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“No? How old is she?”
The line went quiet, and dread crawled up his spine.
“How old is she, Con? Answer me.” Now his Dom voice came into play, forcing her submissive side to submit.
“Twenty-one,” she whispered.
“Oh fuck me. She’s barely fucking legal!” Saul’s gaze ran over the wraith on the couch, searching her face. And yes, he could see the youthfulness lurking under the mask of strain. Even unconscious, she wasn’t relaxed. “Next you’ll be telling me she’s a goddamn virgin.”
The silence that followed answered all his questions. Saul bit back a barrage of profanity and ran his hand over his face in exasperation. “Just so I’m clear on what’s happening with this shitshow, let’s reiterate—she’s only just legal, she’s never had sex, she has untold emotional and traumatic baggage, and you’ve thrown her in at the deep end by dumping her here with a highly-sexed Dominant.”
Connie sighed shakily. “You won’t hurt her, Saul. I know you won’t.”
“I won’t be doing anything with her. If you wanted my help, you should have asked, not coerced the pair of us here. Any trust I could have built with Caera is now gone. She’ll see me as an intruder. One who has seen her naked, at her most vulnerable.”
“Please, Saul. She needs help.”
Fucking friendships, he thought. So many strings the thickness of his wrist and knots like a Morningstar mace. “You want me to fuck whatever’s wrong with her out of her system?”
The Mistress’s voice sharpened, going head to head with his own anger. “Don’t be blasé about this, Saul. Caera is a clever, talented young woman with her whole life ahead of her if she can just get past this shit. I know your work, and it’s not all sex, whips and handcuffs. A lot of it is psychological, and you are well versed in how to tap into her head.”
“You’re the goddamn psychologist, Constance!” Saul almost roared it. “What I do is fuck women who want to be dominated.” He knew it was mean, but his sense of betrayal was keen, pushing him to say things he normally wouldn’t. Urging him to dig the knife in and turn it a fraction. “She wants me to do that, I don’t have an issue with it.”
Instead of a fiery reply, he heard Connie snap, “All right, you talk to him. He’s being an insufferable ass again and won’t listen to me.”
Insufferable ass? Saul’s temper flared hotter. “Thane, I swear on everything holy, I’ll skin you alive for this. You have no idea how fucking mad I am at you two right now.”
“All we’re guilty of is being worried sick about someone Connie considers a friend. When Connie realized we’d double-booked the cabin, and she explained the situation with Caera, I had to agree you’re the only one we could think of who might be able to help her.”
“Then why not just ask?” The patience in Thane’s voice was a soothing balm in contrast with his lover’s dominance, calming some of Saul’s temper.
“Caera is somewhat of a special case from what I understand. Everyone she’s asked to help her has either turned her down or done a half-ass job. Taken her money without a problem,” Thane added bitterly, “but didn’t help her. Connie’s making headway, but not enough. Yesterday was a neon warning sign, and as much as I hate putting this on you, you might be her last hope, Saul. After what she said to Connie, we’re worried she might decide to do something regrettable.”
Saul sighed heavily. “Suicide.”
“Con thinks she was serious, and I’m inclined to go with her gut instincts. Caera rarely says anything as serious as that without following through. Most people say they’re tired of their job and they’re going to quit, but then they go to that same job the next day and the days after. Caera…Caera says she’s going to quit her job, she hands her notice in then and there.”
Well, she sounded like his kind of girl, Saul thought, if Connie knew Caera as well as she believed. The problem with people, however, was no one could ever say they knew someone else one hundred percent, through and through. People were, by nature, secretive beasts, always striving for survival. Divulging the full extent of one’s self only exposed weaknesses.
Weakness attracted extinction.
“Goddamn it. I’ll call you back when she wakes up,” Saul decided. “I’ll talk to her, and if she’s willing to accept my help, then I’ll give it. If not, one of us is coming home.”
The relief from Thane’s end of the conversation was almost palpable. His exhale of breath wrapped everything that needed to be said into one word. “Thanks.”
Calmer, Saul disconnected and tucked his phone back into the pocket, bracing his forearm on the mantel and gazing into the fire, his thoughts centered on the young woman behind him. Sometimes, more often of late, he wondered if people saw him as a soft touch.
He stayed there for a few minutes, then shrugged off his irritation at his friends and, with a quick look at the girl, headed back to the bathroom. Steam still lingered from her shower, so he cracked open the window to air the room.
He took care of business, washed his hands, then picked up the wet towel from the floor and hung it to dry before he returned to the living room. The scattered clothing, he picked up and dumped in the laundry basket.
Saul tossed another log on the fire as he resumed his place by the hearth, and movement caught his eye. Turning slowly, setting his back to the fire, he watched his new charge kick and twist. Hard sounds of distress leeched from her throat, terror marking her features.
Saul moved to her quickly, dropping beside the couch on his knees and cupping her cheek. “Come on, little rabbit. Snap out of it.”
She would be beautiful, he thought, without the deathly ash-gray pallor and dark purple bruises around her eyes. She needed a lot of weight back on her bones, her curves to fill out and muscles to build, but the template was there.
Her scream scared ten years off his life, and he found himself having to hold her down as that fragile body bucked and writhed. It wasn’t easy trying to restrain her without hurting those thin bones—a guy his size could snap her in half faster than he could blink.
