Read Breaking Free for Free Online Page A

there,” she said. “I told them I was leaving with Coop, you know, in case I needed help.”
    “So you thought he had the propensity to be violent?”
    I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. Sure, I was jealous and possessive, but she claimed that turned her on. I beat the hell out of other guys for sport, but I’d never laid a hand on her in anger. The sex was rough, but she liked it that way. She’d begged me to slap her ass. She moaned when I tugged her hair. She came when I forced her to take my cock harder and deeper. She loved it when I tied her up and had my way with her. She wanted everything I gave her.
    “I’d seen evidence of his temper,” she said. “When other guys looked at me, he would get angry. Even the men on his crew, after we started seeing each other, got a warning if they flirted with me.”
    The prosecutor looked at a few of the jurors, obviously trying to gauge their reaction. “Were you ever afraid of him?”
    She looked torn, probably wishing she could avoid answering. “Sometimes.” She reached for her water glass. “When I told my friends stories about him, they said he could be dangerous. They thought he was too aggressive, too violent. But I wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt. I’d seen his gentler side. They hadn’t.”
    I closed my eyes as I sank back in my chair. This was going from bad to worse. Her testimony was killing me. Not only was she putting me away, she was ripping out my heart. How could she have been scared of me? Even though I’d only known her a short time, I would have laid down my life to protect her.
    “Was it possible you were attracted to him because he was dangerous?” The prosecutor turned to face me, his hands behind his back.
    I knew I shouldn’t, but I couldn’t help staring him down, trying to intimidate him. It must have worked because he shifted his attention back to his witness.
    “You were an impressionable young woman who’d never been in any trouble,” the prosecutor said. “You maintained good grades, came from a good family, never got mixed up in drugs. Mr. Cooper was the opposite of that. He dropped out of school. His brother was killed by police. He was charged with assault and drug possession numerous times, but—”
    “Objection!” my lawyer said, jumping up. “That’s irrelevant, your Honor.”
    “Sustained,” the judge said, looking at the prosecutor. “Get back on track, Counselor.”
    “Miss Lancaster, why don’t you tell the court why you were attracted to Mr. Cooper?”
    For the first time since she entered the court room, Maura turned toward me and didn’t look away when our eyes locked. “There was just something about him that drew me to him. He was handsome, but it was more than that. He was dark and dangerous. I’d been used to dating guys who were younger and inexperienced. Coop was…” She finally blinked, breaking our connection as she turned back to the lawyer. “Different.”
    “In what way?”
    I was pissed the prosecutor was harassing her. I could only imagine how difficult it must have been for Maura to discuss our relationship with her parents present. I wanted to protect her. I wanted to demand the bully leave her the hell alone. But my hands were tied… and I hated it.
    “He was enigmatic,” she said, sitting straighter. “Something told me to run away from him, to return to the safety of the guys I was used to dating, but I kept going back to Coop. No matter how hard I tried to stay away, I couldn’t.”
    “Was it because of the sex, Miss Lancaster? Is that why you stayed with him?”
    I fisted my hands on the tabletop until my lawyer nudged me, warning me to relax.
    “I wasn’t a virgin when we met.” Maura blushed and looked at her hands. “I’d been with one other guy, but it was different with Coop. It was intense. He was intense, and I wanted more. He was like an addiction. I couldn’t get enough of him.”
    I’d felt the same way about her. I couldn’t get enough.