Casey's Secrets (Full Trilogy) by Ophelia Bell

grimacing.
    “I’m not,” he said. “Battle scars are my favorite. Don’t tell me you don’t have a mark or two from today. Would you have done things any different to avoid them?”
    I thought about the pleasant tingling of my bottom as well as the slight raw spot on the inside of my wrist where I’d forced the ropes to rub me a little to much. “Not at all,” I said. I turned to look at the camera, resting half out of its case on the counter.
    “Can I keep the memory card?” I asked.
    Max took a long swig of his beer, his Adam’s apple bobbing in his throat as he swallowed. He always liked to stall an answer when I asked for something, but I could tell from the lines between his eyebrows that he’d heard me and was considering the question. I’d never been one to beg, though. The first time I tried it, I got my ass smacked by him and told that under no circumstance should I debase myself for anything . “It makes you look cheap, baby. You’re too good for begging.” I’d had to go look up the word “debase” just so I knew what he meant.
    “It’s yours,” he said when he set down his bottle.
    I frowned at the return of the sadness in his eyes, but this time he didn’t have the desperate edge he’d had the night before when I’d found him in my room. Now he only looked wistful, and it made my heart ache to see.
    “Daddy …” I said, overcome with the need to comfort him and momentarily forgetting his insistence that I not call him that anymore. I moved off Rick’s lap to move to Max. He let me come and exhaled harshly when I wrapped him in my arms. “I don’t want you to go.”
    “No other option,” he said. “It’s been a long time coming. I suppose it figures that you and I would have found out … how much we have in common now.”
    I sank against him with a nod and a sigh, enjoying his strong arm around me. Rick stood and opened more beers, handing me a fresh one, which I sipped slowly while the pair of them talked in subdued tones, focusing on the past they’d shared that I had never heard about before. They pointedly avoided talk of the present, or the future, even though during the conversation whenever the name “Aurora” came up, Rick would look at me with what I could only describe as appreciation. It occurred to me how rarely they might have been able to even talk about those days. Their old secret that neither of their wives had ever known about. But now I was a part of their inner circle. I simply drank and listened, happy to be learning more about Max and the things that made him who he was.
    My exhaustion hadn’t even registered until I found myself being carried up the stairs, half asleep. I protested when Max made to leave me alone in my bed, grabbing onto his hand before he left again.
    “Stay, please,” I said.
    “You’re exhausted, Casey. Learn to pace yourself. We’ll have other days, I promise.”
    He turned off the light and left the door open a crack when he walked out. I wanted desperately to follow him, but my body failed to respond.

Casey’s Discovery: Chapter 10
    I could swear I only blinked, but the next time I opened my eyes, the light had changed. The hallway was dark, the house silent and the street outside still. It was still enough to hear the sounds from the master bedroom. Sounds that I’d heard before, but that made a cold weight settle in my belly.
    I slid out of bed and padded across the hall. The sounds were louder as I approached, soft, feminine sighs followed by gruff, masculine moans. I thought I might throw up before I even reached the door to my parents’ room. I hated myself for looking now, after all the times I’d heard them together and been fascinated by their noises, wondering what exactly they were doing. Now, I just felt sick because even though I’d heard them before together, I had never actually cared so much about it.
    The door was slightly cracked and I peeked in. Immediately I wished I hadn’t. There were candles