Total pages in book: 217
Estimated words: 207224 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1036(@200wpm)___ 829(@250wpm)___ 691(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 207224 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1036(@200wpm)___ 829(@250wpm)___ 691(@300wpm)
He pounds on, deranged and oblivious to my discomfort. “Come on, baby,” he bellows, following it up with a bark of pleasure. “Come on!”
“Danny, stop.” I choke over my words, feeling him hitting me deeply, so deep I’m in pain.
“Tell me when, Rose.”
“Danny, I can’t.”
“Come on, baby!”
“Danny, please, stop.” Fuck, this hurts. “Danny,” I mumble, without breath or energy to yell, my body limp, at the mercy of his ruthless taking.
Stop!
And then I feel him jerk on a choked cough and he collapses onto me, panting, sweating, pushing me into the mattress, his hips grinding, his seed spilling into me, hot and endlessly as he groans into my neck. I lie still, completely dazed. And not for the right reasons. “Get off me,” I say, my throat hoarse, my body not my own. It’s a feeling I never thought I would have again. An empty, hollow, helpless feeling. Nothing. I feel nothing.
“Rose?” He strains my name past his fitful breathes, shifting slightly.
“Get. Off. Me,” I order, my voice brittle. I wince when he slides out of me, leaving his cum trickling down my leg.
“Baby, what’s up?”
I push my hands into the mattress and get off the bed, jarring when he catches my wrist, stopping me from walking away. “Let go, Danny.” I know what he’s expecting here. He’s expecting me to lash out. I’m too numb. Too shocked. He has never violated me. He’s always sought permission in his own fucked-up way. I turn my eyes up to his, and he recoils the moment he sees the emptiness of my expression, dropping his hold. “I told you to stop. You didn’t stop.” I walk away, numb, and lock myself in the bathroom. I immediately turn on the shower and step in, a familiar sense of detachment creeping through me, a shield that’s been broken for years seeming to fix itself. I look down my body. I don’t see my small bump.
I see an object.
I swallow and sink to the floor, dragging a washcloth over, sobbing as I clean myself, scrubbing between my legs. Scrubbing my husband off my body.
Because today he’s not my husband.
Today, he’s just another man who didn’t listen when I told him to stop.
It’s the only time I can recall when he’s not come after me. I can’t say I’m sorry. Once I’ve got myself together, I leave the bathroom. The bedroom is empty, and I dress in silence, pulling on a long blush skirt and a sleeveless white shirt, knotting the ends. I quickly rough dry my hair, put some sunscreen on my face and arms, and my gold-jeweled sandals on my feet. I grab my cell off the nightstand, my purse off the back of the chair, and a hair tie off the bed. The hair tie that unraveled from my hair while he took me like an animal. I stop and stare at the strewn sheets, then look over my shoulder when I hear the door to the villa slam shut. He’s gone. Can’t face me.
Good. I can’t face him either.
I start pulling my hair up as I head to the kitchen but come to an abrupt stop when I enter and see Danny sitting at the table, dressed in a white shirt and blue chinos, spinning his cell in his grasp. I disturb his deep thoughts and he looks up, the fiddling of his phone stopping. I stare into his icy eyes that are far from cold at the moment. They’re worried. I have no idea what to say to him.
I look away, grabbing my keys off the console by the door and leaving. “Rose,” he calls, coming after me. “Baby, please, don’t walk away from me.”
I keep up my pace, pulling my cell from my purse and dialing Beau to find out how long she’ll be. I don’t even make it to my contacts. I hear wheels on gravel and see her yellow Jeep driving through the villa gates.
“Rose,” Danny breathes, rounding me and putting himself in front of me. I sidestep him and wave to Beau, seeing James in the passenger seat.
As soon as she pulls to a stop, James gets out and I take his place, setting my purse on my lap.
“Morning,” he says, his body still dipped for me to kiss his cheek.
“Let’s go,” I say, unable to appreciate the significance of such a simple moment—a moment when Beau and I can hop in a car and go out for the day without the Vikings guarding us or Danny and James fretting. But is that going to change now?
Beau doesn’t pull away, her eyes on me. “You two still haven’t made up?” she asks, turning her eyes onto Danny. I peek at him too, seeing half the man I know. An unsure man. A lost man.
“Rose,” he murmurs softly, his eyes beseeching.