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Preview from chapter one
Chapter 1 — The Arrival
The road to Cedar Hollow Farm narrowed the last half hour, blacktop giving way to gravel, then gravel to a rutted dirt lane lined with cedar trees so tall they swallowed the afternoon light. Tessa kept her hands folded in her lap to keep them from shaking, and when the trees broke open onto pasture, her breath caught — a long white fence, a red barn gone grey at the edges with age, a farmhouse with a deep porch, and beyond it all, nothing. Woods. Miles of woods. No neighbors. No witnesses. Just the farm and the sky.
She'd been thinking about this place for four months. Every night in her little apartment, reading the messages, watching the videos the women had sent her — soft, smiling women who said I begged to come here — she'd felt something wake up inside her she'd never known had a name. Something that ached low and warm when she touched herself and thought about being filled.
The car rolled to a stop in front of the farmhouse, and the driver's door of the porch opened, and he stepped out.
She knew him from the photos, but the photos were a lie — they'd flattened him, shrunk him. Damion was six-three and broad through the shoulders, dark hair gone silver at the temples, grey eyes that landed on her through the windshield like a weight. He didn't hurry. He walked down the porch steps and across the gravel with his hands loose at his sides, and Tessa's fingers dug into her own thighs.
"Miss Tessa." His voice was low, calm, and it moved through her like a hand. "You made it."
She got out of the car too fast and nearly stumbled on the gravel. "I — yes. Yes, sir. I mean —" She didn't know what to call him yet. The women called him Sir, some of them Daddy. "Thank you for — for having me."
He looked her over slowly, head to toe, and she felt the look like warmth on her skin. "Petite thing," he said. "That's fine. We'll take good care of you." He reached past her into the car and took her suitcase as though it weighed nothing. "Elena's inside. She's been waiting to meet you."
Tessa followed him up the porch steps, her heart hammering so hard she was sure he could hear it.