Never to Hope by Aimie Grey Read Free Book Online Page A

shower?”
    And just like that, my world had righted itself.
    About half an hour later, we were walking down the stairs. He was kind of dressed up for some unknown reason, so I’d taken the time to do my hair and makeup and wore my favorite red dress. When he took my hand, I didn’t mind one bit. After what had happened between us the day before, I needed the reassurance from the contact.
    Instead of going to the restaurant to pick up the food, he led me directly to our clearing.
    “What’s all this?” I asked as I inventoried the scene. A short, square table covered with a white linen cloth was placed close to where we usually spread the blanket. Two thick cushions rested on the ground; one across from the other. Gorgeous wildflowers overflowed a vase sitting in the middle of the table amongst four or five Chinese takeout containers.
    “You don’t like it?”
    “I love it; I just don’t understand.”
    “You’ve done so much for me this week, and I wanted to do something special for you.” This must have been his way of trying to fix whatever had broken between us.
    As I looked into his eyes, a soft melody drifted through the air. “Bluetooth,” he answered my unasked question, nodding toward a good-sized speaker on the ground near my tree.
    “How did you manage to do all of this?”
    “A friend owed me one.” He lifted one corner of the table cloth to reveal the coffee table I thought he’d taken to the thrift store.
    Tears welled in my eyes as he guided me to sit on the cushion next to my—no, our—tree.
    “What’s wrong?” he asked with a bit of panic laced in his voice.
    “I can’t believe you went through all of this trouble. No one has ever done anything even remotely like this for me.”
    “I find that hard to believe; this isn’t that much. Surely you’ve won the hearts of dozens of men.”
    “It may not seem like much to you, but it is a lot to me. I told you, I don’t date. I’ve never let anyone get this close before.” After quickly peeking inside a few of the white boxes, I grabbed an eggroll and swallowed a bite in an attempt to loosen the knot in my throat.
    “I wish you would tell me what happened to make you feel this way. I want to help you, and not just because I want to sleep with you.”
    His words, along with his grand gesture, blasted a hole through my thickest wall. Before I could stop myself, the details of the event that had completely fucked me up spilled out. “When I was fourteen, my parents owed a lot of money to a very dangerous man. They couldn’t pay it back, so they gave him my virginity instead.” My arms were wrapped tightly around my middle, trying to hold myself together, refusing to let go long enough to brush the handful of tears from my face. I took a stuttering breath before finishing my short story. “After that, they realized they could use my body to settle most of their other debts. They didn’t stop until I ended up at the free clinic with pelvic inflammatory disease and the doctor questioned them about signs of trauma; they were worried about getting caught.” He came around the table into my small space and managed to pull me into his arms. I rubbed my face against his chest to dry my cheeks and then tried to break free. “It was ten years ago. I don’t need your pity.”
    “I don’t pity you; I’m pissed as hell your own parents did that to you, and I’m sad you had to go through that. Why the hell would you continue to talk to them?”
    “It wasn’t always bad. They were wonderful parents, and we were very well off financially, until I was about eight years old. They’d even purchased a fancy RV so we could take road trips and see the country. One night, they went to a party and ended up trying meth; it only took one time for them to become addicts. It was such a sudden change. After a while, that RV became our home. At the time, I was too young to fully comprehend what had happened, but I figured it out from bits and pieces of