Inside, I carry her straight into the bathroom. Her clothes are tattered and dirty, and her hair is matted from sleeping for nearly twenty-four hours straight.

She doesn’t fight me when I sit her on the counter, crossing to the large copper clawfoot tub in the corner.

The cottage isn’t much, but it has everything we need to survive. Heat, four walls, and modern plumbing. There’s hardly any cell phone reception out here, and the only way to access the island is the service road, which, consequently, I would see before anyone ever made it across.

Not to mention the thick gate blocking out the outside world.

We’re well and truly alone, and I can’t say my cock doesn’t harden at the knowledge that I get her all to myself for now.

I cut the water on, washing out the tub from years of dust and not being used. I should have had the cottage ready, but there was no guarantee I would find her when I did.

“What are you doing?”

“Youare going to take a bath, and then you’re going to eat like a normal fucking human being.”

She glares at me, her cheeks red from the wind whipping at the cliff and the tears still on her face. I have half a mind to spank her ass for daring to go near it but concede to give her this one strike simply because she didn’t know.

I stop up the tub and throw some soap under the water because we don’t have bubbles on this island before returning to her.

“Take off your shirt.”

“Excuse me?”

I fix her with a bored stare.

“Clothes off. Leave them in the sink. They’re caked in mud.”

She makes no move to remove anything and, instead, swallows over the lump in her throat.

“Mila, I need to check your ankle and the cut on your hip where you fell. That means either you remove your clothes, or I will.”

“I’m fine,” she argues, gripping the counter on either side of her.

I cock my head, stepping up in front of her. She quickly glances at the door before her tongue darts out to lick her lips, and she looks back at me. Like a rabbit caught in a trap while a wolf approaches, she searches for an escape, but as I told her on the cliff, there isn’t one.

I reach for the hem of her shirt, and she jerks away from me.

“I can do it,” she growls, pushing me away.

“Then do it.”

Her cheeks flame, burning hot, while the water warms the small bathroom. It’s not the cleanest because I haven’t had time to clean it yet, but it’s better than the mud coating the entire left side of her body.

When I brought her here, I only had time to change the sheets and split some firewood before she woke. I didn’t want her waking up to an empty cottage alone and confused. Tomorrow, I’ll fix the hole in the roof and the loose floorboard by the front door before she manages to hurt herself on something else.

“Can I have some space?” she asks, and I step back, leaning against the wall, and wait. She meets my gaze with a narrowed one. “Are you going to watch?”

I shrug. “I’m not going to look away if that’s what you’re asking.”

Shaking her head, I watch the embarrassment course through her. She looks anywhere in the room but at me, hastily ripping the shirt over her head and dropping it to the floor.

It feels like a punch to the gut, seeing the pink scars marring the smooth skin of her stomach. The once clear skin, now littered with the carvings of a madman, wreaking havoc on her mind.

I grit my teeth to the point I fear they might break. My hands fists, lead shooting through my chest with the rage that slips over me like a mask.

I want to gut him. String him up by his useless cock until his weight rips it off of him.

Most of all, though, I don’t want her to see my anger.