Page 78 of Taste of Forever
“You’re not helping me shower,” I said through clenched teeth. “I just…I can’t. I know you wouldn’tdoanything, but I need privacy, okay? I need to be in here alone.”
Laith sighed and leaned back, leveling me with a hard look. “If I was confident you wouldn’t fall and crack your head on the tile, I’d be happy to leave you alone in here. But as you are right now Heather, I’m not confident in that at all.”
He angled his head toward the steaming water. “If you want this shower right now, you’re going to have to let me help you. So what’s it going to be?”
Chapter 21
Heather
Icouldn’t say how long I thought about it, sitting on the toilet lid while the shower ran. As the small room filled with steam and heat, Laith never rushed me for an answer. He just waited patiently for me to make the call.
“Here’s the thing,” I said after a long silence. “I know you’re trustworthy and not a bad person. I’m really grateful that you found me and you’re taking care of me.”
“Okay.” He sounded tentative.
“But if you’re going to help me take a shower, I don’t want you to look at me. To watch me like you did through my window that night.”
There it was. His mouth tightened and his Adam’s apple bobbed in a hard swallow. “I won’t. I promise.”
Hearing him say those words was sufficient, but he went on.
“It won’t happen again, okay? Whatever the future holds for you and me, I’ll never look at you in such a gratuitous way again. That was wrong of me to do. It was violating and I understand if you don’t trust me. I mean it when I say I just want to help you right now. That’s all. I’m not trying to sneak peeks of you or anything.”
His magenta gaze flicked up mine, looking almost as raw and vulnerable as I felt, before dropping. “I’m sorry for spying on you.”
He’d already apologized right after he told me about it, but I felt a new sense of calm and acceptance in hearing it again. Unlike the first time, my thoughts weren’t clouded by anger. Now I was ready to hear him, to believe him.
The regret was painstakingly clear in his body language, and the remorse genuine in every word he said.
“I do trust you, Laith,” I said. “And I believe that it won’t happen again. I just…” I waved a hand toward the shower. “I’m nervous about this, I guess.”
“Of course you are.” He looked at the shower stall and then at me, chewing his lip as if trying to work something out in his head. “I could just stand nearby. You can grab me if you need support, but maybe do all the important stuff on your own?”
“Okay.” I nodded, trying to muster confidence about undressing and bathing in front of this vampire that I was definitely attracted to. “Sure. Let’s try it.”
Laith helped me stand up and together, we peeled all the bandages off my wounds. Nothing was open and actively bleeding, so I figured it was safe to wash my injuries, albeit carefully.
I watched Laith’s face as he carefully lifted the largest bandage from my neck. His brows furrowed slightly in concentration and concern. He knew what my blood tasted like, what it smelled like. It was the thing that drove him to pursue me, after all. But he never looked lustful or hungry as any of my wounds were exposed.
When it came time to undress, he dutifully looked away. Then with one hand on his shoulder, I made my way into the shower stall. Thank God there wasn’t a tub to step into. Laithshuffled forward, looking only as far as seeing where he needed to be to support me.
“Oh my God…” I moaned when the hot water hit me, closing my eyes to relish in the sensation.
“Bet that feels amazing.” I could hear the smile in Laith’s voice.
“So fucking good.” I released his shoulder to scrub a hand over my hair and face, using my opposite hand against the shower wall to support my weight.
“You okay?”
“Yeah.” I wiped the water from my eyes and almost laughed. Laith was standing halfway in and out of the shower, his face on the outer side of the curtain. “Your clothes are going to get soaked.” His lounge pants and T-shirt were already getting dotted with water.
“It’s fine. I’ll change out of them later. Am I in a good spot?”
“Yeah, I think so.”
I let the water saturate my hair and skin for another minute, then reached for shampoo and conditioner, which was where I ran into a problem. I needed both hands to pour the hair products.
Stubbornly, I tried bracing my elbow against the wall for balance, but my stupid body wasn’t strong or coordinated enough to do that while pouring shampoo into my palm. I listed sideways, letting out a little squeak of alarm as I started sliding down the wall.
