“Where’s the mother?” I know Isabel won’t want to leave until she knows Daia is comfortable being here.
“Inside.” His head nods back as he stops in front of us. “She doesn’t know you’re coming.”
Daia finally speaks. “Does she not want me?” So much information has been thrown her way in the last two days, that the worry of being rejected after a lifetime of not knowing if the woman cared is rational.
Holding out a hand for her, Benny kisses her wrist. “Darling, if someone didn’t want you, I’d likely kill them. I’ve spent a lot of money searching for you because she yearns to hold you in her arms once again. Trust me, you’re wanted more than you could ever understand.”
“Shall we, then?” Isabel speaks up, hooking her own arm in mine.
Benny leads the way into the house, and as I notice his father, who I’ve met on two occasions, with an older woman who is identical to Daia, I see the wonderment and pure joy on their faces. “Daia!” the woman cries out and nearly collapses from shock.
Isabel’s fingers dig into my arm, and when I look down at her, I see a matching yearning for that kind of love as mother and daughter embrace for the first time in seventeen years, and I know what I must do.
Despite my wish to keep Isabel to myself, I know she needs her own family as well, if not more. I’ve brought her nothing but pain since meeting her. I must ensure she has everything her heart desires before I can expect her to choose a life with me.
For the first time in my life, I worry that I’ll wind up alone for doing the right thing.
CHAPTER7
Isabel
“Please, Father, please stop,” I cry out, pulling at my bindings from the bed, tugging until my skin rips and stains the rope red with my blood.
“You’re going to hell for all your temptation and indiscretions.” His hand moves faster up and down his sex.
I hate this.
I hate him.
Them.
I hate them all, and I truly hope that one day someone will burn the entire church to the ground.
For years, Father Cassio has been spilling his seed on me under the guise that he’s cleansing me. Treating me to the Lord’s favorite brand of purification. It’s disgusting, and I hate every minute of it. Father Cassio is a sick man who gets off on other’s pain.
Turning my head away, I bite my lip and close my eyes tightly. I can tell he’s almost finished because he picks up the whip. As his seed juts out, the leather crashes down across my stomach, thighs, and breasts. He cries into the dimly lit room with his pleasure, while I silently cry about my displeasure.
All because I didn’t want to receive confession today. I had nothing to confess. I’ve been good. On my absolute best behavior because the last beating Sister Hildegard gave me made me so sick, I still feel the agony from a week ago.
“Dolce,”I hear the growl, and it doesn’t make sense in this dream. Pace wasn’t here. If he were, he’d have never allowed this to happen.“Isabel, wake up.”His tone grows sterner.“Now!”
My eyes pop open, and I blink rapidly, staring up at Pace’s angry face. I don’t know what I’ve done or said, but it must have revealed something he didn’t like. “Are you with me now?” A finger grazes down the side of my cheek, wiping away tears I didn’t realize I was crying.
“Yes.” My dry throat causes my voice to crack. Sitting up, darkness surrounds me, and I feel disoriented as Pace wraps his body around me from behind. “He did things to me. Things he had no right to do.”
“I know.” I turn my head to look him in the eye, and the wrath reflected at me is startling. “I’d like to punish him for everything wrong he ever did to you, but I fear that would take a lifetime, and I’m not prepared to hand over my life to him. I’d rather dedicate it to you.”
“You keep saying you’re a monster, Pace”—I cup his cheek as I turn into his body—“but you consistently prove to me what a good man you are. You do dreadful things for good reasons.”
Turning our bodies so I’m lying beneath him, Pace settles between my legs, our nudity more apparent now. “If I’m good, it’s simply because of you. I’d have never given Daia a second thought, otherwise. I wouldn’t have looked further into her background. I’d have sent the churches files to my boss and moved on to the next job. Anything I am is because of you, Isabel.”
Seizing my lips in a kiss meant to capture my soul, I allow Pace to take me. To give me the pleasure only he can provide. We move slowly, working to build up the carnal satisfaction that comes with our bodies conjoining. “Pace.” I gasp his name as my bliss ignites a fire in my belly, catapulting me into a universe filled with nothing but ecstasy.
Hooking my legs with his arms, he grinds deeper into my core. “Fuck, you’re perfect,dolce. Made for me.” I preen at his praise, purring as he takes me however he likes.
His hips pump harder, more furious, as he goes deeper, lodging his body into mine and taking the stress of my nightmare away as we explode together. “Again,” I whisper in his ear, kissing along his neck, and scraping my nails down his back and sides. Leaving what I know will be a trail of red marks in the morning.
“You need your rest,” he mutters in my ear, even as he moves to flip me over so I’m on my knees. “Christ,why can’t I get enough of you?” Kissing down my back, Pace leaves a trail of love bites along my spine. Stretching out for him, his hands grip my butt cheeks, massaging and spreading them wide before I feel him at my back entrance. The combined juices of our pleasure make it easier for him to slide in. A burn slices through my body as he thrusts in and out, gentle at first, so I can grow used to the foreign invasion. “Breathe for me,dolce.” His muscular body covers me from behind as he entwines our fingers together, pushing them up the bed to hold onto the frame.