Deep Burn (Burned Duet 2)

“No father?”

“No.” I shook my head and held my hands tighter in my lap.

“And why is that?”

My nostrils flared at the sight of his lips quirking on one side. “He left when I was a kid.”

“Is it not true that he left because your mother abuses both alcohol and drugs?” He raised a brow, waiting for me to answer, and when I gave a small nod of agreement, he gritted out, “Vocalize your answer.”

“Yes,” I croaked, feeling like I wanted to run away. I hadn’t expected him to bring my mom into it, but I shouldn’t have been surprised. Knox never played anything but dirty.

“So when the opportunity came to be away from your mother, you snapped it up.” His voice got louder. “You were offered an apartment by another man and dropped Knox just like your dad had done to you.”

“That’s not—”

“Because that’s the pattern you’ve learned growing up, isn’t it Elodie? You take what you want and don’t care about the consequences.”

“No—”

“You used Knox.” He paced the small area in front of me. “You used him because he was popular in school. His family is rich. You lured him, promising him things that you were never willing to give.”

“That’s not true!” I blurted out, feeling frazzled.

“The truth is that you liked rough sex. You took a straight A student who was on the path to attend an Ivy League college and twisted him to your ways. You didn’t want the plain high school guy, you wanted the rough-and-tumble kind.” He paused and halted in front of me. “You wanted the kind of guy you’d grown up around, but they didn’t suit your needs to get out of the trailer park you were trapped in did they?”

“You’re spouting fiction,” I told him, narrowing my eyes. “That’s not what happened, and it’s not what Knox is like.”

“What I think happened, Elodie, is that the moment you dropped Knox, you realized your mistake and you asked him to come to your apartment.” I shook my head and opened my mouth to answer, but he continued, not letting me talk. “I think you engaged in the rough kind of sex you were used to, but you hadn’t expected your latest boyfriend to walk in, had you?”

I heard murmurings in the room, but I tried my best to ignore them. He was attempting to rattle me, trying to get me to have an outburst, but I’d spent years learning how to stay calm in the face of uncertainty.

“You’re wrong,” I told him simply.

“Did you engage in rough sex with Knox previous to this event?” he asked, raising his brow.

“I did not.”

The lawyer stared down at me, his bright blue eyes drilling into me. “That?

?s your word against his, though, isn’t it, Elodie?”

“I suppose it is.” He opened his mouth to say something else, but I didn’t give him the chance this time. “But this isn’t my word against his. There were witnesses to how he treated me throughout our relationship. I’m haunted every day by what he did to me. I have physical and emotional scars that he left behind.” I paused. “And the evidence from the rape kit proves what he did to me.”

“Or it proves you like rough sex,” he quipped back, pursing his lips

“Do you know what it’s like to have your choices taken away from you, sir?” I asked, pushing forward in my seat.

“I think you’ll find it’s my job to ask the questions here, young lady.”

“That’s a no, then.” I shook my head, feeling all of my emotions bubbling to the surface. “Because if you did know, then you wouldn’t be asking me these questions. I’ll live with what he did to me for the rest of my life. This wasn’t an event that will pass on by. This is something that will stay with me until the day I die.”

“Stick to only answering questions I ask,” he ground out, his warning clear.

I tried to take a calming breath, but it was really hard when I was faced with a man representing such evil. “Okay, then.”

He walked back to his desk and I felt my shoulders slump. It was over, finally ov—

“One last question.” He held his finger up in the air and spun on his heels to face me. “How long did you work as an exotic dancer at the strip club Pink Feather?”