Page 7 of Sloth

“I’m going to grab a bottle of wine and take abath.” I stopped at the entrance to the kitchen. “You can join me or not, I don’tgive a shit, but that’s what I’m doing.”

Arlo’s dark eyes moved over my face. “I’m notleaving you alone tonight.”

“Okay. Then it’s settled.” I headed to the pantrylocated beside the fridge and pulled out a bottle of red wine. I usually had afavorite that I went for but tonight, I didn’t overly care what I drank. I waswaiting for Arlo to tell me that getting drunk was not the best way to handlethings but he didn’t speak those words at all. It made me wonder why butinstead of dwelling on it, I pushed those thoughts to the back of my mind andmade my way upstairs to the large bathroom across the hall from my bedroom. “Lookslike you’re joining me.”

Arlo sighed, coming up beside me. “Why do youhave to make things difficult?”

“Me?” I gasped. “Why, whatever do you mean?”

He rolled his eyes, a small smile forming at thecorners of his lips. “You should let me take care of you.”

“Right.” I snorted. “And we both know how that’llend up.”

“You make it sound like that’s a bad thing.” Hereached out for my hand, slipping his fingers between mine and stopping me fromtaking a step further. “You deserve to be happy.”

It was on the tip of my tongue to argue with him.To tell him that because of me, my father died. If I had never been born or ifI had at least born a boy, he would still be alive. Or if he would have givenme up like the men he worked with told him to, he would still be here.

I blamed myself for my father’s death. Eventhough I had never actually pulled the trigger, he died protecting me and forthat, I would never forgive myself.

“Your father didn’t die because of you.”

As soon as those words left Arlo’s mouth, Ipulled away from him and stomped down the hall toward the bathroom that wouldbe my home for the next few hours.

“Ginny.”

“What?” I spun on him. “You can’t honestly standthere and tell me that my dad didn’t die because of me. That he didn’t diebecause I let my feelings get in the way and I ended up at some party. Someparty that a fucker threw because they were using me as bait. You can’t…” Myheart started racing, my breathing picking up the longer I stood there.

Arlo didn’t say anything. He closed the distancebetween us instead and pulled me into his arms. Normally, I would have foughthim but tonight, I was tired. While I succeeded in bringing down one of themost dangerous men in this city, I knew that my freedom was short-lived. That waswhere Arlo came in, whether I liked it or not. He was there to protect me.

“Why didn’t you stop me from killing Dante?” Iasked, leaning my cheek against Arlo’s chest.

He wrapped his arms around me, slowly slippinghis hands to my ass before picking me up.

Hooking my legs around his waist, I latched on tohim.

“Because I knew you could handle it.” Arlocarried me to the bathroom. Once we were in the large space, he sat me on theedge of the tub and turned on the water.

“But you were still there,” I pointed out.

“Of course.” He ran his fingers under thestreaming water. When he was satisfied it wouldn’t burn me, he grabbed a bottleof bubble bath off the counter and squeezed some into the hot water.

“I didn’t need your help,” I told him but in reality,I actually did. I just hated asking for it.

“I know you didn’t, Bunny.” Arlo helped meundress. Normally, I would have fought him and told him I could do it myselfbut I was tired. Oh, so fucking tired. Of everything. Of being a woman in thisworld. Of not being treated as an equal. Of just existing in a world that I wasforced into at such a young age. My father had introduced me at a young age tothe carnage that existed within generations of our family. Arlo wasn’t mucholder than I was when my dad had taken him under his wing so to speak. Now hewas here, bathing me and both of us were trying to fight these feelings we hadfor each other.

“Join me,” I murmured.

Arlo didn’t argue. Once he was naked, he slippedinto the tub behind me. “It’s been a long time, Ginny.”

“I know.” Bringing my knees up to my chest, Ileaned my cheek against them and reveled in the way he ran the cloth over myback.

“When was the last time?”

“With you, but you already know that, so why evenbother asking?”

“Because I like hearing you say it. I likeknowing that I’m the only man you’ve been with.”

“Yeah, well. It’s not like I haven’t tried togarner interest from other men,” I mumbled just to piss him off. He ignored meand continued running the cloth over my back.

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