His voice soothed as his finger slowly moved back and forth. “Mmm, so tight. Can’t imagine how good this would feel around my cock.”

Her orgasm came hard and fast, but the panic was right on its tail. Her voice scraped against her throat as she called Reid’s name over and over again. Reid, oblivious to the inner battle warring within her, thrust harder and faster, chasing his own release. Her lungs strained for air, but she couldn’t seem to catch a breath. Blackness edged her vision.

A sharp ringing began in her ears, and the hands on her suddenly weren’t Reid’s or Jace’s; they were coarse and unrelenting. Unwanted. The scent of sweat and her own fear filled her nostrils, and she was dragged back to a darkened storage room. A stranger invading her.

No. No. No. Oh, God. Dizziness overwhelmed her, and she struggled for just one tiny breath, but there was no air to be found.

Jace’s worried voice cut through the end of Reid’s orgasm. “Shit, man. Stop. Something’s wrong.”

Reid lids snapped open as he pulled out of Brynn. Her body collapsed in a limp heap on the bed. What the hell?

“Brynn, sugar, you okay?” She didn’t respond, and fear squeezed his chest. “Jesus, check her breathing.”

Jace put a hand near her lips. “She’s breathing. I think—I think she passed out.”

Reid closed his eyes and blew out a breath. Thank God, she’s okay. He climbed to his feet and laid a hand against her clammy cheek. “Watch her. I’ll go grab a cool rag and some water.”

Reid returned from the bathroom with the supplies and a robe wrapped around him. He tossed another robe at Jace. “Here, let me get next to her. And get these bindings off her arms.”

Jace moved out of the way and went to work while Reid gently turned Brynn over and pressed the moist towel against her forehead. “Come on, sugar. Wake up for me.”

He’d sensed a shift in her when he’d touched her ass, but when she didn’t use her safe word, he’d thought she was just reacting to a new sensation. Maybe he’d hurt her… or scared her. Fuck. Why hadn’t he stopped and checked on her?

He cradled her head in his lap, and she mumbled something incoherent. An urge to curl her into his arms and kick Jace out rolled through him. He tamped down the ridiculous thought and put the cool cloth to her cheek. “That’s right. Come on.”

Her eyes flew open on a sharp intake of breath, and terror crossed her features. She jolted upward but he put a hand on her shoulder and eased her back down. “Shh, it’s okay, it’s just me. You’re okay.”

She blinked, her pupils readjusting to the light. “Reid?”

He brushed her damp hair from her face. Her skin had taken on the pallor of the white bedsheets. “Yeah, babe. I’ve got you. I think you passed out on us.”

She winced and pressed the heel of her hand to her brow bone.

Jace sank onto the other side of the bed and tossed a quilt over her. “What happened, doll? You all right?”

Reid helped her sit up a bit and offered her a glass of water. She took a small sip and then shook her head. “I think I may have hyperventilated or something.”

Jace squeezed Brynn’s hand, an odd expression passing over his face. “Did something trigger that?”

“No.” She shot Jace a look of… warning. “I guess you guys are just a lot to handle.”

Reid’s jaw tightened and the wan smile she offered the both of them did nothing to alleviate the bitter taste crossing his tongue. “What the fuck are you two not telling me?”

Jace’s eyes shifted away, and Brynn stiffened. “What do you mean?”

Reid rose from the bed and glared down at the two of them. “You’ve always been a terrible liar, Brynn. Tell me what’s going on. Obviously, your best bud Jace knows.”

Jace slid off the bed, his frown deep. “I think I’m going to head out and let you two chat.” He leaned over and kissed Brynn’s forehead. “Thanks for tonight, gorgeous.”

Reid stepped out of the way to let Jace exit, but his gaze never left Brynn, who’d gone even paler. She tucked her knees to her chest and wrapped the blanket around herself, vulnerability rolling off her. He walked over to the bed and perched on the corner, then took a deep breath to make sure his bubbling frustration didn’t come out in his voice. “What’s going on?”

Her shoulders rose and fell with a deep sigh of resignation. “I had a panic attack and hyperventilated.”

His brows knitted. He didn’t know what he’d expected her to say, but that wasn’t it. “A panic attack over what?”

She dropped her gaze, taking an interest in an unraveling thread of the quilt. “Certain things, sexual things, trigger them.”

A creeping discomfort tracked up his spine. “Like what?”

“Like blindfolds and like…” She continued to worry the string between her fingers.

“Anal sex,” he filled in.

She glanced up, her eyes haunted, and nodded. “Yeah.”

Back when they’d been together, he’d touched her there before, and they certainly had used blindfolds. So something had changed. A sick feeling settled in the pit of his stomach. “Why, Brynn?”

She shook her head, avoiding his eyes.

“Tell me why,” he commanded.

“Because I lied to you back then. I wasn’t seeing someone behind your back,” she said, her voice dead of emotion. “Someone raped me.”

At first, he couldn’t make sense of the words she’d uttered—the sheer shock sending his brain into a spin. No cheating? Rape. Brynn. Raped. His reply came out in a roar. “What?”

She flinched and shrank in on herself even more. “The night I broke up with you, I’d just been attacked.”

He shot up from the bed, his body burning with rage. He needed to punch something—no, someone—the bastard who did this to her. His fists balled, and he forced himself to breathe. “Why didn’t you tell someone? Call the police? Or for God’s sake, tell me? I went to you that night.”

She shook her head. “I couldn’t. He threatened me—my family. And I was so confused. He told me you had a real girlfriend, that I was only your whore. And then when I saw your picture in the paper a few days later with Vanessa, I knew he’d told me the truth.”

He raked a hand through his hair and leaned against the dresser. His guts had been torn out the night he and Brynn had broken up. But God, had he been so hurt, so angry that he’d missed the fact that she’d needed help? “Jesus, Brynn. You didn’t even let me explain about Vanessa. I would’ve helped you. And I would’ve fucking killed the guy who did it to you.”

She frowned and rubbed her arms through the blanket. “You wouldn’t have had the chance. I still have no idea who he was.”

He closed his eyes, a piercing pain slicing through his skull. “I’m so sorry I wasn’t there for you back then, but I’m listening now. Tell me what happened to you.”

SIXTEEN

then

Brynn thought the blindfold was part of the surprise. Reid had promised something special tonight, but he hadn’t clued her in as to what exactly he had in mind. She smiled as the dark fabric blocked out the low lights of the storage room. “You’re early.”

Lips pressed against the back of her neck. Hot hands caressed her shoulders, her arms. “Shh…”

She shivered beneath the touch. So he was going to be Mr. Serious Dom tonight. Alrighty. She wet her lips. “Yes, sir.”

He grabbed her forearms with firm fingers and pulled them behind her back. Instead of the usual cloth or rope, something less forgiving circled her wrists—plastic? A quick zipping sound filled the silent room as he yanked on the bindings, tightening them to the point of discomfort. “Ouch, hey. Could you loosen those up a bit?”

With a grunt, he gave another pull, and the zip tie bit into her flesh deeper. She squirmed and tried to turn around, but he gripped her shoulder and held her in place.

“No, come on, I’m serious. That hurts. Ruby,” she said, using the word Reid had told her would signal to him something was wrong.

His chuckle was low and sent a chill through her insides. “Is that the special word you use with him?”

The unfamiliar whisper made her jolt forward, panic seizing her, but the stranger wrapped an arm around her neck and dragged her against him. A scream ripped from her throat.

His hand slapped her across the mouth and his whisper turned fierce. “Now, now, no yelling. You can fight all you want, that’ll make it better. But keep that big mouth shut or I’ll find something to shove in it. Got it?”

She nodded, tears flooding her eyes. When he released her mouth, words tumbled out of her. “Please, let me go. My boyfriend’s on the way. He’ll be here any minute. If you go now, I promise I won’t say anything.”

“Ah, Brynn. So naive. Your boyfriend won’t be making it. He’s at an event with his real girlfriend, Vanessa.”

The wind left her lungs. This asshole knew her name? My God, this was someone she knew? The rest of his statement registered, and she shook her head. “No, that’s not true. We have plans. I’m his girlfriend.”

“Oh, sweetheart. Haven’t you realized it yet? You’re just his whore.” The smile in his disguised whisper rang in her ears. “You think he’s going to parade around trash like you on his arm?”

The words stung as much as the bindings around her wrists. She couldn’t muster a response.

“Of course not. But even though you’re only temporary, whores like you have a way of fucking up the lives of perfectly good men, and I’m not going to let that happen.” He pet her head like she was a dog, and her whole body began to shake with terror. “So after tonight, you’re going to end things with him. Otherwise, this won’t be the last time we meet. Only next time, maybe I’ll take that sweet little sister of yours for a ride instead. I wonder if she likes being treated like a slut as much as you do.”

An inhuman scream of rage ripped from her lungs, and his hand clamped around her neck with crushing force.

“Shut the fuck up, you stupid bitch, and let’s see how rough you like it.”

Blackness edged her vision as she fought for breath.

His other hand moved to the neckline of her blouse and ripped downward, shredding the delicate fabric and her world all in one swift motion.

Reid tucked the last surprise next to the silver promise ring nestled in the box and smiled. Brynn would probably think he was being high-handed and had lost his mind, but he hoped once she got past that, she’d be excited. He’d agonized over the decision his aunt and uncle had laid at his feet, and he still had a burning ball of guilt in his stomach. But the last few months had been the most amazing of his life, and he couldn’t bear to let the woman responsible flit off to Austin without showing her how serious he was about her. He just hoped against hope that if it worked out between them, that one day his family would accept her.

He hadn’t said the words “I love you” to Brynn yet; he’d been too afraid to scare her off, but he’d known them to be true since his trip to Galveston. Tonight, he’d tell her—lay his feelings and his plan out there and see what she thought.

He checked his watch—fifteen minutes before he was supposed to pick her up at the office. She’d insisted on working late again to squeeze in any last overtime hours she could get. Too bad he couldn’t tell her he already had the apartment she’d been saving up for taken care of. He’d put the deposit down on hers and the one across the hall from it a week ago.

He tucked the box with the key to that apartment and the ring into his jacket pocket and headed out of the house to his car, feeling lighter than he had in days. But as soon as he rounded the corner, the little zip in his step died. Vanessa Thomas was sitting on his hood, a big smile lighting her face. “Ooh, you look nice. But that may be kind of dressy for an outdoor party.”