Page 14 of Beautiful Disaster

“And no interrupting me.”

I’m starting to regret coming. Jeez. What’s up with this dude and his thousand rules? But I give in and nod; otherwise, I’ll never get my answers.

“I would like to know your story, Jinx. We cannot begin without it. I need to know how far to take this and how to handle you.”

As much as I want to scream and demand he tell me what the fuck is going on, being honest will be the fastest way to get me there.

“Can I have some wine first?”

“You are underage.”

I give him a flat look, as if it matters way out here. It’s not like I’m going to turn him in.

“Please,” I grit.

With a sigh, he stands, grabs a glass from the cabinet, and pours me a drink.

“Thank you,” I say, just to please him for some fucking reason, and take a sip of the bold, dry wine.

“You’re welcome. Now, explain, please.”

“I like women, you know?”

“You like women. You avoid men. I need to know why.”

Fuck, I swear, he can see right through me. “How?”

“I didn’t know you liked women. I assumed you liked men until you just told me, so I immediately put two and two together.”

I take another sip of wine and play with the stem of the glass, unable to look at him as shame courses through me. It wasn’t my fault my life happened, but now, whatever remaining confidence I have vanishes.

“My mother was born in Romania. She came here and tried to make a better life for herself. While in college, some douche canoe raped her, and, for some reason, she chose to have me. After a year, she died. Don’t ask from what. I don’t know. There’s little information about her or me after that.”

Mason watches me, scrutinizing. “Then what happened?”

“Then someone found me, sold me, who the fu—fudge knows. I don’t remember when I was handed off to Tito, a pimp, rapist, and douchebag extraordinaire, but I was pretty young. I was a baby, probably. He beat and… raped his boys, then forced them to be hookers for pervy old men. They were all old to me when I was a kid.”

“How old were you when he first touched you?”

“He touched me and shi—stuff when I was like six. But he first raped me when I was ten.”

The backhand came out of nowhere. I instantly fall to the ground, bleeding from my nose, when Tito rips off my clothes. I’m crying and fighting him, but a kick to my back makes me instantly compliant.

He lifts my body off the floor and throws me onto the bed. I’m small, so it’s easy for him. After he binds my hands while I’m face down on the bed, he starts to prep me. It hurts so much…

I can’t stop crying.

He hits me for that, too.

My eyes try to water at the gut-punching memory, but I shove the pain back with a cough and a shuddering deep breath. I’ll never fucking forget that day. The day I was first raped. When I got back to the room I shared with Aleks, who was Romeo back then, I was sobbing and in so much pain. Something shifted in him. He got angry. When he went to confront Tito, he had the ever-loving shit beaten out of him. It took him over a week to recover. It was all my fault.

Mason sips his wine. The only emotion I see on his face is the clenching of his jaw. “That explains your resistance to men.”

“How do you know all this?”

“Experience,” he says quickly. “I could see your need to submit. But there was fear that flashed in your eyes when I got close to you the other day. Sure, it was a power move on my part, and anyone would’ve gotten nervous, but you hid your fear well. That, along with your poor attitude and defiance, made you come off stronger than you really are.”

“I’m not weak,” I snap, feeling fucking naked and vulnerable.