“But Brandon wasn’t like those heroes in my books. And that was the catalyst that made things so much worse. That’s when he started physically abusing me, when before my admission, it had only been mentally and emotionally. He began purposely hurting me during sex, doing things I didn’t want, taking things I wasn’t willing to give. Claiming it was the same shit I was reading in my books, even though he’d never taken the time to read even one page. He just took what he saw in fetish porn videos, twisted it even more, and called it BDSM without once ever taking a moment to really understand what I was asking for. And once he grew used to that, raping me roughly and calling it dominance, then, outside of sex, he s-started h-hitting me.” I sniff, and I can’t hold in the sob anymore that’s setting my lungs on fire.
Neil reaches behind my head and drags me forward until my face is in the crook of his neck, and I breathe him in. He smells like chlorine, but deep beneath that I can still detect him, and it instantly soothes me. My body has already conditioned itself to relax whenever I catch that aroma, even when it’s not straight from him. His pillows, the fragrance inside his shower, whenever I do his laundry. My mind immediately associates it with… safe.
“Goddess, have you spoken with your sister at all about her therapy and what came afterward at the club?” he asks, and I stiffen, pulling back to look in his eyes.
“Not in depth. I believe… after what he did to her, and my reaction following that, and the… I don’t know, I guess depression I’ve been in this past year, she didn’t want to bring it up with me much, worried it might trigger something, I suppose.” My brow furrows. “Why?” I demand, wanting to know whatever it is that went on with my baby sister, shoving tears off my face along with any semblance of being upset over my past.
“That is under doctor/patient confidentiality, goddess, but—”
“Call her. Right now. I don’t have my phone out here, but yours is right there.” I cut him off. And I don’t know if he sees something in my eyes or if he’s just shocked into motion that I’ve ordered him to do something when before I could barely ask him to do anything for me, but he does. He backs up until he returns to his seat, and he picks his phone up out of the nook next to his empty smoothie glass.
A few swipes and taps of his fingers and it rings on speakerphone.
Twyla answers, “Doc? This is a nice surprise. What’s up?”
He clears his throat and then opens his mouth to speak, but then I barrel through the rumbling water and snatch the cell out of his hand, sitting my ass down on his lap.
“Baby sister, mine. How are you this lovely afternoon? How’s my niece growing?” I ask her, taking a breath before I go jumping down her throat.
“Oh! Um. Astrid? Baby is good. Eight weeks to go. Why are you calling from Doc’s phone?” she asks.
“We’re in the hot tub, and I didn’t have mine out here,” I reply simply.
There’s a pause. “You’re in the hot tub. With Doc? Like… together?”
“Wha-Whaaat?” I hear my brother-in-law sing in the background. “Brown chicken, brown cow! Getcha some, Dr. D!”
Neil rolls his eyes. “None of my names start with a D, so that makes no sense.”
“Short for Dr. Doc, bro,” Seth responds, and Neil shakes his head.
“Anyway, Twy. Neil won’t tell me anything about your therapy because of doctor/patient blah-blah-blah, and I demanded him to call you and get your approval to tell me,” I explain.
There’s a choking sound, and then, “You demanded Doc to call me?”
“Atta girl, As-trid!” Seth whoops.
Twyla sputters, and then she finally gets out her panicked question. “What is happening right now? Are we in the Twilight Zone?”
“Fuck, I love it when you use pop culture references,” Seth says dreamily.
I give her a rundown to catch her up so we can move this along. “Long story short, I had a minor breakthrough, Neil and I are… in some sort of relationship we haven’t yet put a label on—” He lifts a brow at that. “—I’m a permanent resident of this estate now, and he’s going all shrinky on me in the hot tub.”
“Brooo, you using your shrinky voice on my sis-in-love?” Seth asks disappointedly, completely skipping over the Neil and me being together thing.
Neil growls, and my pussy clenches against his thigh. “I was very purposely not using any type of therapist-like voice on Astrid while we were simply playing a game of 20 questions.”
“Hold the hell on a second!” my sister yells, and it makes me smile. “You… you had a breakthrough, Astrid? What… what does that mean?”