Page 12 of Dmitri

Those days are long gone.

“Did you have fun at the fight?” He still hasn’t looked up at me.

“Sure.” What else am I supposed to say?

He chuckles and slips his phone in his pocket, then settles on the foldaway couch, stretching his arms across the back of it. Our gazes lock and, once again, I try to find what kindness I swore used to be there. But his eyes are so cold they send shivers down my back.

“Did you fuck him?”

“Yes.”

“And?”

“And then I left.”

He shakes his head and leans forward, resting his forearms on his knees. Dressed in a black button-down, with the sleeves rolled up, and black dress pants, Kaleb looks like sex on a stick. Especially with his dark hair freshly cut and face clean shaven to accent his sharp jaw.

The ink on his arms and hands has always mesmerized me. L-O-V-E is tatted on the fingers of his right hand. H-U-R-T is tatted on the other. When we first met, he was a charmer. A leader. He promised to always take care of me, and I believed him. I depended on it.

Once, a man at a club grabbed my ass and Kaleb marched right over and snapped his arm like a twig. The bone stuck out and blood dripped all over the floor. I loved him for that.

As a girl who grew up in broken homes, danger became my love language. You either cower from it or crave it.

Guess which one I do.

For a long ass time, Kaleb was my protector. My provider. The man who cared about me when the world didn’t even know I existed. And then, little by little, the dream I had of being with this perfect guy turned into a nightmare. His tone changed. His affection hardened. The promises he made twisted into more than I bargained for. He didn’t give me anything for free, even if it seemed that way at first.

“What was he like?”

Kaleb’s question knocks around in my head like a pinball. “Rough.”

He smiles, knowing that’s how I like it. “Did he scare you?”

“No.”

“What else?”

I don’t know what he wants to hear. “You said I was done. That after I fucked him, I was free.”

“You will be.”

Will be? What the hell? “I already fucked him, Kaleb. I did it. I’m done.”

“You’re not even close to done.” He stands up and saunters over to me. “I said fuck him.”

“Yeah. Spread my legs. I did.”

“There are other ways to fuck him. You only did the bare minimum at the fight, which is a good start, babygirl.”

I can’t believe this. Rage eats away my fear until I’m left shaking with anger. “I’m not going to be some rent-a-whore.”

“You’re going to be exactly what I fucking tell you to be.” He wraps his hand around my throat. “I need you to fuck him.”

“How?” Damn my voice for shaking. “What more do you want from me, Kaleb?” Tears fill my eyes so fast I can’t control the way they fall.

“You’re so pretty when you cry, Dae.” He leans in and licks the traitorous tears from my cheek.

It makes me sick. “Please don’t.”

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