Read Constricted: Beyond the Brothel Walls for Free Online

right?”
    Damn it, I needed to get myself under control or stop talking to him. My words made me sound like a babbling baby. Yes, I feared Petre just as I would have any man, but there was something else. Life outside of the Hampshire House was alien to me. Some of the guards had allowed me to sneak away when Jules left, but I hadn’t lived a free and virtuous life. For an hour here or there, I had just pretended as I walked the streets of Delphia.
    I’d donned my uniform and covered it, even in the heat of summer. The cobblestone streets became my solace, and the shops my dreams. My guard knew I would return before sundown, and they warned me to stay near. Each one assured me I was followed even if I didn’t see.
    “I’m old fashioned in some ways, and in other’s I’ve embraced the changing times.” Okay, that was a strange statement to make, but I nodded, and forced a smile. “When I marry, I expect my new wife intact.”
    Marry; my chin drooped, and my gaze fell back to the bed. Married women held more rights outside the home than slaves. Other men couldn’t touch them even though the husbands philandered with whores. Uncle Jules couldn’t hurt me ever again if I married Petre. Safe, but what if he was worse? I glanced back to him. What if he wasn’t any worse?
    “If I can be blunt.” I paused as his dark brows rose. “My hymen is very much intact.”
    Petre flashed a charming smile, and it was the charismatic persona he’d held on the train ride before he’d announced himself as my owner. The man before me I handled without a hitch. The other one called me out on my lies and stared at me like I was food.
    “That pleases me.” His eyes darkened again. “This is my bedroom, and yours is next door. I wanted to show you that I’m close by if you need me.” Instead of walking back through the hallway, he opened a different door; it led into the living room. Books lined one of the walls and a pang washed over me. Perhaps, if he was willing, Petre would teach me to read.
    “This is, as I’m sure you have guessed, our private entertainment room.” My eyes had glanced over the modern furniture and electronics before trailing back to him. His hand rubbed the base of his neck, but he smiled at me. My own lips tried to twitch upward too, but I wasn’t ready to trust him. How many stories had I heard from young girls about rich men? They all ended badly, and I’d stay smart to make sure it didn’t happen to me.
    I shook the smile away and padded behind him into the next room. The walls were light grey-lavender, so light that, in the dark, they appeared more grayish than purple. The bed had a dark sloped headboard and footboard. The shape reminded me of a sleigh, and a fat man dressed in red; I’d once saw them in a picture book. My breath released. No bed poles to haunt my waking moments.
    “We can change the colors if you like,” he said. I shook my head, but his back faced me. “This was my room; grey is my favorite color,” Petre added.
    “No, it’s pretty.” I smiled. Even as I tried to stop it, my dry lips cracked into a grin. The air shifted as he spun around, scooped me up like a doll, and pressed me to him. I sucked in a breath, but I couldn’t shake the grin off my face. Warmth flushed into my cheeks; our eyes met, and he stepped away.
    A chill shook over my skin after he dropped me, which I found odd. Petre’s hands were still icy. “Grey is my favorite too.”
    Why did I tell him that? No more, I chided myself and nibbled my cheek. He’d end up being a witch, and his house made of finery and sweets. I would not become Gretel like in the story. Fattened, lured, and wind up fighting for my life. All because I fell for a line of flattery or was swooped up into his fairytale life. No, Petre bought me. I had to remember the facts. He knew Jules. Therefore, he was not my knight in shining armor. Knights didn’t frequent whorehouses, did they?
    Though I wanted one; a good man to save me,