Page 91 of Endless Love

His eyes narrowed as he stared at my mound.

“Whoops! What is this?” Disgust colored his voice as he pinched a stray pubic hair that must have eluded the waxer. I held back a wince.

Leaning into me, he bit off the stray. I couldn’t help a yelp as he spit it out with a pfftt. I felt so utterly vulnerable and vilified as he stroked the flawless surface.

“Much better now. Perfection. You’re as smooth as satin.” A wicked smile lifted his lips. “Do you remember Mr. F?”

Mr. F. I shuddered at the two words. It’s what he called his repulsive penis. Short for Mr. Fuck, as some of the other ballerina’s he’d seduced referred to it. My pulse in my throat, I didn’t respond.

“Well, then, my oiseau, it is time you get reacquainted.”

My eyes, wide with terror, stayed on him as he slid his tights down to his knees.

His huge, veined, uncircumcised penis jutted at me. It had to be close to a foot long, much bigger and darker than I remembered it to be. Maybe he had it enlarged.

“Say hello again to Mr. F.” To my horror, he put my hand to the hooded crown and forced me to rub the foreskin up and down. Both the touch and the pungent scent of it repulsed me. Nausea rose in my chest as he hissed.

“And now, ma chérie, let’s dance.” Putting the searing tip to my entrance, he growled again.

My heart galloped in my chest; my stomach twisted. My master was a monster. He was about to ravage me. Choreograph a rape. Panic gripped me. Oh, God! Think, Willow, think! Then, I eyed his cane to the left of me. His other big hard stick. My mind raced. I needed to distract him.

“Kiss me, Gustave, and then come inside me.”

“Oh, ma chérie,” he groaned, so aroused.

Lowering his eyelids, he leaned into me, and as he crushed his vulgar lips on mine, I grabbed his cane.

Not wasting a second—WHACK!—I smacked it across his hideous organ. The sound echoed in my ears like the climax of a symphony.

Jolting, he roared out in pain. “You fucking cunt!”

“You fucking monster!” I barked back. As he rubbed his swollen, beet-red cock and moaned, I whacked him again harder, bashing his balls. This time, he crumpled onto his side, writhing and cursing between agonized groans. With a victorious smirk, I leaped to my feet, pulled up my tights, and dashed out of the studio. Battling the pain in my thigh, I raced down a long corridor in my pointe shoes, making my way to the entrance of the chateau. Fortunately, it was dinnertime and everyone was in the dining hall. No one saw me or stopped me. When I got to the massive front door, I let out a sigh of relief that no security guards were standing by. They, too, must be eating dinner. Praying there were none outside, I swung open the heavy wooden door…Yes! Not one!—and darted outside.

The blast of the mid-December air was a shock against my skin. The temperature must have been near freezing, and a thick fog blanketed the night sky. Shivering, almost bared, I refrained from hugging myself as I sprinted down the long winding, unlit road that led to the chateau. My teeth chattering, my thigh throbbing, I kept running and running. I had to escape this prison! That monster! I had to! I had to! I had to get home! I wanted to be back with my father! And above all, back with Ryan! My love!

Charging out of the ungated property, I found myself on another long dark, desolate road. I had no idea where it led to or where I was going. All I knew was that I had to get as far and fast away from Gustave as I could. Every limb burning, my lungs on fire, I willed myself to keep running. Maybe with luck, a kind driver would pass by and give me a lift into Paris; it couldn’t be that that far. I had no money with me—nor my clothes or passport. But maybe, someone at the U.S. Embassy would take pity on me, get in contact with my father or Ryan, and help me get home.

About a mile in, my wishful thinking came to fruition. I saw headlights coming toward me. Without thinking, I ran into middle of the road and waved my hands at the vehicle. Snowflakes, the size of silver dollars, began to fall.

“Help,” I cried out, jumping up and down.

The speeding vehicle, with its bright lights, got closer. My heart pounded with anticipation. Hope. As I stood in the middle of the road, still brandishing my arms and screaming for help on the top of my lungs, it began to blizzard. The falling snow mingled with the fog, creating a dense white veil. The headlights got closer and closer, but why wasn’t the car or truck slowing down? Then it hit me… too late. Oh God. In my white leotard and tutu, I blended in with the chalky landscape like a snowflake. The driver didn’t see me!

“Stop!” I cried out, the headlights a few feet ahead of me on the slippery road. A loud horn roared like a siren as the vehicle’s brakes screeched in my ears. Like a deer in the headlights, my unblinking eyes grew wide and I couldn’t move. My mind shut down and then—SMACK!—I was thrown a hundred feet, twisted in the worst pain I’d ever felt in my life. A mangled heap of muscles and bones. The excruciating pain radiating from my head to my toes.

“Oh, mon dieu!” I heard a husky masculine voice cry out as the vehicle door swung open. Heavy, rapid footsteps, crunching through piles of dead, snow-laced leaves, thudded in my ears.

As I lay there on the icy road paralyzed in agony, the man rushed up to me and covered me with his jacket, mumbling something in French I didn’t understand. A Hail Mary? With the little that tethered me to this earth, I met his forlorn eyes.

My consciousness waning, I watched him pull out his cell phone and, after punching a few numbers, talk rapidly into it. It was all mumbo jumbo to me as life ebbed out of me. I’d read once that you never know who’ll be the last person you see as death takes hold of you. As my eyelids lowered, I managed to reach for the necklace I never took off and rubbed the ballet slipper charm between my feeble fingers. My eyes closed. I was in Ryan’s arms dancing with him on a moonlit beach. I mumbled his name as the haunting Kol Nidre played in my head. And then the pain subsided. Blackness claimed me.

I was no longer dancing on my grave.

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