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My hands slide back up along her waist, knocking more dried mud to the ground as I go. Her clothes had hidden away so very little of her. I grasp her firmly by the ribs and turn her slowly until her feet sink into the warm, soapy water. She doesn’t say anything as I help her lower into the water so that no weight has to go onto her injured ankle. The tension seems to melt right out of her as the heat soothes her muscles. She looks up at me standing over her silently as I start to scoop water up and over her skin. Mud and grass slide freely into the water. I wait for the questions to start. I wait for her to ask what her punishment will be or what might be coming for her next, but she never speaks. Maybe she’s decided to accept her fate after all. I don’t think I would mind that. If only it didn’t make my job so much harder.
Once she’s clean, I drain the water and pull the shower head attachment down to run the water over her skin. Every part of her smells like lilac and orchids now. It takes just about every ounce of my self-restraint to keep from climbing right into the tub with her. I force myself to go and fetch one of the towels so that I don’t succumb to my desires. While it would be nice, it would hardly reinforce the punishment that will be coming for her soon. No rewards until she’s earned them.
Now that she’s clean, I help her from the tub and let her sit on the edge of the bath again. I cross over to the counter and place my hand onto a biosensor on the counter beside the sink, and a panel opens to reveal a small number of first aid supplies.
Behind me, Helena hisses bitterly, and I can’t help but smirk. Of course, she didn’t find anything in here. It isn’t coded for her use.
“When you’ve earned it, if you get to live that long, you will be able to access some of these as well,” I tease. I pick a couple of items from the cabinet, and it slides closed behind me. I sink to one knee in front of her and pat my knee for her ankle. It only takes one stern look for her to comply.
“Good girl,” I chuckle and take a couple of the alcohol wipes and open them with my teeth. I clean the skin of her leg carefully, but when I reach the swollen part of her ankle she hisses in pain. “I know it hurts, but you have to be still for just a moment.”
This isn’t the sort of pain I want her in.
I press and prod against the swollen skin to ensure that nothing feels broken.
“You can wiggle your toes? Can you rotate it, even if it hurts?” I keep my gaze trained on her foot as she experimentally tests out the motions. Good. That means that I don’t need to summon a doctor. That would have complicated things way more than I’m comfortable with. I uncap a small tub of pain-relieving ointment and glance up to the security camera mounted in the corner of the bathroom.
“Ice please, boys,” I request. A small chime in the distance marks that the twins are watching carefully now. I hadn’t thought that they needed to be keyed into these cameras. That’s a mistake that I will not be making again. I slowly start to massage the cream into the soft skin of her ankle.
“Why bother?” She asks finally in a small voice.
I don’t have a good answer for that yet, so I don’t answer right away. My finger brushes a painful spot already starting to turn purple near the heel of her foot and she hisses, attempting to jerk her foot away from me.
I grasp her calf firmly and put it right back where I had it. I shoot her a cross look of warning. She won’t move again if she knows what’s good for her.
“Why bother even attempting to make it feel better?! I’m just going to try to escape again!” Helena nearly shouts, but something in her voice breaks.
I can keep telling myself that I need her alive. I can keep lying to myself and saying it is because I want to prolong her suffering or that I might be able to somehow use her as a bargaining chip against Nikolai… but I know that it’s more than that. I’m just not ready to tell her.
I need more information from her. That part is true enough. There’s a large piece of the puzzle still missing when it comes to her. I’ve only just learned that she has a brother, that he’salive. Leverage is everything in the world we live in.
It’s also pointless to deny the fact that there’s something about her that draws me in. I can accept the fact that Helena isn’t someone I can keep, but I still want more of her to myself.
I can’t just kill her.
My thumb brushes over the back of her calf as I fight to keep my face expressionless and my attention on her ankle. I already want her again. I don’t know if I’m ever going to stop wanting her, which puts me in a very difficult situation.
I wrap the bandage around her ankle a little too firmly.
When I finish and rise to stand, she doesn’t look up at me right away.
“It sucks, doesn’t it?” Helena’s stormy eyes roll up to mine slowly, and I can’t quite read the emotion on her face. “When you want something you’re not allowed to have.”
I can tell she’s talking about so much more than sex, but before I can question her further, she lifts her hand to ask for help standing up from the tub. I take her hand without thinking. Once she’s on her feet, she presses her fingers between mine. I think it’s to stop her from falling, nothing more, but it feels more intimate than that.
“Well… thanks anyway,” Helena whispers, and I know that she means it.
There’s more to her than just an icy murderess with a heart of stone, and I’m almost afraid that we won’t have enough time together to learn the real her.
The realization that I actually care enough about her towantto know scares me more than I thought it would.
With my arm firmly around Helena’s waist to assist her, we walk silently to the bedroom. A knock on the door precedes my man entering and bringing me a towel wrapped around some ice. He leaves quickly and I set it on the bed. If she wasn’t so clearly exhausted, I might have handled the rest of it sooner.
When she’s propped up on the bed, the ice carefully lain on her ankle, it’s the only time I allow myself to look her in the eye.
“I will be back in the morning.”
“I’ll… be here waiting,” she whispers so softly I almost don’t hear it on my way out of the room.
