Beautiful Beast - Page 111

I don’t know how Ariel will feel about the situation, and I don’t have the mental energy to have a spirited argument with her. She’ll have an opinion, that’s for sure, and she’s even more relentless than me.

Adam and Ariel both want the best for me, but neither one of them wants to give me the autonomy to make my own decisions.

Besides, this time, it was my fault for not following the safety precautions Adam set out. Last time, it was no one’s fault.

I’m going to give her an excuse so wild that she’ll have no choice other than to believe me because all I want to do is move forward and just focus on my sweet Buster boy.

“What the hell happened to your face?”

I expected the question, but it still makes every muscle in my body clench.

Ariel rushes into my apartment in a flurry of activity, dropping down to her knees to hug Buster who came to greet her at the door.

I’ll need extra help at the vet’s office because Buster is very difficult to control in clinical settings. He’s an angel everywhere else, but he recognizes the smells and sounds of a medical facility and freaks out.

If I’d gotten burned the way he did, I’d be the same way.

“I fell off a sex swing last night,” I lie. “Adam was going to lift me out, but I decided to try it myself and, well, you can see how that went.”

“Oh. My. God,” Ariel exclaims, looking up from burying her face in Buster’s neck. “That is epic! Adam has a sex swing? What else does he have in that secret penthouse?”

“A whole sex room. A dungeon even.”

“Really?” Ariel squeals.

I roll my eyes. “No. Not really.”

Ariel frowns. “I don’t think Adam would let you fall off a sex swing.”

She’s right. When Adam is awake and in control of himself, he’d never hurt me. But when he’s asleep, it’s an entirely different matter.

“Did he…” Ariel stands up, one hand continuing to pet Buster and the other reaching out to gently touch the bruises on my face. “Did Adam… hit you?”

“It’s not what you think,” I whisper.

Despite not wanting to have this conversation, Ariel will never give up until she knows every last detail. I don’t know why I ever thought that I could trick her.

“So, he did hit you.”

“Yes, but…”

“Belle!” she screams. “There isnobut! We need to call the police.”

It only takes twenty minutes to walk to the vet, so we have time to quickly discuss what happened. I lead Ariel over to the couch, sitting down with my legs tucked underneath me.

“I’m not calling the police,” I reply fiercely. “He didn’t mean to hurt me.”

She starts to protest, but I set my finger on her lips.

“He did it while he was sleeping,” I continue. “He has… episodes. But he would never intentionally hurt me.”

“Jesus,” Ariel returns. “What are you going to do?”

“He needs to get help for his PTSD,” I reply. “And until then, I just need to be really careful. It was my fault anyway. It happened once before, he made me promise to sleep in another room, and I snuck into his bedroom anyway. I just couldn’t resist being close to him, and I figured that if he didn’t know I was there, nothing bad would happen.”

“It happened before?” Ariel demands. “You need to tell me this stuff!”

“I just… It’s personal to Adam. I don’t think that I should be advertising his PTSD to everyone.”