Page 20 of Luka

Resting the plate on my lap, I guzzle the water, my mouth pulling in huge gulps without needing conscious thought. My stomach turns when the bottle is emptied, and I wrap my arm around my gut, lowering the plastic to my knee.

Tall takes the bottle from me and seems to wait for me to start on the sandwich, but I know if I do, it’ll only end up on his pillow.

A couple minutes pass before he takes the plate from my lap as well then stands and holds out his hand. “Shower?”

His words stick into my mind, telling me I’m filthy. He isn’t being kind. I know this in my soul.

I shake my head.

His hand falls to his side. “Oh… You actually think it’s up to you.”

A shaky breath skates over my lips as I lower my chin to my chest.

“Come, Lucia.”

When he holds out his hand again, I reluctantly take it. It’s warm. I don’t know why I’m surprised by that, but I am. Maybe because I always thought sharks were cold blooded.

He helps me from the bed, his grip firm but not overly tight, then guides me to the ladder that leads to the rest of his apartment.

He climbs down first with the plate and bottle easily balanced in one hand, and as soon as his feet touch the dark wood floor, he extends a hand to beckon me down.

Swallowing, I start down the ladder and try not to think about what he can see under my dress without me wearing any underwear. It brings up a memory of me when I was a girl, so young my recollection is hazy, only coming in a tiny scene, a sliver of what happened really. I only know the story because I had nightmares that lasted for what felt like too long, and years later when I brought it up to my older sister, she told me what happened.

When I was a girl, I was difficult to potty train. So difficult that it wasn’t until I was four that my nanny, Alma, finally succeeded. But it was apparently a huge challenge, and because I kept wetting myself in my underwear, she stopped putting them on me underneath my dresses. One day, my father noticed.

I don’t remember much. Like I said, it’s only a sliver. I remember my father’s screams, so loud they hurt my ears even as I hid in the storage space beneath the reading nook, onlyfragmented beams of light coming through the splintered wood. My hand shook as it rubbed a cobweb off on my leg, and to this day, the feeling of spider webs makes my heart race.

I never saw Alma again.

Tall’s large palm envelops my rear as I reach the last few rungs, wiping away my memory and making me freeze. He squeezes before snaking his hand beneath my dress to survey me bare.

My lips part, but I try not to gasp at his touch. Instead, I stay still, my knuckles white grasping the ladder.

Abandoning my rear, he steps closer to me and wraps his arm around my waist like he’s going to pull me off the ladder, but when his fingers graze the raised flesh above my right hip, he pauses.

“What’s this?” he asks, fingering the flesh.

I don’t answer.

Was my dress not pulled up high enough before?

Did he not already see it?

Would he recognize my family emblem if he had?

Tall waits a few moments before letting out ahmmand ripping me from the ladder. My feet barely brush the ground as he drags me to the doorless bathroom.

Leaving me in the entryway, he turns on the shower. He lets the water flow over his fingertips before adjusting the temperature. When he turns back to me, I drop my eyes to his chest.

He pulls off his shirt, showing me the same muscular physique as he had earlier, and I have the same thought as I did then. How could a body so well cared for, with muscles so well-defined, repulse me so much? What kind of man must you be to have that effect on a woman?

Tall chuckles like he can read my thoughts. “Well? You don’t plan on showering in your dress, do you?”

His belt jingles as he undoes his pants then shrugs them off.

I don’t move.

“Lucia, I’ve already seen your pussy. Don’t be so shy.” There’s a smile in his voice. For now. I wonder what it takes to make him angry.

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