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His lips curve into a sirl”

He pulls back his arm, his hand flattened I liftthinking, seeing, breathing as I wait, poised for that rush

“But first, say you’re mine”

I open ripping my hair has loosened to a caress Those silver and violet eyes are filled not with ruthlessness, but yearning

“Dree, say you’re mine”

My throat constricts I can’t I can’t

“Rush,” I whisper, shakingin my head No, no, no, no—

The loose end of the rope is hanging down He tugs it, and I go tu to the floor Naked at his feet Filled with terror

No release

Only fear

He scoops me up in his arirl That you’re mine Only mine Forever mine”

I’ all over He can’t do this to me Not when I’m at my weakest and my nerves are raw and laid bare because of him

It’s way past my limits

I need to pull back before I fall into so I don’t know if I’ll be able to claay out again I scrabble in my brain for the way to make him stop, but I can’t remember how

My chest lifts and falls in panic asinto the carpet at his feet

What’s my safeword?

What the hell is my safeword?

1

Dree

Eleven months earlier

Two hundred and eighty characters is a devastating weight to bear

I can feel each and every one as slabs of lead onthe life out of ain Maybe not even in this country

Maybe ever

I watch the tweets and retweets multiply in real time on my phone The replies that call ain The nicer tweets clai and I couldn’t handle the pressure of working with a high-profile band like Palatine That being surrounded by drugs and glamor went to my twenty-year-old head

Maybe they’re right I didn’t knohat I was doing

I probably never did

I sink back against the pillows onwar warmer off My ballet pink practice pumps lie discarded on the floor Just yesterday, Striker Jones, lead singer of Palatine, threw theht

A tweet froazine, Stouts Choreographer Dree North has been fired from a Palatine music video after accusations of violence toward frontuse, says the band’s er