Page 23 of Final Vendetta

“I’m sorry.” She apologized sheepishly.

I touched her chin, forcing her gaze back to mine. “You have nothing to apologize for.”

“I just hate feeling like a burden.”

“You could never be a burden,” I assured her, pressing a tender kiss to her mouth. “Plus, a beautiful woman is asking me to take a bath with her? I’d be a fool to say no.”

She pinched her lips together, her playful side returning. “I don’t recall asking you to join me. Just for some help washing my hair. You don’t need to be in the tub to do that.”

“Is that what you want? To bathe alone?”

“Since you’re offering, I’d be remiss to pass up the opportunity.” She hoisted herself onto her toes, her lips brushing against mine.

It was an innocent gesture, but between the heat of her breath and her sultry tone, my cock was throbbing in my jeans.

It didn’t help that it had been weeks since I’d allowed myself to feel any sort of pleasure, even at my own hands. I wasn’t sure how I was going to handle being in the tub with Imogene, feeling her naked skin against mine, without wanting to sink inside of her.

But as I removed her sling and carefully helped to lift her t-shirt over her head, all desire immediately vanished as my eyes fell on her bruised and scarred stomach.

Not because I found her hideous. That wasn’t the case at all.

This was the first time I’d seen the consequences of the car accident that nearly took her life.

The car accident I had a hand in, despite everyone’s insistence to the contrary.

DespiteImogene’sinsistence to the contrary.

Now that I was seeing the patchwork of bruises still prominent against her pale flesh, even two weeks later, it took everything I had not to break down.

She clutched my cheeks, forcing my gaze toward hers. “It is not your fault,” she declared for what felt like the thousandth time since she woke up. “Say it.”

“What?”

“Say it, Gideon. Say ‘it’s not my fault.’”

I parted my lips and shook my head. “I can’t. I?—”

“For me. Say it for me,” she pleaded, her grip on my face tightening ever so slightly. “Because I can’t stand the idea that you’re going to keep burdening yourself with this.”

I attempted to protest again, but she cut me off.

“Please. For me.”

Her eyes practically begged for me to give her this. I didn’t want to. Didn’t want to do anything that would make her think I didn’t hold myself responsible. But it was impossible to deny her when she looked at me like this.

“It’s not my fault,” I finally conceded, each word a fight.

“There.” She beamed, her smile nearly stealing my breath. “That wasn’t so hard, was it?”

“If I’m being honest, it was.”

“Then I’ll make you say that every day until you finally believe it.” She left a soft kiss on my cheek before heading toward the tub, turning on the water and adjusting the temperature until it was just right.

All I could do was marvel at how resilient she was. It shouldn’t have surprised me. It was one of the things that attracted me to her in the beginning. And it made me fall even more in love with her now.

After helping her out of her sweatpants, doing my best to keep my reaction to the rest of her bruises to myself, I held her steady as she climbed into the tub. Then I quickly discarded my clothes before sliding in behind her.

Reaching for the handheld shower nozzle, I turned it on and tested the temperature before running it over Imogene’s hair.

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