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“No problem,” he said, carefully placing her in the shower, just out of reach of the water.
“Thank y--hey!” she may have screeched when he surprised her by snatching her towel away and tossing it over his shoulder.
He ignored her outraged glare and simply pointed towards the water that was even at this distance giving off a delicious warmth. “Get under the water or I'll put you there,” he said evenly and she knew that he'd do just that.
With a small sigh, she gave up and moved beneath the water, making sure to keep her back to the wall. She was too tired to care that she was na**d in front of a man that on a good day made her a little nervous. At the moment the only thing she cared about was getting warm, making sure that he didn’t see her back, and keeping the lights on. Anything else was too much work for her frayed nerves.
“I'm going downstairs to check on my sister. Do you think you'll be okay for a moment?” Christofer asked, reaching over and pushing her now soaked hair out of her face.
“I-I'm f-f-fine,” she stammered through her chattering teeth. “Y-you don't n-need to c-come back.”
Of course he ignored her. “I'll be back in a few minutes, Cloe,” he said firmly as he walked out of the bathroom, leaving her alone.
As the hot water streamed down her body, delivering much needed warmth, she fought against the urge to close her eyes and simply savor it. Although she doubted he would get a chance to come back before she was out of the shower, she didn't want to take the chance of him coming back and getting a glimpse of her back.
He would either react with pity or disgust and right now she didn't have the energy to deal with either. She didn't know which reaction she hated more, but she knew that she didn't want to see either expression on his face. She wasn't sure why it mattered what Christofer thought since it was more than obvious that he didn't want her here, but it did.
The boyfriends she'd had over the years, granted there hadn't been many, either tried to play it off like it was no big deal or flat out lied, but she never missed the looks of pity or revulsion on their faces whenever they saw her back. While most women would probably hide their scarred backs, she didn't. She didn't exactly flaunt it or make a big deal out of it, but she did use it to see just what kind of man she was dealing with.
There were a few guys that took one look at her back and walked away and although their reaction disappointed her, it never really bothered her. If they couldn't deal with the scars covering her back, making her less than perfect, then that was more than fine with her. She wasn't looking for “Mr. Right” anyway. She just wanted someone that she could spend a little time with every now and then to forget her troubles. The guys that managed to pretend that her back didn't bother them had provided her with the only thing she allowed herself, casual companionship.
That is until she’d met Aidan. In the beginning he'd been great, fun, kind and unbelievably great in bed. He hadn't seemed to mind her scars. In fact, they’d actually seemed to turn him on. At first she’d thought it was sweet, but soon after they began sleeping together it started to creep her out just a little bit. When she tried to pull away and end things he became possessive and she hated to admit this, but he actually started to scare her a little bit.
Not too long after she’d ended things with him the late night phone calls began. When she spotted him when she left the house she was a little weirded out, but didn't think much of it. It wasn't until she’d noticed that she couldn't even go out to grab the mail without seeing him that she realized that she had a little problem on her hands and decided to cut her losses and get out of Florida.
It had been past time to go anyway. She never stayed anywhere for very long and she’d already stayed in Florida a year longer than planned. So she’d contacted the agency that she worked for and looked into what they had available before she’d decided to give New England a try.
Now she was living in a house with a man, who admittedly pissed her off a lot and amused her, but one that for some strange reason actually mattered. He could be a real jerk sometimes, well most of the time, but the thought of him looking at her with revulsion had her stomach churning. She didn't know why it mattered. It really shouldn't, but it did.
If she were going to be honest with herself then she'd admit that she liked the way he looked at her when he didn't think anyone was watching, but she always knew. It didn't matter what she was doing, the moment his eyes landed on her she sensed it.
The way he watched her made her feel desirable and beautiful. She knew that she was being ridiculous and that nothing would ever happen between them. His sister was her employer and that made him a complication. Not to mention Aidan. After dealing with him, she needed a break from men, but that didn't mean that she wanted him to suddenly look at her with anything close to pity or disgust.
Still shivering, she shut the water off and stepped out of the bathtub. Why couldn't she get warm? She reached for one of the folded towels she kept stacked on the corner of the sink counter and ended up knocking the small pile onto the floor with a trembling hand.
With an annoyed sigh, she knelt on the floor to pick the towels up. Her hands only trembled more violently when she tried to grab them. She needed to get it together and stop freaking out. Nothing happened. She was fine. It had been a horrible experience, but she'd had worse, much worse.
A towel was suddenly draped over her shoulders, startling her and she reacted. She swung back, barely registering the grunt of pain as she pulled her fist back to do it again. She kept on swinging until she found herself pinned against the tiled wall, panting hard as her body shivered violently.
“Calm down!” Christofer snapped and it was then that she realized that she was still fighting him. “It's okay, Cloe. Shhhh, it's okay,” he said soothingly as he released his hold on her arms to gently cup her face in his hands. “Are you okay?” he asked softly.
She almost snorted at that. Right now she was so far from okay that it wasn't even funny. He'd surprised her, scared her and any other day she probably would have been able to laugh it off, but not today. Not when old memories were threatening to take over and suffocate her.
“Don't sneak up on me!” she snapped, shoving him back, surprised when he complied.
He held his hands up as he took a step back. “I didn't mean to scare you,” he said softly. She noted the red marks on his face and the blood dripping from a small cut on his lip, but if he noticed it didn't show. As badly as she felt about hurting him, she wouldn't apologize. He'd scared the hell out of her by sneaking up behind her and she'd reacted like any other woman would when a man who had no business being in her bathroom startled her.
