“Damn, you’re right. I hate it, but we can’t pretend I didn’t hear what I heard. That a part of me died listening you coming while he…”
That hearing his wife having sex with another man hurt him did not surprise Brianna. But, the unknown at the moment, was if telling him exactly what had happened in that room would make her husband feel better, or worse.
“I know this is gonna sound crazy, but I wish you and Lukus had started listening earlier… or even could have been watching too, not just listening. Maybe then you’d have been able to see…” Bri’s voice trailed off, suddenly unsure how Markus would take the news.
“Trust me, Bri. Hearing you coming was bad enough.”
“So, Lukus didn’t tell you, did he?” she asked, quietly. She’d love to blame Lukus, but this was her mess to clean up. He’d done enough. The angry confusion on his face was her answer so she forged ahead. “What was the first thing you heard?”
“I heard enough,” Markus insisted, agitated.
“What was the first thing?” she questioned, more pointed this time.
“The belting. You moaning again and again. Him calling me Vanilla and saying only he knew how to make you come. Him talking about lubing up your ass. I know what you sound like when you come. Don’t tell me you didn’t orgasm, Bri.” He was close to shouting by the time he’d finished his long list of dastardly deeds.
Bri stroked his face softly, waiting for him to calm again before saying words she suspected would hurt him, that was if he even believed her. “So you didn’t hear me demanding the hard drive?” When he didn’t answer, she continued. “Or me crying out, hoping to get the attention of someone passing by in the hall of the hotel? Or him tackling me and laughing as he tied me up and put duct tape over my mouth to keep me quiet?”
Markus closed his eyes, just inches above her. He shook his head as he forced himself to recall. The pain in his voice as he relived what he’d heard was real. “I don’t remember hearing your voice at all until… He kept calling you his slut… saying how tight… how perfect you were together. I heard you coming. Then it got really quiet and I thought you’d left, but I tried calling you and could hear the ringing so I knew you were still there. Then later, I could hear muffled talking, but it must have been farther away from your purse because I couldn’t hear what was said. Then the door slammed and all I could hear was you crying.”
Only after he finished his memories did he open his painfilled eyes. They sat in silence for a few long seconds before he asked, “What does Lukus know that I don’t?”
“It doesn’t really matter. I was stupid enough to go there…”
“Brianna. What am I missing?”
“I didn’t go there to cheat on you, Markus. I went there because he’s blackmailing me.”
“Blackmail? Why the fuck wouldn’t you come to me with that?” He yelled directly into her face.
She rushed to explain. “Because, he has pictures. Videos. Terrible shit from the past that would hurt you—hurt us. I was stupid. I should have known it was just a trap. But once he got me behind closed doors… there was nothing I could do. He’s just too strong.”
“Too strong? Wait. What are you saying? You didn’t want him to tie you up and belt you?”
Brianna had to be truthful, as much as it hurt. “I’d love to blame all this on Jake because I was absolutely not a willing participant this time, but the fact is I did go with him once a long time ago. He has photos. It’s how he lured me there this time.”
“So, if you didn’t… but you came. I heard you.”
“I did, and I hate myself for it, but…”
Darkness turned her husband’s beautiful brown eyes almost black as he silently thought through what she’d said. For the briefest of moments, she worried his newfound anger was directed at her and she panicked, worried she’d already ruined their precarious reunion.
“Rape?” Markus said the hated word she’d refused to use herself. She couldn’t formulate a response as the ugly word hung between them until Markus’s tortured revelation. “You mean I just sat there, listening to you being raped?” His voice cracked as perspiration gathered on his brow.
The pain in his eyes took her back to the night he’d left her in the box at the Punishment Pit. It was an agony she’d prayed she’d never see again on her handsome husband’s face. Like that night, she rushed to try to ease his pain.
“Honey, please. I was stupid to go there with him. I know what he’s capable of.”
“Are you actually defending him?” Markus pushed up, flailing above her as his anger grew.
Bri reached out wrap her arms around her husband’s neck, trying her best to hold him close. “Of course not! I hate him with every fiber of my being. But that doesn’t change the fact that with the exception of the anal sex, what he did to me in that hotel room wasn’t any different than what he’s done to me dozens of times over the years.”
“Fuck, I thought I hated him yesterday. How the hell are you acting so calmly?” He gritted the words out as if they brought him pain.
“I guess because what he did to me wasn’t even close to as bad as the pain I felt knowing I’d hurt you. Knowing I’d risked our marriage. As long as you and I come through this okay, what Jake did to me is old news.”
“Maybe for you, but not for me. Not by a long shot.”
Brianna scrambled to think of a way to bring their hard conversation back around to their reunion. To their renewed commitment to their marriage and each other.
“I know one way you can make both of us feel better,” she offered.
“I sincerely doubt that, unless you tell me Davenport is behind bars… or better yet, six feet under.”
God, I pray he doesn’t mean that. As much as I want Jake to pay, I don’t want Markus to do something reckless that will get him in trouble with the law.
She did her best to bring their earlier playfulness back. “I was thinking more along the lines of you… well… you know…”
“Bri, I don’t know shit anymore.”
“That’s too bad. I was hoping you could show me how anal sex is really supposed to be with someone you love.”
That got his attention. His brown eyes locked on her gaze from above. “You can’t be serious. Now. In the middle of this heavy discussion, you want to distract me? With sex?”
“Actually, with anal sex. And yes.” She flashed her husband her brightest smile.
He didn’t dare laugh, or even smile, but she noticed a new lightness back in his eyes as he cautioned her. “I was actually contemplating spanking you all over again for keeping all this important information from me last night.”
Her heart rate took off at a trot at the thought of her sexy husband disciplining her. She’d only dreamed of it before. That it was a reality seemed impossible.
Working to distract him from the darkness they’d been discussing, she teased, “Maybe you should do both? A spanking for punishment and then you could take my ass to show me who it really belongs to.”
He finally couldn’t hide a small smile as he lectured her. “Mrs. Lambert, I do believe this is the textbook definition of topping from the bottom.”