Page 111 of Never Kiss and Tell

She takes a deep breath. “Just bad memories. It’s over. Can we go back to sleep?”

I place a finger under her chin and lift her face to look at me. She stares past me, her breathing still heavy.

“Take a deep breath and tell me what you’re afraid of.”

Her eyes search mine, trying to find the answer to an unspoken question.

“Someone who can’t hurt me anymore.”

“Drew?” I ask, tension radiating through me. The burn of possessiveness starts in my chest and bleeds throughout my body.

After a beat, she takes a deep breath, closing her eyes on a tear that slips down her cheek and onto the pillow below her.

“I didn’t tell you the whole story, when we went to dinner.”

My hands tighten behind her back, fisting in the comforter behind her.

“Okay?”

“I told you Drew left me there when I wouldn’t give in to him. He didn’t just leave me there.”

“What did he do?” I ask, knowing the fucking answer before she even says it.

She chuckles nervously, though there’s no humor in it.

“He was drunk when he got home because he went out with Marcus. I confronted him about this nasty pair of red underwear I found in his suitcase from a business trip he’d justgotten back from the day before. He swore they came from Marcus. I was stupid and listened to him. He wanted to have sex and I was willing to go along with him because I thought I was going to lose him. When he handcuffed me, I told him to let me go and to get off of me and he didn’t listen. So, he forced me,” she shrugs, like it happens every day. She swallows, looking uncomfortable. Her hands move restlessly over my abs.

Violence wells inside me. I breathe deeply, trying to get ahold of my anger. “I’ll fucking kill him.”

Bailey shakes her head, reaching up to cup my face in her hand. Her touch is too soft for how I’m feeling. Iwantto hurt him. I want him dead.

“Bailey, he didn’t force you, he raped you,” I grit, holding her closer to me, like if I hold her tighter, I can make that moment disappear. Unfortunately, it’s still very much real and I have to work to get a hold of the burning anger piercing through me before I do something stupid.

“I know,” she whispers quietly, pressing her lips to mine gently. “I know.”

“And does your mother know?”

Bailey swallows, hard. “No. You’re the only one who knows. And Savannah.”

A tear slides down her cheek. I reach up catching it with my thumb and wiping it away.

“Why didn’t you tell someone? Why not call the cops?”

She sighs. “Because it would have been his word against mine and I was just ready to move on.” She smiles softly. “You know, after it happened, I was so disgusted with myself. I felt dirty. But you almostforcedme to feel pretty again. I feel morelike myself than I have in a very long time.”

“You aren’t what happened to you at the hands of some sick freak,” I say vehemently. “He doesn’t deserve to walk free.”

“I guess that’s why I wanted you to tie me up,” she muses, looking away. “I’ve never been in control of my own sexual experience before. Asking you to do that and knowing you would stop if I wanted you to, gave me something that was taken from me.”

So many firsts,she’d said when I spanked her. This stunning, happy woman was willing to give that to me in the hopes that I would help her reclaim a part of herself she never got the chance to meet.

“I should probably go. I know it’s a lot to take in,” she murmurs, pulling the covers back from her. She turns to get out of bed, but I reach out and pull her back to me.

I tighten my hold around her, keeping her in bed. She eyes me, her brow furrowed, like she can’t believe I don’t want her to go.

“Stay.”

“I can’t look at you and see pity, Charlie,” she breathes, her voice breaking.

---