Page 78 of Day Break

“Right.” I relaxed. “What if they don’t find him?”

Lane thought for a moment. “They will,” he said, but I could tell he wasn’t all that sure himself.

I was weary of talking about Elliott. Of thinking about my past. I wanted to move forward. The thought of going to school, real school, for the first time excited me.

I had just gone on my first real shopping trip, buying whatever I wanted. And I still had over a hundred dollars left. I had gotten some really nice clothes, and some items that had always been forbidden to me—makeup, a blow dryer, a curling iron, sexy underwear. Those I was currently wearing. I had bought them in hopes of surprising Lane that night. All he’d seen me in so far was boring cotton underwear.

When Lane stood up to take our dishes to the sink, I stopped him.

“We can deal with those in the morning,” I said, taking his hand. I laid his hand over my breast as I hiked up the skirt of my dress and straddled him in the chair. “For now, let’s enjoy ourselves.” I kissed him.

God, I loved the feel and taste of him. His hands moved up to my hips, his fingertips digging into my butt as he slowly rocked me. I felt him grow hard against me and my entire body responded. I wanted him inside me.

I took the kiss deeper as his hands moved under my skirt. Then he hoisted me up to sit on the table in front of him, breaking the kiss.

I wanted to complain, but then he spread my legs and, with his eyes on mine, hiked my skirt all the way up.

His eyes traveled to between my legs, and he smiled. “I like your style,” he said as he brushed his fingertip over the red lace covering me.

“I’ve discovered I like wearing sexy things under my clothes,” I said proudly.

Lane made a soft groaning sound and then gently nudged the material aside so that I was exposed to him.

When he bent down and ran his tongue over me, I cried out and held onto him. I was getting used to Lane’s needs, and mine matched his pace.

I’d spent my entire life being controlled by others. Now, however, knowing what Lane wanted, I easily allowed my body to give in. I cried out his name as the convulsions came, then my entire body went lax against him.

He carried me until I lay on his bed upstairs. Only when he started gently pulling my clothes off did I stir. When his fingers brushed against a sensitive spot, I smiled and started tugging his clothes off. I needed to see his skin and feel it against mine.

I had never believed I would like sex. I’d avoided even thinking about it. I’d hidden from it, mentally and physically, when I could.

Now, I sought it out. Thought about it often and even dreamed about it. Lane was the reason I was healed. He was the reason I desired a man for the first time in my life. He gave me motive to dream of a future I could mold on my own.

“Please,” I begged him when he slid into me. “Don’t stop.”

I knew that he didn’t understand that I wasn’t just talking about what he was doing to me at the moment. In my mind, it went far beyond these minutes of intimacy.

I held onto him as if willing the rest of the world away. When we both fell together, he covered us with the blanket and held me until I drifted off to sleep, sated physically and mentally.

I should have known the dreams would come to me that night. I should have guessed after seeing Elliott.

My body jerked, remembering the first time he’d undressed me and told me that my duties were to obey him. To do things to him that literally made me gag and vomit. I would be punished until I learned to keep the disgust to myself.

In sleep, I felt the sting of his slaps. The tearing of my body as he used it. He’d always been so much bigger than me. So much stronger. He’d used his superior strength and knowledge to berate me, belittle me, abuse me.

I had never stood a chance.

I’d been a child. Only a child.

Later, I’d gotten knowledge from books I read when I was left alone, stolen and hidden from my husband. The large house we’d moved into had been empty with the exception of a box of classic books in the attic.

How was I supposed to fight back?

I could feel the sting of his hands on me still as Lane shifted and pulled me against him.

“Chloe, it’s a dream,” he said softly next to my ear.

Then I felt Byron jump on the bed and lay across me as the dream slowly disappeared.