Total pages in book: 89
Estimated words: 84465 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 422(@200wpm)___ 338(@250wpm)___ 282(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 84465 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 422(@200wpm)___ 338(@250wpm)___ 282(@300wpm)
I wanted to tell her it wasn’t her fault—that she’d done her best. But I couldn’t help thinking that she’d gotten my Dad killed just by being with him. I didn’t care that he wasn’t my biological father—he had meant the world to me and I missed him terribly. I wished he was still alive somewhere—that I could run to him and snuggle on his lap and feel his arms around me. I just wanted to feel safe and my mom couldn’t offer me that—no one could.
You’re not a child anymore, whispered a little voice in my head. Time to grow up and start acting like an adult.
“Mom,” I made myself say. “It’s okay—things are going to be okay.”
It was a lie and we both knew it, but I didn’t know what else to say—how else to comfort her.
“Honey—” she began, but at that moment we heard heavy footsteps outside the door.
My mom’s face grew pale.
“Quickly—the closet!” She gestured to the walk-in closet at the far end of the large master suite. I scurried over to it and had just shut myself into the stuffy, pitch-black space when the main door opened and my stepfather came back.
“Moncrieff is willing to talk,” he remarked, grinning, as though he was giving my mom good news. “We’re going tomorrow to see him, so you’ll need to pack for us both.”
“Please, Esteban…” My mother looked at him with tears in her eyes—I knew because I was watching through the crack in the closet door “Please don’t take her away from me!”
My stepfather’s face grew dark.
“Shut up! Do you know how much you probably cost me, getting rid of her maidenhead like that? She’d be worth so much more intact!”
I squeezed my legs together as I listened to his words. I hadn’t had much time to study the books I’d gotten from the library, but I knew my maidenhead or hymen had been a sign of my virginity. It was gone, thanks to the painful operation my mom had forced me to endure, but the loss of it hadn’t had the effect she’d desired. I was still going to be sold.
“I’ll hate you,” my mother warned, staring up at my stepfather with desperation in her eyes. He was standing by the side of the bed where she was still sitting, glaring down at her. “I’ll hate you forever if you do this—if you take my child away from me!”
A slow, cruel grin spread over his darkly handsome face.
“You might hate me, mi amor, but you’ll never stop wanting me.”
“I don’t want you!” my mother denied, but why did her words sound so weak?
My stepfather took a step closer, crowding her—looming over her.
“Oh yes you do, Freya. You want me. Your body needs me,” he snarled, leaning down to put himself right in her face.
I expected her to slap him or maybe rake her fingernails across his cheek. Instead, to my surprise and horror, she grabbed him and pulled him in for a kiss!
My stepfather grabbed her back and soon the two of them were kissing passionately, their hands all over each other. Then my stepfather grabbed her and turned her around. Pushing her so that she was face down on the bed with her ass in the air, he started unbuckling his belt and opening his trousers.
I stood there in the dark, silent and horrified but I felt helpless to look away as my stepfather pulled out his shaft and—
“Come on, little mouse—you don’t need to be watching this.”
The deep voice in the darkness behind me nearly made me scream. In fact, a strangled gasp came up in my throat but it was cut off by the big hand that suddenly covered my mouth.
“Shhh—it’s just me, Gabriel,” My stepbrother murmured in my ear. I was suddenly very aware of his big, muscular body right behind mine—I could feel his heat like a line of fire against my back. His scent filled my nose—spice with a hint of fur and smoke in it and deep notes of masculine musk. It was like Christopher’s scent…but wilder…darker.
I wondered distractedly why I was suddenly so attuned to the way my stepbrothers smelled. But I also wondered what the hell Gabriel was doing in my mother’s closet?
“What are you doing here?” I hissed when he finally took his hand from my mouth.
“I came to get you,” he growled softly. “Saw you come in here. It’s not safe, you know—if my father finds you in his room, there’ll be hell to pay, little mouse.”
“But how did you get in here? I…I didn’t see you come in!” My breath was coming faster now. For some reason I felt very aware of my body—the fullness and heaviness of my breasts…the tightness of my nipples. And why was the place between my legs feeling so hot and slippery and tender?