Total pages in book: 75
Estimated words: 70779 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 354(@200wpm)___ 283(@250wpm)___ 236(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 70779 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 354(@200wpm)___ 283(@250wpm)___ 236(@300wpm)
I started coughing and choking. His hands were big so even one-handed, his grip on my throat was tight. I began to feel like I couldn’t breathe.
“Please!” I gasped out as he cut off my air supply. “Can’t…don’t…”
“Oh, does that hurt?” The cruel smile appeared on his face again as he squeezed even tighter. “Good. Maybe you’ll learn a lesson about mouthing off, babe.”
Just as the world was going gray and I was sure he would choke me to death, he took his hand away again. But I barely had time to catch my breath before he reached between my legs and pinched me hard, on my inner thigh.
Pinches were one of Carlo’s favorite little cruelties. He used to wait until I was almost asleep at night and then pinch me hard on the breast or my ass—whatever vulnerable place he could reach. Then he would laugh when I cried out and say I was making too much of it—that he was just “kidding around.”
I was often covered with bruises from all his “kidding.”
But the pinch did one good thing for me that even the choking couldn’t do—it woke me up. It cut through the protective cloud that was forming around me and gave me strength. I gasped in a breath and suddenly, I found that I could move again.
“No!” I shouted in his face and this time my voice really was a shout, not a whisper. I shoved at his chest as hard as I could and Carlo was so surprised he fell over with his dick still in his hand.
All I could think was thank the Goddess he hadn’t gotten it in me! I wasn’t on birth control and I never wanted to feel him inside me again.
I managed to get on my feet, scrambling up on shaky legs.
“Get out of my shop!” I said, my voice trembling but firm. I pointed at the front door. “You’re not my husband and you don’t own me. Go now or I’m calling for help.”
Carlo sneered at me.
“Who you gonna call, babe? You know nobody at the PD is going to listen to you. I already told them what a crazy cunt you are and how they can’t believe anything you say. Besides, what’s wrong with a husband taking his rights?”
“We’re not married and you never had any right to me,” I snapped. “I’m not just a body for you to use and abuse whenever you feel like it. I’m a person and I never want to see you again, you abusive asshole!”
I knew at once that I had said the wrong thing.
Carlo’s handsome face went ugly with rage as he stood up and reached for me.
“You little bitch,” he growled. “You’re going to fucking pay for your nasty words! Go ahead and try to call for help—nobody’s going to hear you. And even if they did, nobody cares.”
That might have been true in the past, but now I thought there was someone who might hear me…someone who might care.
“Kael!” I shouted, taking a step back from my ex as he made a grab for me. I narrowly avoided his grasping hand. “Kael, help me! I need you!”
I didn’t know if shouting for the big gargoyle would help or not. If it didn’t, I was going to run, lock myself in the bathroom, and make another door to Hidden Hollow. But I had to evade Carlo first.
“Who the fuck is ‘Kael?’” he snarled at me. “You been cheating on me, you little whore?”
I was about to tell him that even if I had been with another man, it couldn’t possibly be cheating because we were divorced, when a ripping sound split the air.
Carlo and I both jerked our heads around to see where the noise was coming from. As we watched a blood-red, vertical fissure began to appear about three feet to my right. It started at least two feet above my head and tore downwards in a jagged line. It was like someone had taken a knife and was cutting the fabric of reality as we watched.
It only took a moment for the vertical rip in reality to be drawn—or cut or whatever.
And then a huge form came through it.
17
WILLOW
It was Kael, I saw with vast relief. His perfect, chiseled features were full of concern for me.
“Mistress?” he rumbled. “Are you well? I heard your call.”
Before I could answer, he turned and saw Carlo, with his dick still hanging out of his uniform trousers. His face abruptly darkened and his eyes began to turn demonic red.
“Who is this, Mistress?” he demanded, his voice dropping to a menacing growl. “Is this the one who abused and hurt you?”
“Yes.” I somehow got the words out, though my voice was trembling. “He…he’s my ex. The one who hurt me. He was…” I swallowed hard. “Was trying to hurt me again when I…when I called you.”