Chapter Three
Lissa
Rather than send me back up to Garret’s guest room, Mrs. Hummel sent me to clean up the church—the off-limits building, the secretive interior that prompted boundless hushed rumors. The trust she and the Laurents showed me by doing so warmed me through.
Code keyed into the lock, I stood on the threshold of a world I’d read about but never once considered for myself, while breathing in the scent of roses and leather. Having endured my share of a***e as a child, I didn’t need a man laying a finger on me, promising pleasure with the pain he wanted to inflict.
Even though heat flushed through me at the memory of Garret’s flirting, his insinuation over wanting to watch me clean on my hands and knees like a servant—and knowing he enjoyed the lifestyle laid out before me—I
