Break Me Read Online Free Page B

do. Leave me.
    I felt a shift in Jared and when I pried my eyes open, he was kneeling beside my chair, a wealth of emotion covering his features. He was a good looking man, blond, well built from hard work, and younger than me. Tim had been older by a few years, but Jared was younger by at least ten. His eyes were soft, but banked with heat that was never absent when he looked at me. It was different than when Tim had looked at me, the hunger different, but it was there and it was mine if I wanted it.
    And I was terribly afraid that I did want it. I was terribly afraid I wanted him.
    “You said he was coming to The Club that night,” Jared prompted. “Have you talked about it?” I shook my head, scared to voice it for the first time. Ever. “This probably isn’t the best place to do it.” This time, I nodded. It was. It was the perfect place.
    “Tim loved this bookstore almost as much as he loved me.”
    “All right. Tell me about that night. Let me share the burden with you.”
    “Why?” I hadn’t meant to ask, but the question had been burning up inside me. I needed to know why he was interested in me, why he wanted me raw and bleeding on the inside.
    “I told you why. Because I want your smile for myself and I can’t have it until you let him go.”
    He was a stranger. A man I barely knew and I was laying my soul at his feet. Why was I compelled to do it? Why was I allowing myself to be put through this? “That’s unfair of you.”
    “Is it? Don’t lie to me, Claire. But more importantly, don’t lie to yourself. I’ve seen how you look at me. I’ve seen the need in your eyes. I’ve heard it in your voice. It’s more than a date you want and it’s more than a date I want to give. Tell me about that night. Please”
    The please undid me. “Public scenes were rare for us. He didn’t like making a spectacle of himself or putting what we did on display. He was so buttoned up, so professional. A scholar and he never let that side of him go in a public setting. It’s what made that one day in the café special. It was out of character for him to make a statement like that where others might hear. But, that night, he’d booked one of the larger play rooms for us and had invited several other members to watch as he flogged me, as he took me. It was a lesson for me. I’d been fighting some body issues…” I stopped talking, caught a shaky breath, and after a few minutes, forced myself to continue. The hard part was coming and I was scared of it, of what it would do to me. He called. A meeting with the contractor here at the store had started late and ended late. Tim valued punctuality and abhorred tardiness. He called The Club and told me he was on his way, that I was to get into my body stocking, get into position, and wait, that he’d be there as soon as he could. I did what he said. I waited. And waited. At first, it was okay because I knew he’d walk in the door at any second, but he never did. He never…” I tried to stem the fresh wave of tears that fell. I wanted to call them back, to stop the words that needed to come out. I didn’t know how I was going to get through the rest of the telling. I was this far in. Jared wasn’t going to let me stop now. And that’s where I focused. Jared.
    He knelt at my feet, holding my face as I talked, as though no one else in the store existed. It was only him. Only me. And the painful memories of that night when my life changed for a second time because of Tim. “Go on, Claire. You’re not alone,” Jared said softly. “I promise. You’re not alone.”
    I took a deep, unsteady breath, and swiped the back of my hand across my mouth and nose. I was a mess. I knew I was. I looked it. I felt it. “A phone rang somewhere in The Club basement. I don’t know where it was, but I heard it. And I knew. I knew something was wrong. Something shifted inside me and when they Jet and Lucy came into the room, the looks on their faces… I never fought them when