Heat filled her cheeks, and Rose looked down at her spread sandwich. It was low fat spread, and the bread was granary. Everything was healthy, even if she did make it herself. She was only allowed two slices of bread a day. Her lunch consisted of an apple, banana, and two slices of bread.
Tears filled her eyes thinking about the extreme way she’d been living. She was nineteen and worked in a library but still felt extremely dependant on her family.
She shook her head. “No, I’ve never been with a guy or multiple guys.”
Peter reached out and touched her chin. “I shouldn’t have said those things. I’m sorry.”
“No, it’s all right. We’re friends, right?” The simple touch of his fingers on her chin was doing crazy things to her insides.
“Of course we’re friends. I love spending time with you, Rose.” He looked like he wanted to say something else, but he didn’t.
“I love spending time with you as well.”
She took a small bite of her sandwich. Rose didn’t know what she’d get for dinner tonight, and just recently her parents had been keeping a diary of everything she was eating and doing.
There were times she wished she could confide in someone about what was happening. She never wanted Peter to know about her parents, let alone her eating problems.
Chapter Two
Peter knew he shouldn’t be encouraging her, but he couldn’t stop himself. When he was around Rose, she made him feel alive. The feeling was entirely different from how he felt around Laura. For ten years he’d loved the same woman and watched her fall deeper and deeper in love with another man. Watching a woman he could never have had finally take its toll. He’d been eating lunch with Rose for the last six months. She was his pleasure zone. Whenever he was in the library and around her, he got the chance to forget all about Laura and his connection to her.
Glancing down at her sandwich, he’d also recognized her lunch getting smaller, much smaller. He didn’t want to say anything as he got the feeling she was very self-conscious about her curves. Peter wasn’t. The curvier the woman the better she was for him. He didn’t like playing with very slender women. Some of the Doms only loved a slender woman, but he always opted for the fuller women. There was something about holding onto a woman’s h*ps as you drove into her. Not only that, he loved to stroke their rounded tits and spank their full asses.
Shaking his head, Peter pulled himself out of his thoughts and concentrated on the woman in front of him. Rose was a submissive woman. He recognized it in her and had spotted it the first time he walked into the library. Her head would bow down until he spoke to her. She also waited for him to open doors. It could be part of her upbringing in Cape Falls, but he doubted it.
Since he’d started his training, he’d become adept at spotting a sub and knowing how to work with one. Many subs had left him more than satisfied. He’d taken great pride in becoming a Dom, and William made sure of it as well.
She’s nineteen and has no business being in the club.
He would never be with a woman who was too young. Rose was only nineteen, and even though she clearly had a maturity about her, she was still young and she hadn’t been with a man.
She needed to know what it was like to be with a man sexually before he’d consider touching her.
Yet the thought of another man revealing her curvy body to his viewing pleasure made him so mad.
“Would you like to try some of my salad?” he asked, offering some to her.
Her gaze drifted down to his plastic tub, but she shook her head. “No, thank you. I’ve got my lunch.”
He didn’t pry even though he wanted to.
“So, do you see yourself working in the library for the rest of your life?” he asked.
She gazed at him, her blue depths watering as she stared at him. “I doubt I’ll be working here much longer.”
“Why?”
Rose licked her lips looking past his shoulder. “My family are old-fashioned. I think they’re trying to marry me off. They’re plotting something, but I don’t know what.” The smile she gave him was empty.
“They have no idea you’re talking to me, do they?” he asked.
She shook her head. “I never want to tell them because if I do then they’d take it away from me.”
Peter hurt for her. He knew she was suffering, and there was nothing he could do to help. Her family were the ones in control. It was how Cape Falls worked. The parents made the decisions, and the children did as they were told. Their town had survived like this for many generations.
He, Laura, Anna, and Daisy had been the few people to make it out of Cape Falls with their own kind of family. They were a unit, and they always went into town together.
“I’m sorry.”
“Why? You can’t do anything about it. It’s the way it is.” She dropped her gaze to eat more of her sandwich.
Peter wished he could take her troubles away, but there was nothing he could do. He couldn’t offer her anything. His love was for Laura and would always be for her. Loving Laura was something he was used to. Reaching out, he held Rose’s hand, pulling her hand close to his chest. “I really wish there was something I could do to help you.”
“There’s nothing you can do. I’m sorry for bringing it up to you.”
He shushed her, staring into her face. “We’re friends, Rose. We talk to each other about our troubles.”
Silence met his words, and they stayed still for several seconds.
“Rose, is that you?”
Peter turned to the noise to see a young man, a little older than Rose, approach them. He was with three other men, who were looking at Rose as if she was something to eat.
He didn’t like their attention, and his hands fisted at his side.
“Shit.” Peter heard her whisper.
“I’m guessing they’re some of the people who you don’t want to know?” Peter asked.
“They’ll tell my parents and ruin everything.” She pulled her hand away and started to eat her sandwich.
“I thought it was you. What are you doing?” The mystery man came to stand beside Rose. Peter stared at him, seeing the possessive glint written in his eyes. He wanted to know who the man was so he could put him in his place.
“Hi, Brad, I’m just eating lunch with Peter.”
Brad, the mystery man now had a name, turned his attention. Peter saw the assessment because he was doing his own. What he saw in Brad was lacking. The man was cruel. Peter didn’t know how he knew it, only that he did.