Page 2 of Cuffs and Kink

Her cheeks flushed, and her eyes cut toward the window. I could tell she was intrigued, yet her innocence kept her from saying what was on her mind. And hell if that didn’t just turn me on even more. I’d been with more women than I could count, but damn if she didn’t make me harder than I’d ever been before. But Josie wasn’t a “right now” kind of woman. She was the forever kind. I might have been thirty-two, but I wasn’t ready for the picket fence, golden retriever in the yard, and two point five kids just yet. No, whoever plucked her cherry was going to be a lucky bastard, but I’d be willing to bet it would be her husband.

“Why don’t you want to go home?” I asked. She’d always been around town with one of her parents, seldom on her own, so something had to be going on. It wasn’t like Josie to dress like this or refuse to go home.

She stared at the window and didn’t say a word.

“Josie, if you don’t give me a good reason, I’m going to take you home right now. You were attacked, and you should talk to someone, preferably your mother.”

She snorted.

“Talk to me.”

She turned those wide blue eyes my way and looked completely lost and betrayed. Hurting Josie was akin to kicking a puppy. Whatever put that look in her eyes, or whoever, I felt the need to lash out at them and beat them bloody. She should be cherished and treated like a princess. Whatever had happened, that one look told me she’d been cut deep.

“They’re selling me.”

Well, I hadn’t expected that.

“I think you need to clarify that statement. What do you mean they’re selling you? Last time I checked, slavery was illegal.”

She sighed. “My father has a friend, a minister in another town, who wants a young, pure wife. Someone to give him a dozen kids and teach Sunday school every weekend. A woman who won’t talk back or ever voice her own opinion. And he’s old! Like at least fifty.”

I stifled my smile at that. Fifty was hardly old, but to someone her age it probably seemed ancient.

“And your father is urging you to marry this man?” I asked.

“It’s worse. My father has promised him that he can have me. In exchange, our church is getting a new roof. Reverend Falks has a large congregation, one of those super churches that brings in millions. The man lives in a castle, for cripes sake!”

“And all that luxury doesn’t appeal to you?”

Her lips twisted. “Would you want to sleep with a man thirty years older than you for the express purpose of being a brood mare? Reverend Falks doesn’t believe in birth control and he already informed me that he plans for me to stay barefoot and pregnant. He’s told me what he intends to do to me, and it makes my skin crawl. He’s cruel, but the world only sees a kind man who lost his first wife too young. What they don’t know is that he probably killed her.”

Those were strong allegations, and I wondered how much was spoken in fear and how much was truth. I wasn’t overly familiar with Falks. I never watched his sermons on Sunday morning, but I knew he was a big shot around these parts. And if he had decided he wanted Josie, there probably wasn’t much she could do about it. She was dependent on her family with no way of supporting herself. And in a town this small, the law wasn’t always on her side.

Luckily for her, I was.

My uncle was the local judge, and my cousins all worked for the department like me. I wasn’t sure there was anything we could do to protect Josie, but I’d be damned if I wouldn’t at least try. I flipped a U-turn and headed for the courthouse. If anyone could figure out this mess, it was Judge Turner.

“Where are we going?” she asked.

“We’re going to pay a visit to my uncle and see if he has an idea of how to get you out of this mess. They aren’t technically doing anything illegal -- yet -- but they can’t force you to marry someone you don’t want. The marriage isn’t legal unless you both say ‘I do’ and I guess you don’t intend to do that.”

“If I refuse, I’ll be thrown out of the house. I’ve never attended college and don’t have a job. How would I pay for a place to live?”

“One thing at a time, Josie.”

She sighed and settled back against the seat. When we reached the courthouse, she reached out and gripped my hand tight. The jolt I felt was enough to momentarily stun me, but I snapped out of it and ushered her through the building and to the judge’s chambers. He had an open door policy for family, and I hoped like hell he wasn’t hearing any court cases. The sooner I helped Josie figure out her problem, the sooner I could put some distance between us. Before I did something embarrassing.

As it happened, Judge Turner was in, and he seemed to be in a good mood.

“Well, if it isn’t my favorite nephew!” He pounded me on the back.

“I’m your only nephew,” I said wryly.

“Semantics. Now, why have you brought pretty Josie Wright with you? Don’t tell me you’re finally settling down.”

My eyes widened, but my mouth refused to work.

“Officer Daniels thinks you might be able to help me, Your Honor.”

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