28
Rue
“That was worth waiting for,” Dryas says as he strokes the curve of my hip. He’s talking to himself as much as to me. He glances at me. “Don’t you think? After all, you’re the one whose innocence we just lost.”
He kisses my shoulder absently. In an instant, his words manage to shame me.
He thought I was a virgin. Is that the only reason he wanted me?
My cheeks heat. Father Derrik took my honor from me years ago, stole it away when I was too young to resist. And then he reminded me of the offense, again and again, every time he would take my confession.
“I did as God wanted me to do. Now you are ruined forever,” he’d whisper. “Always remember me as the only man who would even touch you.”
As if I could ever forget. Even now, hundreds of miles away, I shudder. Dryas assumes that
