“He took it.”
“I didn’t exactly fight him off.” She closed her eyes, and he saw her hands clench. “So, the next night, I thought that was it. It was done. He came again and again, until I couldn’t stand it. I ran. I ran to the nearest city, and it was there I bumped into a woman. Obviously, a week or two has passed by this point. I’m starving. I’m broken. I’m alone. Her name was Liza. That’s what she said. She had no ID, but she told me her name was Liza. She took me in, and for five days, she taught me so much.”
He couldn’t stand to see her eyes closed. The man in the pictures was as good as dead. “What did she teach you?”
“Men wanted something for a price. She told me that the world wasn’t ready for me. That if I didn’t take control of myself and who I was, I was going to break. I’d lose everything.” She pressed her lips together. “On the last night with her, before her pimp beat the living crap out of her and killed her, she told me that the only person who can tell me to do what I want is me. I’m in control of my own destiny and men, their weakness is their dick. You control the dick, you control the man.” She averted her gaze. “So … I went back to him. I made an arrangement. He could have me as much as he wanted and often, but I needed my education and money.” She got up from the bed.
“Laura.”
“I stayed for two years at least. I got my high school education and enough money to get the hell out of there.” She took a step away. “He and one other guy are the only ones I’ve ever slept with. The other one, he was a tester to see…”
“If you liked sex.”
“I do like sex. It got to the stage where it became fun.” She frowned, and he saw the tears in her eyes.
Laura ran from the room. He didn’t even think, he followed. He caught her in his arms and she started to sob.
“I’m fine. Let me go.”
“I know you’re fine. I’ve got you.”
“I’m disgusting.”
“You did what you needed to do in order to survive. That’s all.” He pressed a kiss to her head.
“I’m dirty.”
“You’re clean. You’re perfect.” He cupped her face, forcing her to look at him. “You’re nothing but pure.”
She burst out laughing. “Are you kidding me? Look at how fast this is moving. You want me, and I offer to fuck you.”
“No money is changing hands. We want this.” He took possession of her mouth. “I still want you. I will always want you.”
“I’m dirty.”
“You’re not. You’re a survivor. That asshole shouldn’t have touched you.”
“I wanted to go to the police, but he said no one would believe me.” She covered his hands with her own. “Why wouldn’t anyone believe me?”
“Because they’re assholes of the highest order. They don’t deserve you.” The truth was, neither did he. He’d known the man in the picture was a piece of work. The way he looked. Everything about him had screamed trouble, and now, his days were numbered.
Where there was Laura, there were so many other girls.
Laura stopped crying, but he didn’t let her go. He refused to.
“How can you even want me?” she asked. “After what I just said?”
“I told you before, I understand you. You think I haven’t done stuff I’m not proud of? You have to in order to survive. This world isn’t for the fainthearted. It’s cold, hard, and brutal. We were given bad starts.”
“And look where you are now,” she said. “The king. The one in control.”
“And I’m looking for a queen.”
She shook her head. “No, Gabe. I’m not the girl for you.”
“Good. I’m not looking for a girl. I’m wanting a woman.”
She rolled her eyes. Her hand reached out and stroked his chest. “Thank you.”
“For what?”
“For not judging.”
“Have you ever told anyone else?” he asked.
“No. There was no one else to tell.”
“And Liza is gone?”
She nodded. “She had a mouth on her. When I first met her, I didn’t realize she was a prostitute. She saved me, though. Fed me. Gave me the advice that got me here. The pimp she worked for wanted me to start on a corner. Liza wouldn’t hear of it, and so, he kept hitting her until there was nothing left to hit.”
“I’m so sorry.”
“It’s not your fault. You didn’t cause it.”
Chapter Six
“Spread those legs for me.”
“Seriously? You got this game just so you could order me around?” Laura asked, standing up and glaring at him.
“I got this game because it was fun.”
“Yes, when there is more than one player.”
“Bend over.”
“You’re not even spinning that thing.” She pointed at the board he held in his hand.
“I don’t need to spin it.”
She rolled her eyes at him, and even though she loved teasing him, she bent forward. The moment he got her to stand with her feet wide apart and then bend so it would give him the perfect angle of her open and exposed, her suspicions had risen. It wasn’t like it was hard. She’d been with him for twenty-four hours. During that time, she’d opened her heart and soul to him.
No one had known about Liza. Even when the cops came to clean up the mess, she’d hidden away and watched the pimp pay them off. Just another body in a city full of them. Liza had been old, alone, and no one cared if she lived or died. Rather than stick around for that kind of future, she took the bus back and arrived on the porch of the man who’d raped her. She’d made a deal with herself. Under no circumstances would she ever allow a man to control her life.
You’re naked in Gabe’s home.
She tried to ignore the little niggling doubt that she’d fucked up.
Gabe was different. He’d taken her by surprise, and it wasn’t like he controlled her life. She still worked, admittedly, half of her work was with him, seeing as he was the owner of the bar.
“Are you satisfied now?”
“No. You need to have dots put on your ass so I can stretch it wide.”
She smiled and then reached around and spread her cheeks wide. “Like this?”
“Oh, baby. I told you this was the best fucking game.”
Flicking her hair over her shoulder, she glanced behind her to see Gabe had his cock in his fist, working it up and down.
She’d expected his appetite for her to dwindle. Men only wanted what they couldn’t have, but Gabe, each day, he constantly came back for more.
“Tell me what you want,” she said.
“You.”
“Which part of me?”
“Walk back to me.”
“Are you always this playful?”
“Only with you.”
She could live with that. Stepping back, she walked all the way until she was perched above him. He grabbed her hips. “Hold me.”
Laura reached between her thighs, held his cock, and slowly began to sink back onto his length.