Page 21 of Rescuing Mara

I give him a nod before I follow him into the room.

“We have cleaning bots that clean the room when it’s not occupied,” he says, continuing his conversation toward the door on the far right side, next to the windows.

“The bathroom is in here,” he says, then turns around. “I would really like you to sleep in my bed. I can make a bed on the floor or stay in one of the guest rooms. You can choose.”

I stare at him. “I can choose?”

He nods, and I bite my lip. I was never given any choice at all, and the idea of choosing is spiking my anxiety.

“I don’t know.” I whisper, panic threatening to overflow my brain, the numbness getting within my grasp.

He pulls my hand and places it on his chest, above his heart.

“Do you feel that?” he says softly.

I swallow. His skin is warm, his chest moving with the rhythm of his breath.

“Breathe,” he commands softly, and I inhale. “Again,” he repeats. The process repeats itself until I feel steady again.

I drop my hand and look up at him.

“Stay.” I say it with a certainty I feel in my bones. He smiles, and I turn around before I feel overwhelmed with the fact that I just made a freaking choice.

The bathroom opens with a push to the screen next to the door, revealing something I couldn’t have thought up in my wildest fantasies. The room is enormous, light is coming from a high ceiling, and the stars outside shine through oversized windows. The far wall is curved, making it smaller towards the inside, where a short wall hides something from view, a toilet, maybe? On the long side is a shower so big, I have no clue what to do with it. It looks like an enormous glass closet with a huge mirror and a sink on the opposite side.

But what’s really making me catch my breath is the enormous bathtub sunken into the floor next to the windows. It’s so big, it’s almost a pool. I give it a longing look before I step back and call for O’Rec.

“This is no ordinary sonic shower, is it?” I turn to him when he enters, making him laugh.

“No, we Arracate like some things the old fashioned way, and bathing is one of them. Have you ever used a water shower?” When I shake my head, he continues.

“You have to set the temperature right and choose which shower heads you want to use,” he says as he makes his way towards the shower, with me in his tracks.

Patiently he shows me exactly which buttons to use, before he leaves me alone.

The shower is fantastic. I have had a bath or two, but sonic showers are my standard. The luxurious feeling of the water cleaning my skin gives me sensations my body is not used to. Being naked and not having to be scared of someone barging in is another new sensation in which I revel. I lose myself in the new sensations and the blissful, clean feeling.

A knock on the door shakes me from my musings. “Marra, are you okay?”

I turn off the shower before I reply. “Yes! Sorry, I lost myself here for a while!” I can almost hear his grin through the doors.

“How do I turn on the dryer?” I realize I’m soaking wet with nothing to dry myself on.

O’Rec curses. “I forgot to give you a towel. Do you mind if I come in?”

I look at the glass doors, but they are so foggy you can’t see what’s on the other side.

“Yes, please.” And I wait for him to enter.

I hear the breath leaving his lungs as he gasps when he enters.

“Marra,” he breathes out, his voice all raspy, filled with lust.

I turn towards the door, his shape all I can make out through the fog. He… he doesn’t have super eyes now, does he?

I swallow as he stands there, frozen. “Are you okay, O’Rec?” He lets out a muffled curse before he moves out of my sight.

When he reappears, he is much closer. I can see the shape of his horns and tails, which means…

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