They Echo Me

41. Daniel

Emma fell asleep on top of me, wrapped up in my arms.

It was only like 12:30 after our talk ended. I needed to get up and get us food. There was still a ton of daylight left in the day, and so much to be done, if Emma really wanted me to try to help her free her friends.

But I just lay there. For hours. Holding her, rubbing her back, occasionally kissing her head.

Trembling.

Because I didn't want to fuck this up again.

This was our second chance. This was my chance to prove to my mom and my family and to Emma that there was still good in me. That I really hadn't turned into "Alessandro Jr", as Harris had called me last night. Not yet, at least.

This was our chance to have a peaceful, healthy marriage. And a mutually-beneficial sex life, with safe words and boundaries and shit.

...But how long would that last?

Honestly, it sounded amazing...but I had no doubts I was going to fuck it up. Probably soon, if she didn't beg me to fuck her by the end of the night. Or if she slapped me again.

And I hoped she knew I still wasn't going to let her go, no matter what, healed or not. Old Daniel had let her go once, and she'd hated him for it. He hated himself for it, too.

She said we could try to start over...but I still meant it when I told her there was no way out. For better or for worse.

We just had to move forward. We had to make it work.

And then there was fucking Sebastian.

I wasn't sure where we'd landed on that, but I still didn't like him. I didn't want her to talk to him. I didn't like that he felt the need to shield my own wife from me. No man would go that far to protect a woman unless he was secretly hoping to fuck her someday.

And her proposal about me only controlling her sometimes...? I agreed to it.

But it literally caused me physical pain.

That would definitely have to be something I'd have to work on in therapy. For a long time.

All we'd said and all the tears we'd cried felt so meaningful, like we renewed our vows and today should be our new anniversary henceforth. I meant every word. I confessed my deepest, darkest secrets, so there was nothing between us anymore. Nothing but the raw, ugly, truth.

She said I was a monster. And she was right.

She finally saw me. The real me.

My mom and Rurik had managed to start over. They'd managed to leave their past in the past, and they were happy now. Rurik did anything my mom asked of him, and he did it gratefully.

...But Rurik wasn't a DeSantos.

Trying to make it until Sunday without exploding on her again—or fucking her before she begged me to—was going to be the challenge of a lifetime, and I was pretty sure we both knew that. That was five fucking days away.

I was a ticking time bomb. One who hadn't been laid since the wee hours of Friday morning, before she left me.

The next five days were undoubtedly going to be spent trying my hardest to be better, trying to follow the new arrangement she'd proposed and I'd agreed to. Trying not to tie her up when she fell asleep and doing very, very not-nice New Daniel things to her.

...While also coming up with a surefire way to help these women get the fuck out of here, before the monthly orgy.

Not stressful at all.