Free Primal Heat 2 by A. C. Arthur Page B

with this man and beast. There had never been a time that she’d seen them and not felt the power of all that was inside him.
    “You’re right,” she admitted. “I do not belong to him.”
    They sat on Eli’s bed now, while he cradled her in his lap. A couple of hours ago, or maybe even yesterday, she might have thought this the most insane position. She would never have relinquished enough of herself to sit in his arms this way, to have him hold her as if she were his child to protect. But right now, hell, it felt damned good to have been protected, at least one time, from her father.
    She took a deep breath, wondering for an instant if what she was about to do was a mistake or not. Instinct told her it wasn’t. For so long she’d known there was something different about Eli, something that existed only between the two of them. And while he’d yet to accept it, she had vowed not to run away from it, from him. So her words, which she was trying to consider carefully, were going to come, no matter the repercussions.
    “It started when I was nine. I’d just finished my first piano recital and I was so excited that I’d received a standing ovation. Amina, that’s my oldest sister, she didn’t like the piano, but she loved the pretty pink dress she’d had to wear to the formal affair. Serene is my other sister, she’s older too and she was just happy that it was me playing the piano and not her. Reading was her thing. She lost herself in all those books she had. But me, I liked to shine.”
    Nivea could admit that because it wasn’t a bad thing. She’d done good work in her life and there was nothing wrong with being proud of it. No matter what he’d said.
    Eli pushed a strand of hair from her face, tucking it softly behind her ear.
    “I was in my bedroom, getting ready for bed, when I heard the door open. I thought it was Amina because she was always sent to check on me. There were so many things my oldest sister did that my mother probably should have been doing.” Nivea sighed. “But it wasn’t Mina. It was my father. He congratulated me for doing such a wonderful job and for being his star daughter. He was so proud of me, so happy for me.”
    She shivered with the memory.
    “All the while he talked his hand rubbed over my bare shoulder. I’d already taken off my dress and now wore just my slip and my tights. I didn’t like how his hand felt on my shoulder, but I didn’t move because he hated having to tell me things twice. Always yelled that I was the most hardheaded of his daughters.”
    Eli had gone completely still. Nivea didn’t look up at his face again, just kept staring off at nothing in particular. But she could feel how rigid he was even though his arms stayed wrapped around her. His anger was palpable and she hated that with each word she said, it continued to heighten. All she knew was that she had to get this out now, or she’d never be able to tell him. How would they build a future with something like this between them?
    “He touched my shoulders then, and eventually removed the slip from my body. It seems he was right about one thing, I was his most stubborn and hard-to-control daughter. I questioned everything he was doing. I even told him I was pretty sure it was wrong. But he didn’t stop, not until I was naked. He touched me everywhere that night just with his hands, and then told me to go to bed.”
    “Stop,” Eli said then, touching a finger to her lips. “Just stop before I leave this room to find where he is and break his fucking neck.”
    Nivea shook her head. “You don’t understand,” she mumbled over his fingers, until she finally lifted her hand to move them. “I knew it was wrong but I let him do it because he said if I did he wouldn’t touch Amina and Serene. For years I accepted that as the excuse to endure all that nastiness. Then when I was older, when I turned seventeen, I found the files. I saw the tattoo and I knew I had him. I could make him stop, I