She pulled him into her arms so that she could comfort him. “What happened?”

He actually trembled from the pain of his memories as he laid his head on her shoulder and held her close. “I told Nylan I was willing to be… mentored by him any way he wanted if he would assume my guardianship. He said that he didn’t buy things sight unseen. So he made me take all my clothes off in front of him.”

“Oh baby…”

“Yeah…” Darling’s voice was barely more than a whisper. “He walked around me, looking me up and down, like a piece of meat in the market. I wasn’t allowed to cover myself while he inspected me from head to toe. I felt so humiliated that I thought I was going to vomit right there. He moved to stand behind me so that he could fondle me, and he told me to moan out loud like a whore for him. To tell him how much I craved him and to beg him to touch me even though all I wanted to do was run.”

She tightened her arms around Darling’s waist, wishing she could burn that memory out of him forever. No wonder he seldom made a single sound whenever they had sex. It probably reminded him of that day. “You don’t have to say anything else, baby.”

He nuzzled his cheek against hers. “There’s not much more to tell. I had no idea the sick bastard was recording the whole thing. When I failed to get hard for him, he told me that he’d have to think it over and get back to me. He watched me dress and I left. By the time I got home—after I’d thrown up a couple of times—he’d sent pictures of us to Arturo, telling him I was the best and tightest piece of ass he’d ever had. And that while it was tempting to assume my guardianship, I needed someone with a firmer hand to control me.”

She could only imagine how that went over. “Why would he do such a thing?”

“To get back at me for all the times I’d turned him down over the years. He wanted me humiliated… and he succeeded.”

Never in her life had she wanted to kill anyone more than she did Nylan. Damn him for his cruelty.

Darling winced. “Arturo met me at the door, and then put me through it. Hoping he’d finally kill me, I spat the blood out of my mouth and laughed at him. I told him he hit like a girl. And that I’d whore myself to any man who’d get him out of my life. As bad as I’d been beaten before then, it was nothing like that night. I didn’t think he’d ever stop. At some point, I passed out. When I came to, I was in a mental institution.”

“Maris said it was done to cure your homosexuality.”

He laughed bitterly. “That’s what my file says, and it’s what I let other people think. But it was done to teach me a lesson about trying to find another guardian. Not that I needed it. Believe me. After what Nylan did to me, I wasn’t about to try again. Besides, I knew no one would ever help me. No one cared. I’d been stupid for even trying. I was just so desperate that I was willing to do anything. And those pictures were posted everywhere, by both Arturo and Nylan. They haunted me for years. Every time I thought I could put it behind me, someone would slap me in the face with them. Every member of the Caronese aristocracy has seen them and they’ve all had something horrendous to say to me over it.”