Page 60 of Tower

She was as trapped with him as she had been growing up.

Peter started to slide the key into the lock, but stopped short of turning it. He’d told her he was going to give her reason to stay. It had to be more than sexual satisfaction that made her go against her mother.

Pulling the key back out, he pocketed it and rapped his knuckles on the door.

“Azalea,” he called, rolling his eyes at his own actions. Asking entrance into his own damn room. “Azalea, open up,” he ordered, quickly tacking on, “Please.”

He heard her walking around. Probably wringing her hands, trying to decide what to do. He raised his hand to knock again, when the lock unlatched and the door opened.

With a red nose and tearstained cheeks, she greeted him. She’d pulled her hair into a messy bun on top of her head and changed into a pair of yoga pants and an oversized T-shirt. More of Aubree’s clothes, no doubt.

Wasting no time, he barged into the room, kicked the door closed, and pulled her to him. She wrapped her arms around his middle and buried her head into his chest.

“I’m sorry,” he whispered, tucking her under his chin. “I didn’t mean to scare you.”

She pulled away from him, wiping her cheeks with her fingers. “You didn’t scare me. I was mad.”

“You cry when you’re mad?” he asked, confused.

“Yes.” She nodded, like it was the most natural thing in the world and how come he didn’t know that?

“Are you still mad?” he asked cautiously.

“You spanked me. Right in front of Daniel!” She jabbed his chest and walked away from him.

“Daniel walked away as soon as I touched you. He didn’t see anything,” he assured her, though that couldn’t be the problem. Aubree had held her hands while she’d taken a belting only a few days ago.

“He knew. He heard,” she said folding her arms over her belly.

“Azalea, when he’s with a woman, he spanks her, too. If you think he’s judging you—”

“No! Never mind.”

She stalked over to the armchair in the corner of the room. Throwing herself into it, she hugged her knees to her chest.

“I can’t make this better if you don’t tell me. Are you mad at me for spanking you, or because Daniel knows you were spanked?”

She rested her forehead on her knees. For a minute, he thought she wasn’t going to say anything, but then she started talking. A bit mumbled given her positioning, so he moved closer to understand her.

“I’m mad because I wasn’t mad about it,” she muttered.

He rubbed his eyes. If she wasn’t going to be rational, how the hell was he going to help her?

“You’re mad because you weren’t mad. At me?”

“I was mad at you, but then when I got up here—” She let out a low growl. “It’s complicated. I wasn’t mad at you. I didn’t hate it. I mean I didn’t like it, but I didn’t hate it. You just threw me over the banister and spanked me like some naughty girl.”

“Well, you were acting like one,” he pointed out.

Her eyes narrowed. “I’m confused and tired and annoyed. You keep pointing out little things about how I was raised, little stuff that maybe I should have picked up. I knew it was strange. I knew my mother was being way overprotective. But I had no choice. I had nowhere to go where she wouldn’t find me, and when I tried to leave, she became worse about making me stay.”

Peter squatted in front of her, placing his hand on her knee.

“I’m not stupid or as naive as everyone thinks I am,” she mumbled. “But she said I’d get my own apartment when she gets back this time, and now—now she’ll never let me.”

“Azalea, you’re an adult. You don’t need her protection anymore. She doesn’t get to say if you stay with her or not. That’s your decision.” Peter realized he didn’t have the right to make the call for her, either. Even if everything inside him insisted she needed to stay the fuck away from her mother.

“And here?”

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