Page 84 of Longing for Liberty
He made a small sound in the back of his throat and slightly adjusted his hold on me.
“Well, you know about the academy where I was raised, and that it was in Idaho.”
“Yes. I’ve never been.”
“It’s beautiful. Imagine living in a state park, a remote area in nature. Forests, hills, mountains in the distance, streams. Our town was all Order of Mercy families, so I never knew anything different until I left for college.”
“Were there a lot of you?”
“It was like a small city.”
Wow. And now all of those people were our “bosses.”
“That must have been a major culture shock when you left for college.”
“We actually went through secular training before we left, but nothing could have prepared me. Especially for the women and their forwardness. I didn’t handle that well. I stayed in trouble with the elders, but they decided to use it as part of my, I don’t know, allure?”
His “bad-boy-turned-good” persona.
“They had me marry during my third year to get me under control.”
“And did that work?” I pulled back enough to be able to see his face.
“Yes, as far as they were concerned. No more premarital sex. But our relationship was always volatile.”
My eyebrows went up. “Did you ever have to…punish her? Like you did to me?”
“With the paddle? No. She would have enjoyed that too much.”
I let out an accidental snort of laughter and covered my mouth, but he grinned, so I allowed myself to finish the giggle.
“She always wanted us to be rougher. Harsher. Not just in life, but in my role as Secretary. It turned her on that I was…” He stopped as if searching for the word.
“Powerful?”
“Yes. Even cruel, at least to those outside of the order.” I must have made a distasteful face because he rubbed across my lips and cheek with his thumb. “That’s what I liked about you immediately, Liberty. Your gentleness.”
I blushed and looked down, then up again. “How do you feel when you’re…cruel?”
“Sometimes it’s necessary in order to meet a goal.”
I didn’t believe that. Not even a little. But I kept my voice soft.
“Do you think it will be necessary to be cruel to Community Five?”
“So youhavebeen listening.” He raised his eyebrows.
I scrunched my nose, embarrassed. “Not actively, but I do hear things when I’m near you, and I was curious.”
“Curious. Yes.” He rubbed up and down my arm. “That’s something that was instilled in you as a secular, an unnecessary stressor for females. Curiosity.”
I blinked innocently to cover the heated indignation that filled me.
“I’m sorry,” I said, wanting to punch the words as they came out.
He lifted a strand of my hair and let it sift through his fingers. To my surprise, he humored my dangerous curiosity.
“Community Five is…a conundrum. Many wanted to rid the State of all foreigners who weren’t part of our Manifest Destiny. But we couldn’t force a deportation of millions of people without the world getting involved. And the other option was drab.”
