
“I know I can be a pushy bastard,” he said as I wound my arms around his neck and buried my fingers in the hair at his nape, “but I’m not letting this drop, Sweetness. I’m thrilled to see you smiling and flirting, and I don’t want to ruin any of it. But you’ve been through so much. None of us know where your head is at or how to move forward, and while I know you don’t want to relive the past two weeks, we need to understand.Ineed to understand.”
I turned my face away, teeth clamping down on my bottom lip. The cut in the center pulled, making it sting, but I welcomed the bite of pain. It helped to sharpen my thoughts.
“It’s normal to have some PTSD from all of this. To be scared to talk about it.”
I shook my head. “I’m not scared. It’s just… nothing happened. Literally nothing.”
Hooking a finger under my chin, Jamison steered my attention back to him. “Explain.”
I shrugged, blinking up at him as the desolation I’d experienced came rushing to the forefront. But it could have been so,somuch worse.
I told him as much, filling him in on the bleak existence I’d lived through: the small, windowless room, the near isolation, the doctor who’d fixed my shoulder without pain meds, the endless quiet, and the terrifying visions of their SUV, smashed to pieces, that ate away at me like acid.
Through it all, my fear for them had been the worst kind of torture, but I hadn’t been touched. Hadn’t beenforcedlike I’d been in the past. Pack Silver had left me alone. So, as difficult as seclusion had been, it had also been a blessing.
“And what happened after they took you out of the room?” Jamison prodded gently, digging for more.
Things got a little dicier during this part of the story, but I didn’t hold back. I recounted my goodbye with Pack Silver and what I could remember of the auction despite my drugged haze.
All the while, Jamison listened stoically, his hands on my thighs rubbing up and down in encouraging, comforting strokes. When I was done, he was silent, as were the men who’d fallen quiet in the other room. They weren’t far enough away not to have overheard our conversation.
“Abuse comes in many forms. I’m immensely grateful they didn’t force themselves on you—” Jamison paused, swallowing roughly past the unspoken ‘this time’ I knew was on the tip of his tongue. “But that doesn’t mean their treatment didn’t impact you.”
Knox’s chair scraped against the floor as he stood and came to join us in the kitchen. He cupped the side of my face and I nuzzled into his palm. The warmth of their scents quieted the discord rioting inside my chest. I didn’t want them to worry about me. They’d done enough of that already.
“There’s a reason prisons use solitary as a punishment, Sunshine. You never should have had to go through that.” His hand shifted a little lower, and he gently ran his thumb over the scabbed split on my bottom lip. “And the cages? The auction? That was some dark shit. They’re going to pay for what they did to you, Demi Leigh. And when they do, you’ll never have to worry about them again.”
I held onto that promise, burying it in my heart and hoping it would grow so that I had just as much faith that the worst was over. It was hard to believe, but I so badly wanted to.
eleven
ELI
My phone dinged,and I quickly picked it up. Thumbing the volume button, I silenced the notifications as I stared at the incoming texts.
Knox: Who’s got eyes on our girl?
Looking down at the Omega curled against my side, I smiled and juggled my cell, texting back the best I could with one hand. No way in hell I was disturbing my mate to free the arm she was currently using as a pillow.
Eli: I’ve got her. We’re in the media room.
The room sat on the third floor, located in one of the rounded turrets. Windows surrounded us, but this space was as close to a nest as this house had, something we’d be rectifying if Demi decided she liked it enough to keep.
