He grabbed my arm. “This is your fault, goddamn it! If you had just listened to me, Squeak, none of this would have ever happened!”
It’s always my fault. Always. “I didn’t do anything wrong. ”
I felt his grip tighten around my arm. My head was killing me, and my jaw felt like it was broken. He’d never hit me this hard before.
“You didn’t do anything wrong? You were flirting with him, Squeak. I saw the way you were touching him and dancing with him. Did you flirt with him just to piss me off?”
When I looked into his eyes, the anger caused a chill to run up and down my spine. I tried to pull away from him. I knew I shouldn’t have talked to Nick, let alone danced with him. He was Roger’s biggest competition, and they were both up for the same job promotion at work.
Roger had been dancing and hanging all over Lucy Waters, and he hadn’t so much as said two words to me all night. At one point, I’d seen him grab her ass and whisper something into her ear. I got pissed, so I’d sought out Nick and started to talk to him. We’d danced only one time, and as I was thanking him for the dance, I’d placed my hand on his upper arm. The moment I did it, I knew I’d made a drastic mistake.
“It was just an innocent dance, and I was thanking him for his kindness since you seemed to be making plans with Lucy for later. ” I attempted to jerk my arm out of his grip.
He pulled my arm so hard that I heard something pop. I dropped to my knees and let out a scream. When I looked up, I saw the expression on his face turn from anger to hate.
Oh my God, he’s going to kill me.
He pulled me up, and tears started rolling down my cheeks from the pain in my jaw, head, and now, my shoulder. As he put his face right up to mine, I could smell the alcohol on his breath. It turned my stomach, and I tried to turn away. He grabbed my jaw and turned my face back to him, causing me to yell out again.
“Look at me when I’m talking to you, you fucking bitch! You. Don’t. Touch. Other. Men. Ever! You are mine, Whitley. You’ve always been mine, and you always will be. You need to be taught a lesson, so you don’t whore around like you were tonight. You showed up at that dinner party, looking the part. I told you, no strapless dresses ever!”
He yanked the top of my dress so hard that the fabric tore and fell off my body. I watched as he looked me up and down and licked his lips.
No. Please, God, no! “I wasn’t flirting, Roger! He asked me to dance, and I didn’t want to be rude. ” My jaw hurt more with every word I spoke.
Roger threw his head back and laughed. When he finally peered at me, he shook his head. “Did you want him, Squeak? Did you want to fuck him?”
What in the hell is he saying? How could he even think that?
“Answer me, Whitley!” Roger yelled, causing me to jump.
“No!”
“You’re lying to me. That beautiful dress you had on tonight—the only reason you can afford to dress like that is because of me. These nails…” He pulled my hand up to his face and then bent my hand back, causing me to drop to the floor in pain. “These nails are possible because of me, Squeak. Your hair, your sweet-smelling soft hair—this belongs to me. It’s all because of me. This beautiful condo in Manhattan—this is all me, baby. ”
He pulled my hair, but I couldn’t even call out in pain anymore. All I wanted was for the pain to go away.
I need to get away from him. “You’re hurting me, Roger. ”
Usually, if I said he was hurting me, he would know I was at my breaking point, and he would stop. Then, he would leave and go drink until he couldn’t walk, and he’d stay at the Ritz for the night. The next day, he’d come back, beg for forgiveness, and tell me how much he loved me and how afraid he was of losing me.
Yanking me closer to him, he reached down, tore off m
y panties, and then began touching me.
“Did. You. Want. To. Fuck. Him?” he slowly whispered in my ear. “If you want to, Whit, I can arrange it. Maybe I could even watch the two of you together and then join in. ”
I sucked in a breath of air and looked into his eyes. He’s gone crazy!
“I heard Nick likes threesomes. We could have a little fun, Squeak. You would like that, wouldn’t you? You’re such a dirty little whore. You’d like to be fucked by that asshole, wouldn’t you?”
I shook my head, the pain growing twenty times worse. I tried to open my mouth to say no, but Roger started to penetrate me with his fingers.
“Hmm…you’re not very turned-on, baby. Let’s get you good and wet. Do I need to call Nick to help out with that?”
I pushed him away from me and found the strength the talk. “Don’t ever touch me again, you sick bastard! I don’t want Nick, and I don’t want you!” My skin started to crawl with the disgust I felt from being near him.
The look in his eyes changed. I didn’t even see it coming until it was too late. He slapped me across the face, and then he grabbed my hair. When I saw Roger’s fist coming straight toward my face again, I closed my eyes and waited for the blow.