My Love Forgive by Anna Antonia

see you bruise in this way when there’s many other more creative ways to make you hurt. Would you like to try one right now? Say for this slice of bacon?”
    I scrambled back up onto my feet, wincing from the ache already throbbing in my poor knees. “No.”
    “Are you sure?”
    “Yes.”
    No.
    Damian smiled in a way which suggested he knew me for a perverted liar. “Do they hurt?”
    I shifted from one leg to the other, bemused at the interest he’d taken. “A little.”
    He nodded. “I don’t expect you to repeat that mistake again. You will make others though.” Damian picked up another bacon slice. He chewed, eyes alight in speculation, before taking a delicate swallow of juice. “I look forward to them.”
    I linked my fingers together, the outward picture of innocence. “Why?”
    “To punish you, of course.”
    “They’re not going to be like my other punishments, are they?”
    His virtuous smile set my nerves on fire. His silence transformed them into an inferno.
    “Damian?”
    He turned his attention away from me and finished my breakfast.
    I looked at his peaceful profile and saw how completely he had banished me from his thoughts. I sniffled. My eyes itched and my mouth turned in on itself. Pain clawed away inside my chest, demanding to be let out in a torrent of tears and curses.
    I took a step backwards. Damian continued the civilized motions of eating breakfast. I repeated my actions until I stood within the doorway. He merely speared a fluffy cloud of scrambled eggs.
     
    Abandonment swelled. Images sped across my mind’s eye. Damian’s love morphed into a taunt plied by a very cruel man. My throat warbled something to finally catch his attention.
    “What did you say?”
    “You heard me.”
    He stood up. I whirled about into the bedroom and slammed the door shut. I climbed up onto the bed, drew my knees up, and stared at the closed door.
     

26

    “Risa.”
    Muffled only slightly by the wooden barrier, Damian’s crisp, calm voice thrummed my rebellion. I settled my chin onto my left knee while wrapping my arms around my legs.
    “Answer me.”
    I shook my head.
    “I am going to give you thirty seconds to open this door of your own will.”
    I shrugged my shoulders.
    The seconds sucked by with bog-like suffocation. A click later and then Damian stood in the doorway, framed and backlit with menacing intensity.
    “Would you care to repeat what you said out there?”
    I looked at his left shoulder with apathetic attention. “I hate you.”
    “You do not.”
    “Yes. I do.”
    Damian tilted his head to the side. His focus settled onto my reddened nose. “You are undoubtedly my bad little girl. I suspected you would be throwing a tantrum soon but not quite this early. Did you get up too early?”
    “Be quiet.”
    The amused half-smile slid away. Damian’s eyes hardened into twin points of stone. “Risa, you are already in a lot of trouble for your previous disrespect. This is sure to tip you into a place you really don’t want to visit.”
    “I don’t care. I don’t have to follow your rules.” My grandiose plans of tricking him and escaping simmered down. I nursed my resentment, feeling completely justified in what I’d said.
    If he didn’t care enough about me to feed me then why should I care about what I said to him?
    Damian inhaled deeply before letting it all out at once. “Okay, Risa. We’ll do this your way. Just remember this is what you wanted.”
    He approached the bed. I stiffened, expecting a sharp slap for my defiance. Instead, Damian plucked me off the bed and made for the bathroom. The chain slithered across the floor, hissing my name for a fool.
    I wanted to clap my hands over my ears.
    Damian set me down with a murmured “Stay right here and don’t move” before turning towards the tub. He adjusted the water and tested it with several passes of his palm before declaring the temperature just right. He then studied two different bath salts taken from a shelf