“I was taken to the hill of perdition, my arms roped between two trees and my tunic ripped down the center. My father took a lash and awarded me with thirty-nine stripes, just like Jesus Christ.”

“I am… I am so sorry,” I whispered, my terror creeping into my voice.

Micah paused in his self-gratification. A bead of salty sweat dropped on my cheek. “Sorry? I do not want nor do I need your apology, whore. With every whip of that lash, I rid my enchanted mind of your spell. With every burst of pain, I promised the Lord I would never fall again. I committed every strike to memory and promised myself if the Lord should see fit to put me in your depraved path again, I would become a solider of Christ and fight Satan for your soul.”

A scream tore from my chest as Brother Micah’s hand began lifting up my long dress. His fingers did not stop crawling up my thigh until they hooked around my undergarments and pulled them down my legs, discarding them on the floor.

“Stand,” Micah ordered.

I did as requested. I was no stranger to this situation. In fact, it could have been Brother Noah above me; I had lived this moment a thousand times over.

Standing on unsure feet, I bowed my head in obedience.

“Remove the dress.”

Trembling, I lifted my arms and pulled down the zipper, my gray dress falling to a heap on the floor.

I was bare.

I was naked.

I was back.

After a rustle of the sheets, Micah stood in front of me, ducking his head so he could look into my eyes.

“Look at me, Delilah,” he said, and as natural as breathing, I did as commanded.

Micah ran his hand through my hair, then spoke the words that were all too familiar to me. “I am to take you, Delilah. Purify you. And you must not fight it. For fighting will only delay your salvation. You want to be set free, do you not? You want to be with the Lord when the Day of Judgment comes?”

Flashbacks of being a child and hearing those exact words slip from Brother Noah’s lips invaded my conscious mind, rendering me immobile.

I had become that eight-year-old girl again. I was that lonely lost soul again.

Nodding, I found myself saying, “Yes, sir, it is my utmost dream.” It was rote.

“Then do not fight,” Brother Micah ordered. “For I have the power to save you. I am blessed by the Lord to bring you into his embrace.”

Brother Micah moved to the side and gestured to the bed. I walked forward three steps, kneeled down, pressed my forehead to the mattress, and clasped my hands behind my back.

As the mattress dipped. Brother Micah braced at my entrance and began pushing his length inside. I closed my eyes and pictured the only man I loved. The man I loved that would never take me like this. He condemned those that would… The man that made love to me…

“Baby, listen to me and listen good.”

Ky’s eyes softened and he tucked my hair behind my ear with his finger, his blond beard tickling the skin on my chest. “I ain’t like them. Yeah, I’m a whore. That ain’t no shock. And I’ve fucked around with a long fuckin’ line of sluts. But I ain’t ever done one thing. I’ve never given two shits about a bitch like I do you. I ain’t ever held out for one piece’a pussy like I’ve held out for yours. I’d kill for you. Anyone even comes close to trying to take you away from me and I’ll slit their motherfuckin’ throat. You belong to me, you’re mine, and right now, in this bed, I’m gonna do something else for the very first time. We both are…”

I held my breath, too afraid that if I exhaled I would ruin the moment.

“I’m gonna make love to you, Lilah. I’m gonna take you as mine, bind you to me, ‘cause there ain’t no one out there, no one else meant for me in this world but you.”

“Ky…” I hushed out and this time embraced the tears as they tumbled down my cheeks. They were the proof Ky should receive that I wanted everything with him too.

Ky sighed and kissed a salty droplet away from each cheek. Pressing his forehead against mine, he inhaled a ragged breath and murmured, “I fuckin’ love you, Lilah. This, us, babe, it’s more than just fucking. You get that, yeah?”

Any inhibitions I had fled at that moment and, clutching my hands onto his face, I crushed my lips to his and confessed, “I love you too, so very much… You make me feel safe… I am unafraid when I am with you. You do not know how special that is to me.”

A blinding smile pulled on his beautiful face…

I held on to the image of that face.

Kyler Willis, my beautiful true love…