climbed up on the bed. His robe fell completely open. His erection pulsed as if commanding her to notice.
“I don’t want--” The items on the tray registered. Front and center was a giant carrot.
She scrabbled back toward the headboard, kicking out toward the tray. The move flung the satin sheet away from her lower body. Exactly what she wanted to avoid. Amara whimpered as memories scrolled through her mind like an old horror film.
“Stop.” Vetis grabbed her ankles and forced her feet down to the bed, pushing until her knees pointed toward the ceiling.
Amara yanked at the bindings, wrenched her wrists as she tried to cover her sex. She slammed her knees together and pulled her elbows into her waist. With each panicked tug against her restraints, she sought to protect her body. Protect her sex. But nothing would be able to protect her mind.
She sobbed. Gods, not again . Please not again.
She didn’t even realize she had spoken aloud until he murmured gently, “No. We must face down these bad memories and make new ones. You understand.”
Vetis whispered to her and repeated his commands over and over slowly until she finally realized he was trying to calm her down. “Can I let go of your feet?”
She nodded. Prayed he wouldn’t hurt her.
“Let your legs fall open.” He repeated the command. His midnight blue gaze held hers imploring her to trust in him.
She did as he instructed, her mound spread wide and exposed to the air. And to him.
Vetis curled his fingers around the carrot. The instrument of her torture. “Let’s banish this memory.” He held the carrot near the leafy greens and extended it toward her.
“Bite it.” He traced her mouth with the smooth peeled tip, the odor sickly sweet in her nose.
She hated carrots. Ever since. Hated them. She opened her mouth and chomped. Hard.
The tip broke off in her mouth with a crisp snap. The sharp sound pleased her and she imagined destroying her abuser’s penis instead of the carrot. She chewed savagely and with each crunch tried desperately to eradicate her memories.
Vetis winced.
Amara spat the masticated carrot onto the tray. “More,” she said fiercely.
He obliged by holding the offensive vegetable out to her. Crack. She broke off another piece as her anger bubbled.
“Better?”
She did feel better. “Yes.”
He turned the carrot around in his hand so that the greens dangled from his fist. “Still not quite right. But I have an idea.” His smile was full of sin. “Lean back against the pillows.”
Amara started to object then shrugged.
He began with the arm he’d bound first. The slightly rough edges of the greens teased the delicate skin on the inside of her right wrist, and then he gently swept the leafy tips along the sensitive veins of her inner arm. Not quite a tickle. Then across her collarbone and along her throat, he brushed against her rapid pulse. Her blood beat so hard she thought it might just burst right out of her.
With a flourish, he twirled the greens over the hardening tip of her breast, the contact feather light against her nipple. “And how does that feel, hmm?”
Her heart’s frantic beat was a dual assault of lingering terror and new burgeoning sensations. The newer odd reaction of her body overpowered the terror in her mind and caused the fear to fade.
She swallowed. “F-fine.”
He tsked. “Only fine? Mustn’t neglect the other beauty.” He shifted the greens to her other breast and twirled just a little bit harder.
Her thighs quivered at the strange tingle in her feminine parts.
“So that’s the way of it.” Vetis painted a path down her stomach, her belly button caving involuntarily. He brushed the greens down toward her mound and she was unable to take her gaze away as he teased her little bud. Then he traced a path from her belly button to the crease in her ass. The greens prickled, yet didn’t hurt.
He wasn’t hurting her. The miracle grew as she realized she felt something other than