I pushed my ass backward, begging.

"You're going to take everything I give. You're not going to be able to walk. Do you like the sound of that?" His brutal hand spanked me again; I groaned.

"Yes, master. I love the sound of that."

Q positioned himself behind and- "Shit, Tessie, you're soaking."

Fingers stroked inside, smearing cream between my legs. Brax lay wedged in my open thighs and dream world dumped into reality.

It's not real.

My heart thrummed, trying to understand. Q wasn't real. Just a dream. I went to run hands through my hair, to pummel the thoughts of Q from my head, but fingers glinted with wetness. I touched myself in my sleep.

"You were panting and woke me up," Brax murmured, still stroking his finger inside. "You sounded in so much pain, Tessie. Then you started fingering yourself and moaning." His voice ached with hurt, but he kept smiling softly. "I tried to stop you, but you forced my finger inside, and well, you... you woke up."

Shame flamed my cheeks. I looked away, unable to see the turmoil in his gaze. "I'm sorry, Brax."

I breathed deep, battling the urge to cry. I rolled my head, searching for the scent of citrus and sandalwood. My senses were lonely, deprived of everything Q. No longer mine to reprogram, I hated how I couldn't hide. My body gave me away, and Brax was lost and hurt.

I had to fix this. I had to do something.

Brax shifted. His heavy cock pressed against my thigh. Knowledge blazed bright; I leaned up to kiss him.

He froze as I coaxed his lips open. I could give him back his girlfriend. Show I really had returned.

With a harsh groan, he collapsed on top, fingers working deep. His touch didn't flare or sizzle like Q's. Horribly, I found myself growing dry, not wet.

"Tess. God, I've missed you." Soft lips pressed against mine. I wanted to close my eyes, but I needed to reaffirm the man making love to me was not Q Mercer. Not this boy with messy, floppy brown hair and eyes like the sky. This was Brax. And I loved him. I do.

I winced as he pressed another finger deeper. I arched my hips, dislodging his touch.

Brax stopped kissing me, looking down. "Is it too soon? I can stop. I just need to know you're here. I have to have you, Tessie, so I know I'm not dreaming." He ran his nose down my throat, sighing. "I've dreamed of you coming home so many times, I don't trust myself that this is real."

I cupped his cheek, tracing his lips with a thumb. Brax was all that mattered. I had to stop thinking and carry on with my future. "I need you, too."

I needed Brax to wipe away Q's claim. Then, perhaps, I could be free.

Silently, Brax eased his hips, pressing inside. I winced at the bruising and dryness, but held Brax's head against my shoulder as he started to move. I willed my body to respond.

Together, we rocked and reconnected. His body filled mine, and I tried so hard to stay in the present. To let the love for Brax evolve from fizzling to blazing passion, but the spark never rose past a tiny glimmer. Not like the galaxies Q conjured, like the devil-magician he was. Stop thinking about that bastard.

Brax moaned, kissing my ear. "Shit, you feel amazing. I missed you. So, so much, you have no idea."

I hate myself.

I hate Q.

I hate my sick fantasies.

I hated I couldn't be the woman Brax thought I was. I hated Brax for complaining about his problems rather than what happened to me.

I churned with black thoughts, sighing in relief when Brax came, shuddering and thrusting hard.

My body never rose past a gentle burn, an orgasm was an impossibility.

Brax pulled out and sat up, looking down. My silky slip had risen above my breasts, revealing nakedness.

"Holy fuck." His mouth plopped open as he scuttled back, almost falling off the edge of the bed. "Holy shit, Tessie. What the hell happened?" Tears glazed his eyes, locked on my flesh.

My heart raced. I looked down. A loud psychotic laugh erupted. Brax looked as if he contemplated taking me to an insane asylum.

Flogger marks, lashes, kisses of red, and smudges of bruises, painted my normally perfect skin.

I shook my head. If Q whipped and branded, knowing he was sending me back, did he know my old lover would see? Did he do this deliberately?

Q, you're a conniving asshole. But in that moment, I didn't care. The marks linked me to him, and as long as they etched my flesh, I was still esclave. Whether Q wanted it or not.

Brax stood, pacing naked. "Tell me what happened to you. Why the hell are you laughing?"

My smile dissolved; I dropped my gaze. Because my emotions played roulette, I started to cry instead. I smashed at the traitorous liquid.

Brax hesitantly climbed back on the bed.

Guilt swarmed and I dragged sheets up to my chin. "It's nothing, Brax. Nothing happened. I'm here now. Okay? It's in the past, and no longer matters."

Brax shook his head, panic in his blue eyes. "Do you need counselling? We can go now. I feel so helpless."

The thought of talking to someone was horrid. "No. I'll be fine. Truly."

Brax hiccupped, hunching his shoulders. His voice cracked as sadness fell from his lips. "Tess, I'm so, so sorry I wasn't able to stop them. I relive that day over and over. I want to kill myself for not being strong enough to stop them, and deserve to go to hell for not listening to you. I forced you to go into the cafe. This is all my fault."

Panic flared. I couldn't handle it if Brax broke down. I didn't have the strength to soothe him as well as me.

But he dissolved, looking more and more distraught by the second.

I sat up, scurrying to him, making sure my body stayed covered. My knees pressed against his as I took his face in my hands. "It wasn't your fault. No one would have been able to stop them." My body tensed, remembering Leather Jacket. "No one, okay? We were outnumbered. You need to forgive yourself."

Brax hung his head. "Don't you hate me? For not listening? I spent the last two months thinking you were dead. To have you come back to life, wounded, and mentally screwed up..."

I flinched. I was a lot of things, but mentally I was fine. Q wouldn't win. I would get over him.

He looked into my eyes, stricken. "I woke up in the men's bathroom, alone. And you were gone. I don't know how I got back to the hotel, but somehow I did. The police arranged a search party, but no one had hope. They called it off after a week, and the Australian embassy got involved. They sent me home."

He laughed darkly. "They sent me home without you! How did they think I could go on with my life? I wanted to stay and search myself, but the police said they'd been to the cafe, and it was boarded up. No one was there."

Brax took my hand, squeezing painfully. "Where did they take you?"

I was prepared to listen to Brax's story. It was obvious it ate him alive, but my story... I couldn't. I couldn't tell him the horrible experience in Mexico. I couldn't tell him about the rape when I ran away. I couldn't tell him how much Q meant to me. How much I craved him-even now. I would take it to the grave.

Brax grabbed my wrist, spying the barcode for the first time. Running a thumb over the lines, he murmured, "They did this to you? The low-life wankers." He flipped my wrist as if he could peel it off and make it disappear. "Why did they tattoo you?"

My hand went behind my ear, terror raging. I still had a tracking device in my neck. Q may have taken off his GPS responder, but what if the Mexicans could find me again? Did it automatically fail after time? I needed to find out how to deactivate it, immediately.

Forcing myself to be calm, I said, "Don't worry about me; tell me what happened to you. So you got home? I'm so sorry you were on your own, Brax. I'm sorry they took me from you."

My own tears fell, caused by guilt knowing I made Brax suffer and stress. His nightmares would've been horrific.

"When I got home, I tried everything to investigate where women were taken from Mexico, but once stolen, most girls were never found. Some were located in Spain, and Saudi Arabia, but never alive.

"My heart broke, coming to terms that I'd never see you again." His voice caught, and he looked with such agony, I shrivelled. "Then you called! I wanted to kill myself for not picking up. But my boss had been calling constantly, begging me to return to work, and I put it on silent. When I heard your voice, your panic, the fact that you were alive. Shit, I wanted to break the phone into little pieces for not being able to talk to you."

His chest pumped as his hands curled. "But you gave me a name. A fucking bastard called Q Mercer. You gave me a lead. I had no idea what you were doing in France, but I called the Feds, and they took over. They found a wealthy man living in Blois who owned mega property. I did some research, but couldn't find a single image of him, or what he could be doing with you.

He sighed before continuing, reliving his own nightmare. "The police stayed true to their word. They said they'd investigate, and if they found you, they'd make him release you and put him in jail. I hope to God they hang him."

The thought of Q dead had horror stabbing my heart. The hate in Brax's voice chilled me and I rushed to intercede. "Q Mercer wasn't who I thought he was. I escaped and found myself in worse trouble, but Q rescued me."

I couldn't stop the shiver as Brute shot into my mind. Forcing it away, I added, "He helped me heal, then let me go." Those two paragraphs would be all I uttered on the matter. It was my life, tied with a pretty pink bow.

Brax screwed up his face. "You're saying he just let you go? The police never showed up?"

I smiled. "The police arrived, and thank you for helping them find me. But Q was going to give me up all along." My heart twisted, wishing it wasn't true. "You see, he rehabilitates women who are broken and sold. He buys them, but once they're healed, he sends them home." I couldn't stop the swell of pride in my chest. Q wasn't a monster. He may think he was, but a monster would never do that. A monster would torture and rape and kill. Not offer freedom after a life of misery.

Brax relaxed a little. "So, he never touched you? You were kept safe and protected this entire time?" Eyes dropped to the sheet I pressed against my throat. "What about the marks on your body?"

I sat straighter, hoping like hell I hid the truth. "I got those when I ran away. I lived in luxury, and made friends with his maid, Suzette." I beamed brighter, fighting watery grief threatening to crush. "I'm fine. Honestly. Together, we can get our lives back on track."

He cocked his head, and, for a moment, I wondered if he didn't buy my lie, but then he reached for me. I climbed into his arms.

Brax kissed the top of my head, murmuring, "It's all going to be better now. You're home. I'm never letting you out of my sight again."

I snuggled closer and didn't say a word.

Chapter Twenty-Three.

Woodpecker *

A human is adaptable. A human heart is not.

A month trickled past, and I resumed my old life as if I'd never gone. Two weeks after returning, I called my parents.

Brax told them what happened in Mexico, and they cremated an old stuffed unicorn of mine, then scattered it in the back garden, believing I was dead. In their old, foggy minds, my reincarnation was a messy ordeal, not a happy second chance. The conversation was stilted and hard.

I never called again.

I became addicted to raging songs, just like Q. The lyrics shared my pain, letting it unleash from festering inside.

Your memory won't leave my head haunting me, hunting me, driving me crazy, I wish I were dead every time I close my eyes, you're there, ready to suck me into dark desires reality is where I no longer want to be, my dreams are my salvation I will cut you out, chop you up, break every bone in my body if only it meant peace from your dark melody I never played the songs when Brax was home, but when it was just me and loneliness, words rained with heartache and need.

In my dreams, Q visited, and I woke to shooting stars and orgasms. By day, I forced myself to act and lie and be Tessie. The truth and Q blistered my heart; I became as successful in hiding my feelings as he was.

My secrets stayed locked behind a fortress of blue-eyed innocence. My body healed and the whiplashes no longer showed. But they blazed bright and red on my soul.

Some nights, I twisted my nipples so hard, just to try and recreate mind-tripping lust like Q, but it never worked.

The vibrancy and encompassing life he'd given became a distant, dark paradise. Reality took over. I sat my final exams for uni. They let me take my tests late, due to circumstances, and I passed with flying colours. Brax took me out for dinner to celebrate, but I fumbled through the evening, aware I'd snipped another anchor keeping me here. I had an education now. The only thing tethering me was Brax. And day after day proved it wasn't enough.

I tried to recapture Q's mansion on my tatty sketchpad, but no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't get it right.

I reconnected with Stacey, and friends from uni, and started looking for work in the property industry. I coasted through life in a semi-aware state. Smiling, laughing even, but everything was muted-covered by a filmy screen, never letting me see bright colours, or smell rich scents, or enjoy exquisite pleasure.

Thirty-six days after Q abandoned me, two things happened that rocked my bland world.

Brax subtly changed. I noticed he spent a lot of time putting out the garbage. I didn't care, and only curiosity made me follow one night.

Sneaking outside our apartment block, I found him talking to our neighbour across the hall. She had her face in Blizzard's fur and a look of adoration in her eyes for Brax.

My fingers convulsed as my heart raced faster-the first spike of emotion in a month.

I never stopped to consider the life Brax led while I played kinky slave with Q. He cared for her-the tentative sweetness he'd shown me when we first met-glowed in his eyes.

Oh, my God, did he resent me for coming back into his life when he thought I was dead?

I was so selfish to never consider it. After the first morning, we pretended as though nothing happened. We never discussed it, and I never complained when we didn't have sex again. I didn't want to admit it, but living with Brax, accepting his kisses and hand-holding, felt like I cheated on Q, which was idiotic and frustrating as hell. But my body hated me for betraying my master. Subsidizing real Q for dream Q, I grew wet while I slept, and trembled for release.

I lingered like a voyeur as Brax helped the girl stand, holding her for a moment longer than necessary. The look of implicit excitement in her eyes made me yearn. Yearn for another.

I waited for green jealousy. I waited for rage. I waited for anything...something to show I cared.

Nothing.

Brax laughed at something she said, ruffling Blizzard's head. A smile slowly bloomed on my lips.

Brax liked another. He no longer used me as his crutch, and I no longer needed him as mine. Realization thundered with a hundred drums and lightning bolts.

Happiness. Freedom.

Brax didn't need me.

I'm free!