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We had comeback to my place after breakfast and spent the day together.

When Ireached the kitchen, I opened the fridge.

I could dothis. I could date Sammy and not compare him to Aaron. I could trust that hewouldn’t hurt me. Not unless I asked for it. And it wouldn’t be him actuallyhurting me but mixing some pain in with my pleasure that I knew we would bothenjoy.

The nightbefore at the motel had been one of the best nights of my life. Hell, any nightwith Sammy was the best. It was like each moment with him topped the timebefore. I didn’t know how he did it, but he kept it interesting, exciting andfresh.

It was nowlate the next night. I didn’t have to work because one of the girls wanted topick up a shift to make some extra money since her car broke down. While Ineeded the money too, I had agreed since Sammy wanted to hang out anyway. Truthwas, he wanted to fuck. Hard. My body still burned from the rough way he waswith me as soon as we got back to my apartment. The door hadn’t even beenclosed all the way before he was back inside of me.

I shiveredat the memory, thankful it took over and forced the nightmare that was my latehusband out of my mind.

“I thoughtyou were grabbing drinks.”

I jumped,slamming the fridge door shut and backing up into the corner between it and thewall. “I...I’m sorry. I just...I’m...”

“Amber.”Sammy reached out for me, but I cowered into myself.

I hugged myarms around my middle, not used to these feelings rushing through me. Theyconjured up memories from the past and I didn’t know why.

Sammy’sbrows narrowed but he backed off. “What’s going on?”

I took adeep breath and then another before finally meeting his dark eyes. “Talkingabout BDSM earlier suddenly triggered a memory that I didn’t like.”

“Shit.” Hebacked up, running his hand over his nape. “I didn’t know. I’m sorry.”

“No,please.” I went up to him and placed my hands on his chest. “I didn’t knoweither. I’ve read BDSM type stories and have done research. We talked about itearlier today and I was fine but suddenly, for whatever reason, when I cameinto the kitchen just now, this memory...”

“It wasn’ta good one obviously.” Sammy covered my hand, bringing it up to his mouth andplacing soft pecks on my knuckles.

“No, itwasn’t.” My heart thumped, my stomach somersaulting as I tried getting thewords out. “My husband raped me.”

Sammy

I wanted to killthe fucker who hurtAmber. No, who raped her. Her husband. Someone she trusted. Someone she gaveher life to. As I listened to her tell me part of her story, the rage only grewinside of me. Her soft words broke my heart.

“Imentioned to him how I wanted to spice up our sex life. BDSM has alwaysfascinated me, and I wanted to implement it into our marriage. I thought Itrusted him enough to do that, but I was wrong. I asked him about it and it madehim mad,” she told me, wringing her hands in her lap.

We weresitting back on the couch. She was hugging a pillow and averting my gaze.

As much asI wanted to replace that pillow with me, I didn’t. I would console her when shewas ready, but until then I would listen to her speak her truths.

“Afterthat, I never mentioned it to him again,” she continued. “Then I met you andyou and I have talked about it briefly, but you told me right away to choose asafeword. You asked me what I didn’t like. There’s been more communicationbetween us in the short time we’ve been sleeping together than all the years Iwas married to Aaron. But I guess talking about it today made me think of him.I don’t know. But that’s what happened.”

“Can Itouch you?” I asked her gently, needing her in my arms. Aftercare wasimportant. Even if it was just after a heavy conversation. You didn’t need tohave sex in order to be taken care of afterwards.

Her headsnapped up, her eyes, sad and vacant, locking with mine. She nodded, probablynot expecting me to ask for permission.

I inchedcloser to her, wrapping my hands in her hair and messing up her ponytail.Placing a soft peck on her forehead, I hoped she could feel what I was feeling.Although I didn’t know how I felt, I knew that I liked her and cared for her,and I wanted to burn the mother fucking world down to avenge her. Aaron mayhave been dead and gone, but there was something else too. Other shit happenedto her she wasn’t telling me. She would. In time. But I needed to first earnher trust, just like she needed to earn mine. It worked both ways.

“I’m sorrythat happened to you, pet.” I leaned my forehead against hers. “I can besadistic. I don’t need to inflict pain to get off, but it definitely heightensmy pleasure. My favorite kink is degradation. I enjoy when I’m deep inside youwith my hands around your throat as I call you names. When you didn’t mentionanything about not liking it, I took a chance and showed you a bit of what Ilike.” I kissed her nose, taking a moment to just feel her in my arms.

“How didyou know that I would like being slapped?” she asked softly.

“I didn’tbut you also didn’t say that it was a hard limit. When I slapped your cheek andyou moaned, I knew. Fuck, baby, I knew.”

She liftedher head. “What did you know?”

I gave hera small smile. “I met my match.”