Page 274 of Once Upon a Fable

“Go...please go,” he murmured, curling into himself as if he could trap all the wickedness inside him.

Even though it felt like the hardest thing in the world.

Even though instincts told me I should argue, fight, and stay...

I did what he asked.

And I left.

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

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GEMMA ASHFORD WAS THE only person to ever successfully break me.

I’d had so many others try. I’d endured hundreds of punishments and thousands of games, yet I’d always been able to safeguard the inner parts of me. I’d sheltered those pieces for my family. I’d held them tight all while I’d been beaten and used because I knew if I gave up, who would look after them? Who would find a way to kill our masters? Who would sacrifice their own happiness so that one day, those he loved could find theirs?

But Gemma.

Christ,Gem.

She was the first to give me something out of the goodness of her heart. No matter how much it cost her. No matter how much she hated me for what I’d done. She’d read my suffering, understood the jagged complexities of my mind, and she’d been so angelicallygood.

She’d glowed in my arms. She’d had wings of gold and a halo of kindness all as she took my corrupted, unclean soul inside hers.

And how had I repaid her?

By coating her in the same fucking dirt I’d crawled out of.

Seeing my cum trickle down her leg? Seeing the bruises I’d given her while doing something unforgivable? Fuck me, it represented every disgusting thing I’d ever done. All the cum that’d covered me, all the guests who’d claimed me, all the games I’d been forced to play.

She hadn’t deserved to be included in that mess.

She didn’t deserve to be trapped with a man who couldn’t control hisown thoughts or keep her safe from the very same urges he’d ignored for eleven years.

She wasn’t safe here.

She wasn’t fucking safe because seeing my release roll down her leg had made me viciously hard again. It wasn’t enough to take her once. I wanted her again and again andagain. I wanted her beneath me, on me, in me. I wanted to die with her on my tongue and my body pounding into hers.

I was sick.

I was exhausted.

Living with her had become impossible.

I found it harder and harder just to survive. I couldn’t pretend I wasn’t dangerous and cruel. I couldn’t wipe away the blood still coating my hands, or the nightmares just waiting to manipulate me.

I’d raped her because I’d stupidly fallen asleep. Fallen asleep because of a concussion that scrambled my thoughts and an exhaustion borne from her presence.

I never wanted to sleep again.

What if I woke to her dead beneath me?

What if I never woke at all, and I kept her trapped here forever, like me. Hurting her, using her, never able to open my eyes and see just how wonderful she was. How giving, generous, and kind.

I groaned and rested my sweaty forehead on my arms.

I didn’t think I could do this anymore.