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On the CD, The pianist had played as if the music surprised him, or as if he were creating the piece himself in the moment. It felt unplanned. For some reason every time Mina listened to it, it made her cry. And yet she’d kept playing it.
She cried now as the piano played and Brian sat again beside her.
“The music… when I was going through withdrawal… it was from you?”
“It was. I sat outside your door. I didn’t want to scare you.”
His voice remained quiet and soothing but Jason had done the same in the beginning. Jason had seemed so reasonable. He’d magnanimously given her a safeword. And then he’d ignored it when she used it. There was no safeword with Brian. There was no point in pretending they were playing a game.
“D-did you buy me or did Lindsay just give me to you?”
Somehow it would be less of a betrayal if big money had actually exchanged hands. Though if he was just going to sell her to Brian, she didn’t understand why he’d put her through all the drama in the medical room.
“Bought.”
“H-how much?”
“That’s none of your business.”
She tensed and was quiet for several minutes, afraid she’d crossed a line already and was about to see first hand exactly how he’d acquired his reputation.
“Keep talking,” he said, brushing a long strand of hair behind her ear. “I know that’s not all that’s troubling you. You will keep no secrets from me. Do you understand?”
“Y-yes, Master.”
“Well?”
“W-why did you buy me?” This time she felt him tense beside her.
“The why isn’t important. Just know I will honor the contract. I won’t hurt you or cross the boundaries laid out. You will trust my word on that eventually. I have… other outlets.”
The other girls here—the ones he would fuck and beat in Mina’s place. She felt sickened that she had a split second of relief that maybe he could and would protect her as long as he had others to hurt instead. That thought should have produced revulsion, not relief. How would she stand to let him touch her, knowing the things he did to others and would continue to do?
“How will I trust that? I-I’ve heard about the things you do. And I can tell from looking in your eyes that you like it. You told me to run. And then the threats when I was in that cage…”
He rubbed her back, and the part of her that was in complete panic overload just wanted to rest and lean into him. It was crazier than any faith she’d put in the other men who had failed her, but all she wanted was something to hold onto, even if it wasn’t real. If she could just pretend for a while and delay the inevitable.
“I told you to run because I didn’t trust myself yet. But the man they were going to sell you to… I couldn’t let them. I knew you wouldn’t be safe.”
“Why would you care?” This didn’t match anything she’d heard about him. He should be gleeful at the idea of her suffering.
She wanted to believe this alternate reality in which she had some special power that not only kept her safe from Brian but shielded her from all outside harm under his protective wing. But how could she believe or trust that out of all the women in this house she was the sole one who was truly safe from him? That he wouldn’t turn on her later? If he hadn’t trusted himself near her only a week ago, what had changed in that time?
“Just know that I do care, and you will not be harmed. I don’t want you to fear me.”
“But the threats…”
“I didn’t want you in the cage.”
“But why?”
“That’s enough. We’re done discussing this.”
Already he seemed to exist in that schizophrenic place she’d seen so many dominants in. That place of “You will tell me everything. No, shut up.” It had been a favorite ploy of Jason’s. She was beginning to think these men believed their own bullshit when they said they wanted no secrets, that they wanted to know everything. But they only wanted to know the things that kept their own fantasies going, not anything that might be real or true.
The intercom on the wall buzzed. “I’m sorry to interrupt, but we have a behavioral problem for you to deal with. A fight broke out at the pool,” Lindsay said.
Brian sighed. “Who?”
