Page 75 of Twisted Hunger

Taking his face in the palms of my hands, I pull his face so he cansee me, because right now, I can bet that all he sees is red. I need to bring him out of it, so I say his name softly, "Beau, it's okay. You can stop now, baby."

His gaze is still far away momentarily until he blinks a few times, and I know he is now looking at me. "Ryan…" he breathes softly.

"It's okay, Beau Come with me, let’s get you cleaned up. Your father can deal with Brock," I tell him.

"He's no longer my father…" Beau sneers as he looks over my shoulder to where our parents stand.

"Shh, it's fine. We will talk about it later, okay?"

I don't know how I remain so calm because I'm pretty sure Brock is no longer breathing. Again, I'm not concerned about that. Beau is the only one who matters now, and he needs me. He cared for me when I needed it; I will do the same for him.

"Ryan," Bain says my name in warning. "Yourbrother can take care of himself. You need to stay here and explain why I now have a dead junkie bleeding out all over my floor!"

Beau starts to go at Bain, but I stop him with my hand as I glare at my stepfather. "Why don't you ask yourself that question, Bain? It seems like you and Brock were besties. Tell me, did you enjoy hearing thejunkie you hired talk about his sex life withyour stepdaughter?" I'm now standing between Beau and his father as I confront Bain, making sure to keep the two apart. "Did you enjoy listening to Brock fuck me as he talked to you on speakerphone? How about you tell me about the little deal you had going with thejunkie. You know, the one where you were paying him to keep me in line so you could continue to treat me as yourlittle because Mom doesn't allow you to treat her that way."

"Ryan…" Bain says my name in warning through clenched teeth, and my mother gasps again.

I smile and look to my stepfather's side, where Mom holds onto her husband's arm for dear life. "Oh, you didn't know about our little punishment sessions, where he would put me over his knee and spank me like a child? Come on, Mom… You're not dumb! I'm not buying your little act."

I turn back to Beau, but Bain captures everyone's attention with his next words. "You needed discipline, Ryan. Until you understand what it means to be a Huntley and you can act accordingly, I will punish you as I see fit. I am the head of this fucking family! Beau can try denying me, casting me aside like yesterday's trash, but even he knows what I am capable of. I'll let him have his little fit right now, but he will get back in line at the end of the day."

"I'm a Hendrick…not Huntley," I bite back. "And I'm a fucking adult—"

"Who is living under my roof until the day you graduate," Bain cuts me off.

"Fine, I never wanted to be here in the first place, Bain! I wanted to be in my own home. The house that I grew up in, where I lived with my mother and the love of her life—my father." You better fucking believe that I threw that tidbit of information into my stepfather's face.

Unfortunately, I don't get the response that I was hoping for. Instead of crushing his feelings with the fact that he will never be the love of my mother's life, he grins at me. Placing his arm around my mother, he pulls her close and presses a kiss on her head. My mother's got a despondent look on her face as her arms go around Bain's waist.

"Your mother and I are happy together. We love each other. Even though neither of us is the love of the other one's life, it doesn't mean there is no love there. I respect your mother and love her very much, Ryan."

No. I don't want to believe it! Either Bain missed his calling as an Oscar-winning actor, or he's stating the truth. I can see it in the deep brown depths of his eyes. If that's the case, have I just been overreacting about whether he touched me that day? As if he knows what I'm thinking, Bain clears his throat.

"I've already talked to your mother about this because, regardless of what you believe, I don't keep anything from her. I had to know for sure, and it may not have been the right thing to do, but it was the most straightforward, and so that is why I had to check for myself to see if you were getting aroused by your punishments." Bain says this as if it's not a big deal and continues, "When I saw for myself that you were, in fact, doing so, I made the call to your little friend."

I stumble at hearing my stepfather confirm that he did, indeed, touch me and that my mother knew about it but didn't feel the need to come talk to me. Beau catches me, smearing blood all over my bare arms and T-shirt, but I'm unfazed. Bain is still rambling on about how I was in the wrong for allowing my body to accept the punishments like they were rewards and that he needed to find an outlet for me to get it all out.

"You son of a bitch! How can you stand there and tell Ryan that she's not supposed to allow her body to feel that way whenyouare a master Dominant! It's your job to incite those feelings in women!" Beau growls at his father, but before Bain can respond, Beau continues, "Why don't you tell us why you saw fit to put yourstepdaughter in the same room you kept all your past submissives in? Where you punished yourlittle girls and then rewarded them by taking them to that room!"

I follow Beau's finger as he points to the door that is always locked, and then I glance back at Bain. "What's in there?" My voice is low and choked.

"Nothing that you need to be concerned about," he grits out, but he's glaring at his son. "I willnever take you in there."

"Bain, honey. What's in there?" My mother gazes up at her husband, confused.

He looks down at my mother, and I swear, all his anger dissipates. "It's my old playroom. Beau is telling the truth; I did take my old subs into that room, and they stayed in this room. It doesn't mean I have a motive for having Ryan be up here. You and I agreed that this would be the best room for her…for now."

"That's fucking bullshit!" Beau barks, "There are ten fucking bedrooms in this house, and you chose this one?"

"You don't understand—" Bain starts, but Beau's cynical laugh cuts him off.

"Look at you! You can't even come clean when you know you have been caught for being in the wrong…"

"I'm sick!"

Beau stops ranting, and we both stare at my mother, waiting for her to go on, but she doesn't. She just stares at me with sorrow in the depths of her eyes that look so much like mine. It's a look that sends a chill throughout my body, and dread begins to build.

"Sick, how?" I whisper. "Sick, as in contagious, and you don't want me to catch it?"

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