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Her breath fans against my mouth, and she comes back to herself, blinking away the haze. “What?”
“You were saying I’m not strong enough to hurt you. I could crush you so easily, but I’m not a man who likes to hurt women. It’s so much more fun when they fight me on an even playing field.”
She blinks again and jerks from my hold. “You’re so weird. My arm is fine, so you should probably get dressed.”
I lick my lips and shake my head, the scent of her body clinging to me. Soap. Just the soft scent of lavender soap wafting off her body. I draw the scent into my lungs and shift up to standing. “Pack your things and get dressed in clothes you don’t mind wearing outside.”
She scrambles off the floor to face me. “I don’t want to go outside.”
“You were ready to race off with Parker, so it shouldn’t be a problem, right?”
A little line grows in the middle of her forehead while she worries her bottom lip between her teeth. Then lets it pop out. “But that was because I thought I’d be trapped here forever if you had run off and died somewhere.”
I shake my head with my hands on my hips. “I’m not arguing about this right now. I need to pack too and get a little sleep before we can leave. I suggest you do the same.”
Heading back to my room to get dressed, I whip off the towel once I clear my door and hear the lock mechanism catch the strike plate. What I don’t expect is her to come barreling in after me, only to skid to a stop on the hardwood when she catches sight of me. “Oh, my god, you’re naked.”
A part of me wants to snatch up the towel and cover myself. That long-buried part of me that had been so recently violated. Another part of me wants her to see it all. The little whisper in the back of my mind that I’ve been studiously ignoring for months. “Yes, you did just shove into my room.”
“I’m…well…you…” She waves at me, rolling her eyes up to the ceiling. “We weren’t done discussing this.”
I grab my underwear off the bed and slip them on. “I was done discussing it, as evident by me leaving your room, coming in mine, and closing the door.”
She clears her throat loudly, twisting her hands into her oversized sweatshirt. “I don’t want to go out there. I’m…” She gulps so loudly that I hear it from a couple of feet away. “I’m scared.”
Shit. Things had been going well with her therapist, so I assumed she’d be ready when the time came to leave this apartment. This is my safe house, the place I always come back to. She can’t stay here forever, and I never planned to let her. “There’s nothing to be afraid of.”
A fine tremor rolls through her, and she looks like she might cry. I step up and cradle her face again, tilting her to look me in the eyes once more. “I will keep you safe. No one will touch you without your permission. If they do, I’ll kill them.”
She sucks in a breath. “You will?”
I nod slowly. “Do you believe me?”
Another thick gulp. “Shouldn’t it scare me when you say that?”
Carefully, I shrug. “Maybe, but if it doesn’t, then don’t worry about it.”
Her eyes go liquid again, a sheen of tears coating them. “But I should be scared. I should be.”
Without another word, she races out of the room, and I hope it’s to pack because, if not, I’m taking her as is, and she’ll have to survive.
It’s time for both of us to disappear.
4
ROSE
He brought me new clothes. It’s the first thought that sits in my head when I snap awake in the morning. The nightmares dragged me under for too long, and blessedly when I woke, I couldn’t remember the shadows clinging to my mind like cobwebs. It’s a small mercy that at least some of what happened to me is a complete blank. I remember way more than I wanted to as it stood.
The clothes hang in the closet—pressed, clean, and ready for someone who isn’t me. I’m not the girl who dresses up anymore, the one who likes to make clothes and dreams of fancy parties. These days, my dreams revolve around soap opera reruns and hoping Parker brought a new paperback from the grocery store with my order. Those clothes—the pressed slacks and the rich silk of the shirts—belong to someone else and not to this version of me.
The alarm on the bedside table blares loudly, and I flip it off. Kai must have snuck into my room and set it after I fell asleep. The asshole. My door had been locked, but of course, he has keys to anything and everything. A liberty he doesn’t extend to me.
Once the ringing in my ears stops, I throw back the covers and stand, glaring at the clothing as I enter the bathroom and angrily brush my teeth. If I don’t get ready, I don’t have any illusions that he will come in here and drag me out as is. I have to leave this house today, so I’ll try to make it on my terms. Or, at the very least, give myself the illusion of choice.
When I finish brushing my teeth, I do the same for my hair, then take the fastest shower I can and hop back out. He’s never walked in on me before, but he’s also never spent the night here before that I know of. I refuse to let him catch me unawares. I quickly braid my hair, slap on some moisturizer, and go back into the bedroom to have a stare-down with the wardrobe.
Wearing these clothes would make me feel like a fraud. I slip into some plain cotton underwear that’s soft, comfortable, and easy. This silk and wool do not scream soft, comfortable, or easy. The black on black will complement my skin tone, but hell, wearing them feels a little too much like giving in to him. Something I’m determined not to do.
