But it wasn’t just me. I can’t take all the blame. Scott had his problems when it came to sex.

He’d often get rough without asking me first. We’d be making love – if I can call it that – with him on top. And then he’d suddenly grab me and flip me over, almost forcing me to my hands and knees. I’d go along with it, hoping it would be over soon. One time, after he’d put me in his preferred position, he began to spank me.

It was light at first, little playful taps. I wasn’t into that sort of thing. But fine, I thought, if it helped him finish sooner… But then the spanks got harder, rougher, until he was basically punching my ass over and over. Pain bit into my back, up my spine, as some of his strikes missed. At least, I hoped he was doing it by mistake.

I moved away, crawling across the bed. “That’s enough. I don’t like it like that. You know I don’t.”

He stood at the end of the bed, his fists clenched, his cock still hard. My body froze when I saw the end of his dick was flecked in blood. I looked down, at the sheets, and saw ugly petals of it speckled all over the place. “How long have I been bleeding?”

Scott laughed in the nastiest way. “Fuck me, Nat. It’s all about you. That was just getting good.”

“Scott, I’m bleeding!”

He groaned. “You already said that. Right, what are we doing?”

“Maybe you could apologise.”

“Are we finishing this or what? You’re being so selfish right now.”

“And you’re being a pig.”

“Fine, fuck off then.” He walked over to the desk, grabbing the laptop and carrying it to the bed.

“What are you doing?”

“What does it look like? I’m not letting you spoil this. It’s not like it makes much difference anyway. We only have sex once a year, if that.”

“Scott.” Despite how often he became like this, I began to cry. “That isn’t true.”

“Whatever.”

He quickly typed on the laptop, bringing up a porn site. A second later, the most sickening video appeared on the screen. A girl who looked like a teenager was bent over in the middle of a dungeon, with countless men surrounding her, all of them exposed, all of them hard, as the girl moaned in what – to me – sounded like a completely fake way. Scott pumped his hand up and down his length, ignoring me, not even caring that I was watching the grotesque show.

I grabbed the blanket and wrapped it around myself, walking into the hallway, as the poor girl whined and screamed from the next room.

16

SCOTT

Scott looked forward to taking a dump these days. It almost made him laugh, as he sat there with his jeans around his ankles, staring at the bathroom door. Whenever he was home, it was only a matter of time before Casey decided to turn her attention to him. It had been three days since the conversation with the estate agent.