It felt like I’d walked a million miles. The screams behind one of the doors haunted every one of my footsteps. The cries for mommy and daddy in that youthful voice killed my insides. She sounded much younger than I was. And remembering Sir’s comment about men who like them young made me want to puke up my meager dinner.

Even though the satin fabric of the dress was smooth, it made my skin itch in a way that couldn’t be soothed with a scratch.

“Okay pet, time to decide what you want. One man or many.”

I didn’t need the reminder that if I wasn’t sold, I would be used by the crew of the ship. Sir had never lied to me and I believed him.

“Don’t smile, but don’t sob. Sobbing will make you seem annoying. Tears are okay as long as you don’t make a sound.”

He shoved me through a door where a bright light shone in my eyes. I lifted a hand to block it as I was pushed forward to stand center stage. The platform was several inches above where men in suits and masks that covered their eyes leered at me. Most were pudgy old guys with balding heads and beady dark eyes.

I jolted when a man’s disembodied voice sounded from hidden speakers.

“Next on the lot we have an American adolescent and a certified virgin. Where should we start the bidding?”

My mom had called me a beautiful young woman. My dad called me his little girl. Now I was reduced to adolescent American virgin. Why hadn’t I just followed the rules and been the good girl I should have been?

The first offer for me was fifty thousand dollars. Was that what my life was worth? I held myself and let my fear shine in the rivers of sorrow that ran down my cheeks.

I wanted to go back to playing with dolls, anything but the reality I’d been dealt.

“Sold,” the voice said proudly through the speakers.

A lean man with striking green eyes and gray sprinkled in his hair grinned at me. Sir was back, pulling me through a door and down a hall I hadn’t been in before.

How big was the ship? I hadn’t seen much from when I woke aboard until now.

“Here you go. Be a good girl and wait here. If you give me any trouble…”

Sir only had to lift a brow to clear my thoughts of trying to escape. I had no idea where I was, except the swaying let me know I was still on water. What if I got away? If there was no land in sight, what was I going to do, make a swim for it? Or maybe just drown…

The thought came too late, as a door opened behind me.

“No touching until payment is verified,” Sir said.

“I need to check for myself that the merchandise is as good as claimed.”

Claimed? The guy had only said one sentence after I’d been hustled onto that platform. Had things been said before I arrived or was there a menu offering?

I almost laughed, deliriously wondering if I’d been considered well done or rare.

Everything became real again when the guy roughly pushed me back to lie on the bed. His hand was up my dress and I thrashed, forgetting the rules.

“Feisty, I like it.”

There wasn’t a barrier to stop his fingers from probing my most private possession.

“Please,” I begged, though it did nothing to stop him.

“Ahh, yes. She’s intact.”

He pulled away and I did what I shouldn’t. I curled tight with my knees to my chest, arms around my legs and my head buried between them.

The man, whose features were still hidden behind a mask only revealing his eye color, said, “I shouldn’t have doubted it. But it’s a lot of money.”

I’d been lost in my head and hadn’t heard the final price he’d paid for me.

He tapped on his phone for several seconds before saying, “You should have it.”

A chime sounded on the tablet Sir held. “We got it. She’s all yours.”

The door closed and I was left with the stranger with hungry eyes.

“I don’t think I can wait.”

He snagged my ankles and with surprising strength pulled me to him. I backpedaled. His hold on me forced me to land on my back, which made the laugh lines on his face disappear with the growth of an evil smile.

“Please,” I repeatedly begged, as I kicked my legs as best I could.

“I like it when you fight.”

A sob ripped from me at the same time he tore the weak fabric of my dress.

“God, you’re worth every penny,” he said, glaring down at every inch of my exposed skin. “I don’t think I want to spoil this pretty pussy I paid a hefty price for here on his cheap bed.”

I felt relief for only a second. He flipped me on my stomach and I knew what was coming. Sir had put penetrating fingers in a place I wouldn’t have expected, warning me of the dangers of disobedience.

There had been no time to prepare for his invasion. A scream that could shatter glass shredded my lungs as he broke something inside me with his stabbing penetration.

In health class, they’d never talked about penetration there. But school seemed like such a distant memory as I continued to scream.

The wrongness of what he was doing seemed somehow worse than what he planned for me later.

I cried like the devil could be forced to show compassion. I cried as my childhood disappeared from my soul. I cried and cried and cried and it changed nothing.

I was nothing…

…until I found a place inside me to hide, leaving my body for the first time.

Finding a place where no one could hurt me again.