Betrayed by Love by Lila Dubois Page A

her eyes.
    “But she is. In Chicago you said ‘you murdered me’.”
    She looked away, didn’t answer.
    He set the sketch down and came toward her. He didn’t touch her and she was grateful for that. “I kept your paintings. I took them with me when I moved to Chicago. Anything else of yours, a few clothes and books, are boxed up in storage. I couldn’t throw anything away. I though you left me because I was weak and you wanted a strong man, a Dom.”
    “How could you think that?” she asked, rubbing her cold arms. “You gave me away, traded me to him in exchange for one of his slaves.” She spat the last word out, hating the taste of it. “I left because you’re a heartless, self-involved bastard.”
    “Savannah, look at me, please.” He waited until she’d met his gaze. “I loved you. You were my world. You were the only person I’d ever trusted enough to try sex games with, but if you hadn’t liked them, I would have given them up in a heartbeat. For you.”
    “No, no, that’s not right.” She paced away, heart beating hard. Hope, a traitorous emotion, was rising within her. “You took me there, tricked me. Gave me to him.”
    “You’re right. I did take you there, to that room.”
    It was almost a relief when the hope died.
    “But I did not give you to him.”
    “I heard you, heard you tell him to keep me. You gave me to a monster,” she whispered. She looked down at her last sketch—Roman, but not the man behind her, or the man she’d loved. Roman as she remembered him that day, back to her, walking away. “I cried out for you. I begged you to save me.”
    “I know. I heard.”
    She rubbed her belly, trying to draw breath past the coldness there. “You heard me begging for mercy and decided to trade me for his whore? Did I really mean so little to you?”
    “God, no! Savannah, no. I didn’t hear it then, not five years ago. I had no idea what happened to you, what you went through. He told me… I guess it doesn’t matter what he told me. I should have known he was lying. I should have protected you.”
    Savannah turned, his words finally sinking in. “What do you mean you didn’t know? You gave me to him.”
    “No. I would never do that. I loved you.”
    “But you…” Savannah shook her head. “You took me to him, you left me there, you—”
    “I took you to him, to train you. He said he would teach you to go into sub-space—God, how stupid this all sounds now—he said he would help me make it so that each time I touched you it would be as good as that night. I felt stupid because it wasn’t until you were surrounded by other people and I was being coached that I was able to give you that kind of pleasure. I thought I wasn’t doing enough to you. He said that if he trained you to find sub-space, it could be that way all the time. Just a few hours with him would teach you how to tap into that part of you, and once you knew how you’d be—”
    “A better submissive, a more willing sex toy for you?”
    “No. You know I never thought of you like that. I thought you’d be able to experience intense pleasure, even if I wasn’t good enough for you.” His words were clipped and hard, matter-of-fact.
    Savannah met his gaze. His emotionless words were at odds with the pain in his gaze.
    Had he really not known what Wilcox was doing? Part of her had always wanted to believe that, but he’d been there, he had to have known.
    “He had me, he…hurt me…for hours.”
    Roman’s eyes closed and his face creased in pain. “I know.” He blew out a breath. “I took you there because I thought you would enjoy it. He convinced me you were some sort of…born submissive. I wanted to give you a chance to know pleasure at the hands of a skilled Dom. And yes, I thought you would enjoy it, and when it was over you’d come back to me, and I’d have learned new things, and we would both be happier.
    “I stood outside the door. I stood there and waited to make sure you were okay. I