Page 7 of The Devil and I
My hand grips her wrist gently, holding her arm along the side of the tub where it can stay out of the water. My free hand reaches over towards the corner of the tub to grab a sweet mint candy from the small bowl I keep there. With one hand, I carefully unwrap it and bring it to her lips.
“You need the sugar. It's a mint,” I tell her, and she opens her mouth and takes the candy from my fingers. The way she trusts me is dangerous. More dangerous than she will ever realize. Despite my efforts to appear normal and safe for her, she has no idea that she's currently taking a bath with a man who harbors a dark side that can rival any villain.
The sickness inside of me is growing steadily as we sit in silence, reaching out through the very pores of my skin to latch onto the girl nestled in my arms. All the primitive possessiveness that emerged the moment I found her dying in the forest has taken root deep within me, nurturing the budding obsession into a brand new monster. A monster I am powerless to stop. Now, with Rayna nestled against me in my dimly lit bathroom, I hear the thunderous voice echoing throughout the walls of my mind.There is nothing, and no one, that can take her from me now.
Chapter Five
Rayna
The heat that rushes over my trembling body nearly steals the breath from my lungs, finding all the cold places inside of me and filling them with warmth. Our bath water is so soothing that I can't help but go lax in Lucas's arms, ignoring the nagging voice in the back of my mind telling me that none of this is normal. I'm sitting in a bathtub with a nearly naked stranger after attempting to kill myself out in the woods. I still feel a little dazed, like something is keeping most of the intense emotion at bay.
I close my eyes and rest my head back against his shoulder, letting myself feel everything around me. The mint candy melting against my tongue is almost too overwhelming, but the sugar is making my head feel a little less foggy. The warmth of the water pales in comparison to the heat radiating from the massive man at my back. His chiseled torso is so incredibly hard, and he nearly dwarfs me in this tub.
Surprisingly, that isn't the only hard thing I take note of. As I shift my body slightly in his embrace, I can feel an impressively lengthy hardness pressed along my spine. The fact that this man is hard as stone right now should be triggering some kind of flight or fight response in me, but it doesn't. He isn't trying to use it or force it on me. He's had plenty of time to take advantage of me, and he hasn't. Maybe I am naïve, but I can't help feeling safe with him. He saved my life, and has done nothing but reassure me and try to take care of me so far. That has to count for something, right?
At the end of the day, nothing that happens to me even matters at this point. I'm supposed to be dead. If he wanted to kill me, I imagine he wouldn't have stopped me from knocking on death's door. If he wanted to rape me, he could have done it a dozen times already. I'm not pretending I don't see the shadows in his eyes, but I just can't bring myself to really care.
When he shifts slightly behind me, the only light I can sense through my closed eyes suddenly dims. I open them in time to watch Lucas set a small remote on the ledge of the bath tub. With the dim lighting, the heat of the water, and the comfort of this stranger's arms around me, I find myself wanting to sleep. I want to drift away and disappear inside the muscle, sinew, and bone that holds this stranger together. It's been forever since anyone has really cared about me, and for the first time in what feels like a lifetime, I feel safe.
I hold on to that feeling and let it wash over me, and through me, to warm the coldest parts of me. The feeling of safety wraps around me, cocoons me, and brings with it a surge of raw emotion. Tears fall unbidden from my eyes again, and a hiccuping sob ruptures the silence settled around us. Without hesitation, those thickly muscled arms surround me and press me closer to his body.
“Shhh. Don't cry. I've got you now. I won't let anything happen to you.” His voice, that beautiful distant thunder, rumbles in my ear and soothes my battle worn nerves. His voice feels like coming home, it's just so deep and soothing that it comforts my frayed soul.
“Why did you save me? I'm not worth it. You don't even know me.” I sob, my shaky voice causing tension to wind itself through his big body. I've been drowning in hopelessness for so long. There was no way the universe would throw me a life raft at the last minute like this.
“I don't know what happened to you, Rayna, but you are worth it. Nobody deserves to die, everyone deserves justice,” he rumbles, his lips brushing along the shell of my ear. The sensation causes a ripple of pleasure to light up along the nerves at the back of my head. His voice does amazing things to my body. I wish he'd just keep talking. Pleasure has been a stranger in my life for so long, it feels good to finally feel something other than pain and loneliness.
“The world may have failed you, but I won't.”
I don't know what he means, but as he says those words, he tightens his hold on me. His fingertips dig in gently, as though he is trying to anchor himself to me as I drift through the frantic, stormy seas of my mind.
This is crazy. I cannot fathom how I even got here. I found the note back at my house and made the decision to end my life. Then I walked out to the forest and took a razor blade to my wrist. Now, here I am sitting in a bathtub with the attractive stranger that saved me and brought me back to his home. I don't even know where this man lives. I know nothing but his name and what he does for a living. Despite it all, something deep within me tells me I should latch on to him and let him do whatever he will with me. What's the alternative? Go home and let Mark find me, and deliver on his threat? I have nothing to live for, nothing to lose. I don't want to keep going back and forth in my mind, contemplating the insanity of it all. I'm so incredibly tired, and I just want to find salvation.
The thought of going home causes panic to well up inside of me, threatening to burst through whatever has been holding it back. I can't let Mark find me again. Now that Lucas has bandaged me up and stabilized me, is he going to send me away? “Oh, god, please don't take me home,” I whimper pathetically, “I can't let him find me.”
The arms around me suddenly move, water sloshing against the side of the bath tub as he lifts me and rearranges my body so that I am seated across his lap and pressed sideways against his chest. He tucks my head under his chin, wrapping one arm back around me while the other keeps my wrapped arm above the water. “You're not going anywhere. You'll stay here with me, where I can keep you safe and take care of you.” His voice is so firm, so sure, but I cannot fathom why he would take on a charity case like me.
“Please,” I whisper against the wet heat of his neck where my lips press tightly to his skin, my body working involuntarily to tuck as closely to this man as possible. Whether he is an illusion of safety, or the real thing... my heart is desperate for somewhere safe to fall. I'll take my chances with this terrifyingly imposing stranger who saved me from the brink of oblivion.
“I promise.”
The words soothe me enough to put an end to the trembling of my body, exhaustion spreading through me like a warm blanket. We sit like that for the longest time, though exactly how long is lost on me. A few times, Lucas reaches forward around me to add some more hot water into our bath, or to slip another candy into my mouth. I don't say anything else, even when he grabs a washcloth and soaps it up. My body and my soul are so damn tired; I have nothing left in me. All I can do is exist in his embrace and allow him to do whatever he will.
Lucas props my injured arm on his shoulder and begins to slowly, gently, wash whatever exposed skin of mine he can reach. The act of having someone bathe me is almost enough to make me cry again, but I stamp those feelings deep down where they cannot reach me. I close my eyes and focus on his large hands roaming my body, cleaning away the dirt I acquired from this disaster of a day.
Once he is done with his task, he gives himself a quick once over with the soap and then shifts us forward so he can unplug the bath. I watch as the water begins to drain, soapy swirls chasing each other towards the drain.
Lucas stands up without releasing me from his hold, which is incredibly impressive, considering that I am not a thin girl. I have a curvy hour-glass figure, and I grew up with a mother who always told me I could stand to lose some weight. Despite thinking of myself as too heavy, Lucas holds me effortlessly in his arms. As carefully as he can, he sets me on my feet inside the tub and reaches overhead to grab a fluffy white towel from the shelf.
“Do you want to go to bed like this?” he asks me, motioning with his hand to my soaked bra and panties. “I can get you one of my shirts to sleep in.” I think about it for a moment before I shake my head. I'd feel pretty crappy if I managed to get his bed wet and damaged his expensive looking mattress. He nods and tosses the thick towel over his shoulder before reaching behind me to unclasp my bra. He pauses for a moment, his gaze locked on mine, before he lets the black material fall to the bottom of the tub. Heat spreads through his beautiful pale grey eyes, but he still holds my gaze.
I let out a breath I didn't realize I was holding, sighing deeply as the cool air in the room touches my damp skin. With that, Lucas drops to his knees slowly. With both of us still standing in the bath tub, his face hovers near my softly rounded belly. Wisps of hot breath explode across my stomach as he lets out a few shaky breaths, his hands lifting to my hips to gently tug the wet panties down my thighs.
Lucas bows his head, as if in prayer, as his hands pull my underwear down to my feet. The dark material floats in the remaining bath water, and I carefully step out of them. After sighing raggedly, he lifts his piercing grey eyes to mine. I feel trapped in his stare, the intensity I find there sending warmth spiraling through me. As he watches me, I feel something deep within me spark to life, like a small fire igniting in the cold, dark depths of my being. That warmth continues to spread through me, and I can't help but lift my hand to tentatively brush my fingertips along his lips.
“Rayna...” he groans in response to my shy touch, allowing my fingers to make contact with his sinfully beautiful mouth. I watch the tension erupt across his heavy shoulders, blooming among the impressive contours of his powerful chest. This is the first time I've ever been in such an intimate situation with a man, especially one as attractive and powerfully built as Lucas. The desire to let my fingers roam every dip, curve and bulge is strong.
“This is crazy,” I whisper as my hand travels across his slightly parted mouth, along the hard line of his masculine jaw, and down the thick column of his neck. My eyes drop to his lap, where his seemingly oversized cock strains against the still wet boxers hugging his hips. The sheer size of him makes me swallow hard. Not that I've seen a lot of dick in my life, but his is definitely way bigger than I imagined was average for most men. Those embers burning deep in the core of me spark higher, and a warm throb settles itself between my thighs. The fire within burns through the heavy fog I've been in since I found the note under my door, and I find myself desperate to let the flames turn everything inside of me to ash.
