Chapter 6

I didn't knowwhat to do. Not a single fucking clue.

I was an expert when it came to wrapping my lips around a dick, limp or hard, and I'd mastered swallowing said dick down my throat and using my tongue and lips to make it shoot endless amounts of thick, bitter-tasting fluid down my throat. I knew how to react when that same sticky liquid was intentionally directed at me until lines of it were streaking down my face. I knew what to do when a spent, still half hard, slick dick was wiped along my lips.

But this… this thing that Dalton was doing to me… I had absolutely no idea what to do.

How had we gone from me stripping bare in the parking lot just so I could get Dalton's scent off me for good to now being engulfed in it? Warmth enveloped me even though several inches of empty air stood between our bodies.

The single place where we were connected was all that mattered, though. It made so many things happen all at once. Fire burned in my blood, my stomach felt like little explosions were going off inside of it, and my dick… oh God, my dick was responding in the most delightfully painful way.

I wanted.

That was it.

I wanted.

Problem was, I didn't know what I wanted or how to get it.

Just like I didn't know what to do with my mouth as Dalton gently brushed his lips over mine like he could go on doing it forever.

My hands were trapped in the sleeves of the shirt I'd been in the process of putting on, so I was completely at his mercy. Hell, it wouldn't have mattered if they'd been free. I wouldn't have known what to do with them anyway.

"Kiss me back, sweetheart," Dalton whispered between kisses.

I opened my mouth to tell him that I didn't know how but he chose that moment to kiss me again. With my mouth slightly open, I could feel his soft breath mix with mine. I swore I heard him moan, but it also could have been me.

I'd lost all sense of time and our surroundings. It should have scared me, but it did the opposite. The sensation was so overwhelming I couldn't help but blurt out the words I probably should have kept to myself when Dalton's lips left mine.

"I… feel," I croaked.

I was sure I'd ruined the moment and burst the little bubble protecting us from the outside world when Dalton leaned back a little and just stared at me. His eyes looked like emeralds, but I couldn't read what was behind them. Had I fucked all this up by talking? Was he going to stop and look at me with disgust or pity? Was he thinking about all the things my mouth had been used for by Ivan? The things I'd let Ivan do?—

My thoughts were interrupted when Dalton brushed his mouth over mine again, this time capturing my bottom lip and gently holding it between his teeth for a split second. I felt that short half second everywhere. I leaned in, hoping I could get him to repeat the move, but he merely let his mouth hover preciously close to mine.

"Me too," he whispered, and then his mouth was back on mine. I let out a little cry of relief as his words sank in and his lips worked their magic.

He felt it too.

That gnawing, clawing thing inside me hurt but not in a bad way. The relief, the warmth, the hunger, the hope… all from his mouth being on mine for a handful of seconds. I couldn't process what that meant, and I didn't want to. I just wanted more of it—for me and for him.

His kisses intensified after that, and it was all I could do to keep up. Thankfully, my body's instincts kicked in and I started to tilt my head one way when he went the other, letting our mouths meld together more easily. I met him kiss for kiss, or at least I hoped I did, so when his big hand closed over the back of my head to pull me closer to him, I happily went. His tongue managed to steal between my lips a few times when I opened my mouth to suck in some much-needed air. It should have disgusted me, but it didn't, and I knew there were so many things I was still missing out on.

I was lightheaded when Dalton finally pulled his lips from mine and put a few inches between our bodies that had somehow ended up mashed together. Everything seemed to move in slow motion around me. I was dimly aware of the sleeves of my shirt being eased over my wrists. I was very aware of how hard my dick had gotten in my cold, damp pants.

"Lift your arms," Dalton said softly.

I obeyed without hesitation and did what he wanted. Maybe he'd kiss me again when he was done.

There was no kiss but instead the feel of his sweatshirt sliding over my chest like the most delicious waterfall.

"Get in the car, sweetheart," Dalton said. His voice was stiff and hoarse.

It was so different from the way he'd sounded in our little bubble.

When he'd admitted he'd felt too. That I'd made him feel… something.

By the time my body's reactions to Dalton's kiss began to fade and my brain was once again in charge, I was sitting in the front seat of Dalton's big car.

We'd left the restaurant and the trucker who'd offered me a ride in exchange for what I'd known would have been the same thing Dalton had offered me.

Only the guy hadn't had to say the words. They'd been etched all over his face.

I wasn't sure if it was minutes or hours since my outburst after Dalton's constant shifts between gentle words and annoyed ones had driven me from the restaurant. I'd been so angry that I hadn't wanted even the slightest reminder of the man, and I hadn't even given one thought to ripping his clothes off my body so I could put mine back on.

I hadn't particularly been surprised to find Dalton waiting when I'd gotten out of the car, but a tiny part of me had enjoyed his stunned expression as I'd started stripping naked in front of him and everyone else. Ivan had often paraded me around others without a stitch of clothing, so having a bunch of strangers in a parking lot seeing me like that had meant nothing to me.

What I hadn't expected or understood was why Dalton hadn't let me go to the trucker. Dalton had made it more than clear that my presence was an annoyance and he was only putting up with me to get me to his house so he could do the same things Ivan had. But Dalton had taken it a step further by messing with my mind and letting me believe he might actually be different.

I still couldn't believe I'd actually expressed my outrage. Talking to Ivan like that would have meant hours, if not days, of torture and degradation, but with Dalton, I hadn't thought for one second to keep my mouth shut and just get the hell out of there.

I'd wanted to hurt Dalton.

I'd wanted him to know what it was like when someone twisted your mind into so many knots, there would be no way to ever undo them all. I'd wanted him to understand the shame and loss that came along with all those knots.

But more than anything, I'd truly wanted to get away from the man. It was one thing to get fucked physically, but to let someone inside that tiny little place in my head that no one was ever allowed to see, the place where no one could hurt me with words, was unthinkable. Whether it was when I'd been living on the streets with my parents or residing in Ivan's palatial house, I'd never let that happen.

Ever.

But one touch of his lips against mine and I'd willingly given Dalton a glimpse. Hell, if he'd kept kissing me, every wall I'd built in my head to protect that place where I was still me would have come crashing down.

I needed to be more careful.

I had plenty of time to analyze my actions because as soon as Dalton had gotten me back in the car and begun speeding down the road, he hadn't said a word to me. He hadn't even looked at me. He'd merely hit a button in the car that had caused soft music to flow throughout it. The music was the same kind that had made me feel sleepy shortly after he'd first picked me up.

Now it just pissed me off.

I was busy mentally repairing the damage the kisses had done when I heard Dalton's voice. My brain was still busy rebuilding the walls Dalton had so easily knocked down that I hadn't heard anything he'd said, so it wasn't until he thrust the milkshake in front of me that I realized what he wanted. Despite my tastebuds salivating at the prospect of the creamy sweetness of the drink hitting my tongue, I felt so sick inside that I knew I'd throw every bit of that shake right back up.

That was because reality was starting to set back in. Dalton's kiss and admission had thrown me for a loop but as the miles rushed by and he still remained silent, a wound began to form inside of me.

A wound that was a thousand times more painful than anything Ivan had ever done to me.

The whole thing had been an act.

The kiss, the words… they'd been a carefully and expertly executed act to get me back in Dalton's SUV. At least if it had been Jace himself or one of the men he worked with who'd forced me into a car so I could be returned to Maggie's brother for whatever fate he would determine for me, I could have and would have fought. I'd have kicked, bitten, and punched my way to freedom, even if it wouldn't have worked.

I would have fought.

Dalton had made that impossible. He hadn't had to use any kind of force or restraint to get me back in the car.

I'd done that all on my own.

Because he'd kissed me.

My first kiss.

My first time saying words admitting to a truth that I'd worked so hard to extinguish from my life. But to have those same words said back to me with what I'd thought was heartfelt emotion…

I feel.

God, I was such a fucking fool. The whole scene that had changed the trajectory of my life had been nothing but an elaborate plan to gain my compliance.

The saddest part?

It had worked.

Fully and completely.

I was one hundred percent at Dalton's mercy, and I no longer cared. When we got to his place, I'd let him stick his dick wherever he wanted, I'd let him humiliate and degrade me however he wanted, and I'd take whatever amount of money he chose to put in my hand, whether it was only a single dollar or two hundred of them.

None of it mattered because I'd be too busy trying to lance the wound that was growing inside of me like some insipid weed that had a pretty but deadly flower or berry on it so it could lure its victims in without hesitation.

I would close that gaping wound once all the ugliness had drained out of it and Dalton was out of my life for good.

I kept my eyes on the passing scenery that I wasn't really seeing when I said, "You can't do that again." I hated that my voice cracked just a little bit as I spoke.

Not surprisingly, Dalton didn't respond, and the truth was it didn't matter what his response would be. I was the one who needed to regain control of the situation and as hard as it was to admit, if Dalton did to me what he'd done in that parking lot, I'd never be able to escape him. "If you kiss me again, deal's off."

The words didn't make me feel any better, but Dalton's response sure as hell did because with one simple word, he sliced that wound inside of me wide open so all the ugliness could drain out of it.

"Fine."