Font Size:  

Chapter Ten

I placed the lid down on the toilet before sitting Sugar down on top of it. She didn’t say anything, her whole body was still shaking and I could tell her mind was somewhere else even as her eyes followed me around the tiny bathroom. After setting the bath to run, I moved back to her, stripping my club cut off and hanging it on the back of the door. My shirt followed, and I tossed it on the floor by the door so it wouldn’t get wet.

I didn’t really know what I was doing.

I had a million questions running through my brain.

What the hell happened?

Should I call Op and let him know?

Did I need back up?

Even as I contemplated all these things, the one thing that stood out above the rest was that I just needed to be there, to comfort her, to help her get through whatever it was that she was struggling with. I’d dealt with my fair share of panic attacks over the years, my mom suffering from them every other day after she was diagnosed with breast cancer.

While whatever it was that Sugar had going on was on the more extreme end of the scale, I knew that busting in and demanding answers wouldn’t make it any better. She needed room to breathe.

“What are you doing?” she asked in a whisper as I reached for the buckle on my belt.

“We’re going to have a bath,” I answered without looking over at her. Instead, I continued to shuck my jeans and kick them over with my T-shirt.

She looked away as I turned around. A blush spread over her cheeks and I smiled, shaking my head. “I’m not trying to get in your pants. We can sit at opposite ends of the bath if you like, but I’m gonna get in with you and clean up those scratches.”

She licked her lips, and wrapped her arms around her body, folding in on herself as she watched me test the water until it was just the right temperature and then turn off the taps.

I held out my hand, and even as she took it she continued to look away. “You’re gonna need to get those clothes off, sweetness.”

I caught a small smile turn up on the corner of her mouth. “Nice to see you’re still at it with the ridiculous nicknames,” she said in a hushed tone.

I pulled her to her feet, moving slowly as I dragged her camisole off over her head. “Don’t you worry, candy cane, I’ll find one that suits you.”

She allowed me to peel off her clothing and underwear, we moved at a snail’s pace but I didn’t mind. This wasn’t sexual, it wasn’t about getting my dick wet or fucking those thoughts out of her head. This was about comfort and intimacy, and sharing your flaws with another person and having them not judge you. I wanted to know what made her tick, I wanted to hear about every single little piece of her including pieces like these—the broken ones. My feelings for her were strong, I needed her to know I saw her for who she was and I was still here for her, no matter how fucking crazy shit would get.

Had seeing her like that scared the fucking shit out of me?

Yes. A million times, yes.

But I instantly wanted to do whatever the hell I could do to take away whatever pain, or anxiety, or panic she was feeling. And if that meant sitting on the floor with her for fucking hours on end, with my mouth shut because she needed to know someone was there, then that’s what I’d do.

I stepped into the tub first. Luckily, it was large enough to accommodate my body as well as hers pretty comfortably. She followed, her body sinking down into the water. With both of us in it, facing each other, the water level was close to spilling over the edge. But I didn’t fucking care.

She was my priority.

I picked up a washcloth from beside the bath and held out my hand. She lifted her leg out of the water, placing her ankle in my palm. I focused to the graze, even after being in the water for just a few minutes, it already looked a lot better. With some of the blood washed away, I could tell it looked sore but was nowhere as bad as I’d first imagined.

“I think I hooked it on one of the nails that’s sticking up out of the steps,” she explained. “I was moving too fast and I tripped.”

I nodded, the injuries making more sense now, with the matching marks on her hand where she would have tried to catch herself. “It’s not too deep,” I told her as I dabbed at it softly, removing the dried blood.

She took the soap from its caddy and begun washing away the smudges of blood on her arms. If I was hurting her, she played it cool pretty well because not once did she flinch.

“I’ll put a bandage on it when we get out.”

She hummed in agreement before tucking her knees in close to her chest and sliding down further into the water, so it sat level with her chin.

We relaxed in silence for a while, my aching ass thankful for the hot water given that I’d just been sitting on the floor for over three hours. How I’d managed to stay there that long I have no fucking idea, it was a miracle really. But I’d been scared that one movement would send her right back to where she started.

“Thank you,” she finally whispered as she sat a little taller. “Thanks for not freaking out and for not touching me.”

Source: www.allfreenovel.com
Articles you may like