A Secret in Her Father's House, A Pregnancy Neither Can Hide novel · Chapter 5 of 24

Chapter 5: Dock Line

On Wednesday evening Alana found a coil of white dock line on the kitchen table.

It was soft, braided, new, and about six feet long.

Henrik was not in the room.

She stood and looked at it for a long time.

She had not asked for it.

She had thought about it, though, every night since the boat.

She had lain awake on her back with her hands above her head.

She had pressed her own wrists into the pillow and felt ashamed and wet at once.

He came in from the porch and saw her looking.

"I bought it this morning," he said. "At the marine store."

"Why?"

"Because you went still when I held your wrist. The first night. At the stove." He leaned in the doorway. "You liked it more than you liked anything else I did."

She felt her face go hot.

"I never said that."

"You didn't have to." He did not move toward her. "It's your call. I'll put it back in the drawer and we never mention it."

That was the fourth time he had offered her a way out.

She noticed that.

She noticed, too, that she wanted to make him say what he wanted.

"Tell me what you want to do with it," she said.

"No."

"No?"

"You tell me." His voice was even. "You pick it up, and you tell me what it's for."

Her mouth went dry.

She picked up the rope.

It was heavier than it looked.

It slid through her fingers, and she held it out to him across the table.

"Tie my wrists," Alana said. "Please. To the bed."

"Say why."

"Because I'm tired of being the one who decides everything."

"That's why you think you want it." He did not take the rope. "Try again."

She stared at him.

"Because I want to be yours for one hour," she said, and her voice shook. "Because I can't stop planning, and when you hold me down I can."

He took the rope from her hand.

"Go upstairs," he said. "Take everything off. Lie on the bed."

She went up with her legs unsteady.

She took off her dress and her bra and her underwear and folded them on the chair.

She lay back in the middle of the guest bed with her hands over her head, and the air touched every inch of her.

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