Page 71 of Cherry Auction

“Is that a yes?”

When he looks around as if still trying to decide, I decide for him, popping out of my chair and kicking off the boxers I’m wearing as I go. I yank my shirt off, then screech as I dive into the deep end.

TWENTY-EIGHT

BROOKE

Cool water stealsmy breath in an exhilarating rush as the water envelops me and I scramble to get back to the bright surface.

The water might be temperature-controlled, but it’s still a shock to my sun-warmed skin. My limbs know what to do and that’s a rush, too.

Almost as much of a rush as hearing Donny fucking ask me tomarryhim. What the fuck is he thinking?

I burst back into the sunlight laughing. I feel high with joy. These rollercoaster extremes of emotion I’ve been riding the past couple days should probably concern me, but I’m too happy to give a shit right now.

Domhnall’s right there, in the water where I pop up. He must have jumped in right after me. “Jaysus you just took years off me life. Don’t scare the shite out of me like that!”

“But look, Donny, I know how to swim!” I laugh as I spin around while I tread water.

“Well how do ya know?” He looks nervous, arms all but circling me. “You have amnesia.”

“It’s weird, but the doctors say that’s how it is.” I easily do another spin like a mermaid, my feet twirling naturally. “Some skills I can remember. Like playing chess. I think I used to swim.”

It feels absolutely fuckingamazingto be in the water.

I suck in a quick breath, throw myself backwards into a dive under the water and then swim back around between Domhnall’s legs. He tries to catch me but he’s too slow. I pop up on the other side of him, giggling.

“Careful!” he says. “We should be sure you can swim before you go do shit like that.”

I roll my eyes. I can’t believe this is the same guy who just had me in a dungeon. He’s suddenly treating me like I’m so breakable.

Though I guess, even in the dungeon when he was ostensibly being a brute, he was still careful with me. He made sure all my basic needs were met. The mattress was certainly a thousand times softer than at the shelter. Apart from the first day, I had amazing food that was fed to me by his ownhand. I never went hungry, and if I had to squat to potty, well, itwasstill a toilet that flushed. Each time he came to me, he took me to euphoric places, sometimes without putting a hand on me.

I understand it was wrong. I also know that with our fucked-up past, right and wrong have gotten twisted sideways, crumbled in a ball, and shat out again.

But he’s always been careful and controlled with me, even when he hated me. Earlier today he wanted to let me go. Well, he was at least willing to let me go to his sister, who he has under constant security. Still. Even that feels like part of his fucked-up way of caring.

I feel less and less like a clinging koala, and it’s been a wonderful morning. Yes, I still feel panic at the thought of leaving his side, but I alsowantto be here.

When I swim towards the deep end, he doesn’t stop me. He just follows, at my side but a distance away. I fling my arms out and throw my head back, face to the sun as I float.

Ripples of the crystal blue pool glitter all around me like diamonds.

It feels so free to be in the water like this, all my limbs extended with the sun warming my face. I float, completely weightless. I feel like a goddess. Even with my eyes closed, I know Domhnall is near.

I feel…good. It’s strange. Foreign. Just because I haven’t had a lot of feeling free and happy since I woke up from the amnesia, or because I didn’t have it before, either? Is my bodyremembering what my mind can’t? That I’ve never been happy before, at least not for real, or for very long?

How much of my life did I spend with that awful, evil man? I don’t even want to think of him as my father. If I was only thirteen when Domhnall knew me, that meant at least five more years with my father before I was eighteen. Was I able to run away from him at some point? Because Domhnall said Iknew…To be related to someone who could do that to?—

My eyes fly open, peace disturbed by the ugliness of it all.

Only to find Domhn circling me like a shark. I laugh, startled back to thenow. I cling to the warmth of his presence, warmer than the sun.

He keeps circling me.

“Are you worried I’d go under?” I ask.

He shrugs, easily doing a backstroke, his bulging muscles glittering as water splashes off them. “Just making sure you’re safe.”

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