Bunny and the Beast(Divine Creek Ranch 22)(80)

Joseph’s inhalations and exhalations marked the passing seconds. The flogger continued landing until she began to feel as though she was under an electric blanket, warm and safe. Comforted. She could continue on.

“He was twelve by then,” she whispered. “But so scrawny you would’ve thought he was nine or ten. Two of the boys his age had him on the floor, holding him face down and rubbing his face against the carpet. When I broke them up, they told me they were teaching ‘the idiot’ to wrestle. Two against one. Real fair. He had rug burns on his face, arms, and hands, and I realized how long he’d been down there with them. He was crying as I held him, and he begged me to save him. Tristan may have a brain injury, but that doesn’t make him an idiot.”

She flinched at the sharp flash of the flogger on her thigh but continued on, welcoming the sting.

“I tried to carry him out of the room, but one of the little bastards tripped me, and we both hit the floor. I’m short for my height, but they made the mistake of thinking I couldn’t defend myself. All hell broke loose, and I busted someone’s nose, I think, fighting them off.”

“Where were the other adults?”

“Upstairs, drinking and enjoying their Christmas. One of the older boys, a teenager who was big for his age, got me by the neck, trying to defend his sibling, who I had pinned to the carpet telling him off. Another one unbuckled his belt and yanked it off and began beating me with it. That sound kind of scares me now. I couldn’t breathe and passed out. Tristan was screaming when I came to—”

“Fuck.”

“I thought one of them had me pinned down to the carpet, doing to me what had been done to Tristan, but I soon realized it was Tristan on top of me, protecting me.”

“What happened?” Joseph asked as he trailed a hand down her tingling thigh. He moved around to the other side and continued the flogging. Her skin felt as if it vibrated under his hand.

“The screaming drew the adults eventually, and it was obvious my father was shocked when he barged into the room and found us like that, in the center of the pile. He picked us up, looking at Tristan and then at me, and questioned the other kids. You know how kids are. We were the odd men out, the stepkids.”

“And he believed them?”

“We were his kids, and we looked as if we’d been put through the meat grinder, but he didn’t do anything. I wasn’t even surprised. I felt such guilt, Joseph, thinking I’d left Tristan to deal with crap like that while I moved on with my life. Roberta came barreling downstairs with her mother and my stepsiblings in tow, and she let me have it. She said I was the only adult in the room at the time, never mind that half the kids outweighed me and towered over me. She blamed me and said I’d be liable if any of her grandbabies needed the emergency room and told me to go back to the trailer park I came from, that there evidently was a trailer trash gene, and I must’ve inherited it from my mother.” She drew in a deep shaky breath, remembering the judgment and hatred in Roberta’s eyes.

“My face was raw, and I couldn’t speak. I don’t know how long that bastard had me by the throat after I passed out. By the way, that’s why…”

“The collar is an issue?”

“Yeah. I have a hard time with anything around my throat. Shirt collars, turtlenecks, jewelry. I’m sorry. I know a collar is important between Doms and subs—”

“It’s not an issue for me, only one of safety for you. Continue,” he murmured, even as he continued, delivering a hot stroke to her ass cheek.

“Dad didn’t correct Roberta when she said that to me. Yes, I lived in a mobile home at that time, but I can promise you that the park I lived in was warmer and friendlier than the crowd I faced in that house every time I visited. He didn’t say anything to her and didn’t apologize to me. I told him I would take Tristan upstairs to get him cleaned up, and then we’d both leave. At first he argued with me, that I couldn’t handle Tristan, but she put a stop to it. And it was then that I knew Roberta controlled him, just like everything else in her world, and she’d wanted Tristan out at the first opportunity. I cleaned us both up, packed him up, and stopped only long enough to ask Dad to forward his shot records, a copy of his birth certificate, and any other important papers to me. They arrived a week later.”

“Did you go to the ER?”

She gave a minute shake of her head. “It would’ve raised too many questions. We were both sore, scabbed, and achy for a few days, but we were fine.”

“You should’ve gone to the ER.”