Page 91 of Always Yours

“Your head is getting bigger by the second,” she tells me, and I laugh, feeling my smaller head come to life. “And I am just fine. You ask again, I’m going to inflict pain on you.”

I grin. “Are you—”

She twists my nipple, and I laugh out loud, capturing her mouth with mine as she squeezes her arm tightly around my neck. I pull her under the hot stream, and nothing can compare to the heat that explodes all over me. I watch as the water runs down her flushed body and along mine. I’m breathless as her eyes close and the water trails along her lips. I reach behind her, pressing the button for some soap. I lather it before gliding my hands down her shoulders, arms, and then her breasts. I step back so I can wash her stomach, but then I notice something along her left breast. My brows come together as I look closer, hoping she doesn’t notice as I wash her hips. Surely I’m losing my mind, because it looks like teeth marks.

“They’re what you think they are,” she whispers, and the emotion in her voice has my chest tightening.

I meet her gaze as the uneasiness descends over me.

“Remember how I said I had a bad upbringing and it was very sheltered?”

I nod.

“It was a cult.”

I can’t control my face. My eyes widen, and I feel like I took a puck square in my cock because…what did she just say? “A cult?”

“Yeah, a pretty nasty brainwashing one,” she says, her voice becoming more even. “They teach that women are nothing more than a means for pleasure to a strong male. You’re meant to do whatever pleases them when you ‘come of age.’ But pleasure was never for us, only them.”

Anger sparks in my soul.

“When a man took interest in you, he requested that you go into this building called the Halo,” she says, holding my gaze. “It was said that our God made the Halo a circle so a man could move around you, looking at all angles, and decide what part of you he wanted to touch. You basically walked in wearing whatever was requested by your potential ‘master,’ and they’d come down and…” Her voice trails off, and my heart fucking hurts.

I can see the pain on her face, the fear of that trauma, and I want to find the men who touched her. I want to rip off their skin with my bare hands. Crack their knees. Torture them the way they did my beautiful, precious Janie.

“They’d come down and ‘inspect’ us, but really, they’d touch us. And if you showed any kind of emotion—for me, it was always disgust—they’d find that disrespectful, and they’d abuse you. I apparently disrespected one, and he just kept biting me until he drew blood. To teach me a lesson for not enjoying giving him oral sex.”

I can’t even process what she just said. Anger burns through my body as I gaze down at her. “Give me a name, Janie. I’ll kill him.”

A tear escapes, running down her cheek, and my heart fucking shatters. I reach out, wiping it away, and then I kiss her. I wrap my arms around her, holding her so close to protect her from her demons. Her nightmares.

“I bit his dick the next time he tried to force me.” Her voice is muffled against my skin. “And then my mom beat me, and that’s why I ran away.”

I kiss her temple, then below her eye, the tip of her nose, before pressing my lips to her top lip. “No one will ever hurt you again, Janie. I swear.”

Her honey eyes flood with her tears. “I know. I know you’ve got me.”

“I do, Janie. I fucking do.” I kiss her nose, and then it dawns on me. “Austen, I bit you, nibbled on you. I’m sor—”

“No,” she insists, begging me with her eyes. “I welcome your bite, crave it.”

“I don’t want to trigger anything.”

“You didn’t. All you did was give me the best pleasure of my life,” she admits, and my body quivers with delight. “Not to stroke your ego any more.”

“Too late.” I grin at that and kiss her forehead as she giggles softly. My heart pounds so hard in my chest, and I don’t understand how anyone could hurt such an angel. She is so beautiful, so smart, so kind, and I swear on everything I’ve ever loved, no one will ever touch her again.

Other than me.

“Did they ever try to rape you?”

She nods, swallowing hard. “I was the favorite of the Grandmaster. He wanted me as his wife, and he was married to my mother after my dad passed. I thought that meant he couldn’t have me, but my mom was willing to give me to him to make him happy. When I refused, he…” Her words trail off as my eyes fall shut. “He would make me watch him have sex with my mom and I would just cry, but she’d keep on telling me that I could have all of him. She tried to hold me down for him the day I left, and I kicked him in the dick and her in the throat, and I ran.”

“My girl,” I rasp against her lips as I open my eyes again. “My defiantsakharok.”

I see something move in her eyes. “I was scared.”

“I would be too,” I admit, running my soapy thumbs along her cheeks. “But look at you, Austen. You’re standing before me, and I am stunned by you. Every day, you blow me away, and I can’t get enough.”

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