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Chapter 8
CHARITY
I was still inside this strange room. It was beautiful, that was for sure, but unlike any bedroom I’d ever seen before.
Knock, knock, knock.
“Come in,” I called out before really thinking about who I was inviting into my room.
The door opened and the man of my dreams, quite literally, walked in.
“Good morning.”
I smiled at Anthony, trying to control my body’s response to his presence, and failing.
My cheeks burned with the shame of it.
“Hi.”
He smiled at me. “Mom asked me to invite you downstairs for breakfast. Are you feeling well enough?”
I checked my body. “I need to go to the bathroom first, but yes. Breakfast would be lovely.”
Anthony indicated a door behind him. “There’s an attached bathroom here, with a large tub and shower. Please, take your time and I’ll wait out in the hall.”
“Thank you.”
He turned and headed for the door. My gaze swung down to his ass and the way his slacks clung to him.
Wow.
As soon as the door was shut I got up and carefully made my way to the bathroom. I was still sore, but I felt a lot more energetic than I had last night, and less like I was about to topple over.
I stared at my reflection in the mirror, a stranger staring back. “Holy shit. What the hell happened?”
I was pale and wan. I had bruising around my right eye and dried blood in my hair. I looked like I’d been pulled through a hedge backwards... and then thrown in front of a truck.
“How am I even alive?”
The answer was clear. Someone had saved me from a fate worse than death, or perhaps death had been Barry’s intention. I didn’t know... I didn’t remember all the details.
I glanced longingly at the shower. I had to wash the blood out of my hair. I couldn’t go to breakfast, potentially with members of some strange royal family, with blood clinging to my scalp.
I unlaced the bodice on the dress and dropped the heavy garment to the floor.
“Whoa. It must be cold here if that’s what they wear every day.”
Had Anthony really carried me to some other town? How had he done that? A brief image of being up high, of air rushing past my face, intruded, but I tamped it down.No. Don’t go there. Don’t think about anything except what’s in front of me right now.
I shook my head to clear any lingering worries as I gingerly walked into the massive tiled shower and turned on the faucet.
One thing at a time.
The water quickly turned hot and I turned around and let the stream flow over my head and down my body.
