The silence was stark then, so complete between them that the faint buzz of a nearby insect intruded. Nothing had fazed him, not the scars on her body, her overly submissive ways, or even her inability to speak. But now he seemed at a loss, she was at a loss, unable to even say the word I.
I don’t know, was what she had meant to say, but even in her mind she tripped over it. Like she wasn’t even a person anymore. How much had they taken from her? Too much, now this.
“Subby.” His voice raw, as if he’d been shouting. “Who did this to you?”
She swallowed. “I…I…”
I think it was your brother.
Her memories from her old prison were muted but clear enough to make out faces. She had never seen him there, even though her skin tingled with sick familiarity when he touched her last night. But even if he hadn’t abused her, she suspected he was involved with them. How much shipping industry could there be in a group of islands?
More than that, he had known. He had known that she couldn’t speak, he’d known that she had been trained. All without ever meeting her before.
But she only had to get through today. He would be gone tonight.
“How often does he come? Your…your…Brendan?”
“Maybe every few weeks. Sometimes a couple of months go by. Why?”
“Rather be alone.” With you.
He squeezed my arm. “I suppose you’re attached to me because I was the one to find you. But you don’t have to worry about my brother. Not all men are like the ones who hurt you.”
She looked down, wishing she could believe it.
“He’s a good guy.” His gaze was off into the trees, far away. “We didn’t used to get along. When we were kids, we were competitive. Even when we grew up, we would keep in touch just trying to one-up the other. Then something… something happened. I want to say it’s all his fault. For a long time I did think so, but I take responsibility for it now.”
He paused, and she thought he wouldn’t continue. She nuzzled her nose into his chest to prompt him. His gaze snapped back to the present, to her, and he smiled slightly. Then it faded.
“We used to Dom together. It was just something we did. There isn’t any excuse for it. It wasn’t that we just shared the girls… we used them. Pushing them harder and farther and longer just because we had something to prove.”
He sighed. “Then I met a woman. We started dating, then she moved in. Pretty soon she was subbing twenty-four seven, like you. I had so much damn pride. Too much. Then I found out she was seeing my brother.”
A small sound escaped her. She had some idea of where this was going now, of the part she had played in this sibling rivalry. It had been bad enough knowing she had betrayed a nameless Master, distant and aloof from herself, but now that he was opening up to her, now that she knew how much harder he would take it…
“We had shared her when we started dating, only once, and I knew that would be the last time. When I found out she was still seeing him, I went a little crazy. I broke up with her. Didn’t even pay attention to the fact that she was totally dependent on me, just kicked her out. She got mugged and killed a few days later.”
He looked down at her, eyes like swirling mercury. “I finally gave up the fight. Moved down here. So my brother won after all. At least that’s what I thought. But her death affected him too. He came down to visit me, saw some of my furniture, and carted it back to the states. This is as close as we’ve ever been.”
A sudden premonition that she would ruin this fragile peace left her cold. Surely she wasn’t important enough to warrant that. She was a piece of trash he found on the beach, not a treasured lover. Not his lovely pet. She shivered.
“We should head back.” Abruptly, he stood, catching me from falling off his lap with a firm grip. “Hey. Don’t worry. Everything will be just fine. You can talk to him at dinner tonight. Who knows? You two might hit it off.”
*
The savory smell of the steaks that Brendan had brought simmered in the air. Her mouth watered even as her stomach turned over. She was a bundle of nerves, a mass of fear. If Sam found out that Brendan had fucked her, he wouldn’t only cast her off, he would give her to Brendan.
Maybe worse than that, she had to get through a meal with Brendan. It wasn’t just what he had done to her. She had been hurt before, worse. He didn’t seem especially cruel. There was something about him that made her skin crawl with both wariness and recognition.
She slipped on the dress Sam had laid out for her, a soft purple one that flared out at her hips and ended mid-thigh. She had figured out by now that these clothes had belonged to the woman Sam had loved.