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Authors: Lace Daltyn

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BOOK: Masquerade
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She turned to her computer
and pulled up the military picture of a younger Michael. His haircut in the
photo was more to her liking, but the longer length he wore now suited him. She
wondered if it would be soft to the touch. The brown color was rich and dark,
yet bits of gray sprinkled throughout only added to the mystery.

What had someone barely
thirty years of age seen that would make
them
go
prematurely gray?

Gut-wrenching pain across
her mid-section doubled her over as memory punched her in the stomach. The
room, awash in light, held many mechanisms designed for both pleasure and pain.
She’d
been taught to use them all, yet only the
instruments of torture had been used on her.

Faces, burned into her
mind, watched as the leathers bit deep into her back, her legs, and her breasts.
Welts that had disappeared with time from her body but never
from her memories.
Men laughed and jacked off as she was struck
time and time again
. Other women
were
forced
to watch in subdued terror, knowing their time would come.

And
always, always, his dark, sinister eyes as he dealt the blows, tightened the
cords around her neck, or stretched her bound limbs to their limits.

Drea tossed the cowl of
her cape off her head. Maybe Michael had seen some of the horrors of humanity,
but
she’d
seen worse.

And
done worse.

Drea shuddered. It
appeared she and Michael
were
both injured souls. Most
likely,
that’s
what appealed to her about him. Both
had seen more than anyone should ever see. She stared at the blue eyes in the
picture. Remembered the devastating smile
he’d
flashed
her earlier. Michael, it seemed, had found a way to get past what
he’d
seen.

Standing, Drea walked
over to the door Michael had left through, locking it. Then she tapped several
numbers in the keypad, arming the system that would tell her if anyone tried to
enter.

Only then did she pull
the cloak from her shoulders, hanging it on a chrome coat rack behind her desk.
She wandered into the main portion of her pristine penthouse loft. Darkness
permeated the room, from black leather furniture to windows covered with blackout
drapes, which
were never drawn
back. Only the
occasional muted lamplight broke the shadows.

Michael may have found a
way to get past what he had seen, but Drea knew she never would. She would
never relax.
Could never relax.
If she did,
he’d
find her.
And
God help her if
he did.

No. There would be no
happy life for her. She thought of Beth and Tony, knowing they had a lifetime
of love ahead of them now. She was happy
they’d
found
healing.

She must settle for the
satisfaction she got from helping others find fulfillment in their lives.

It would be enough for
her. It had to be.

 

The End

www.lacedaltyn.com

 

 

 

Other Books by Lace
Daltyn
:

 

www.evernightpublishing.com/lace-daltyn

 

 

 

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like:

 

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Lynde
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Love’s
Labyrinth by Ela Stein

 

Pink Neon
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Evernight
Publishing

 

www.evernightpublishing.com

 

 

 

BOOK: Masquerade
5.22Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

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