Page 67 of Whips and Chains
I cradled the back of her head with one hand, my fingers in her matted, bloody hair. I stroked the other up and down her back, whispering words of comfort into her ear, holding her while she finally let out the sadness and grief she’d been keeping inside her for days.
I waited for her to stop, but when she didn’t, I pulled back, undoing the buttons on her jacket.
She just stood there, head hanging, tears rolling down her face, and let me.
The corset and panties I’d seen her in at the club were beneath. I’d found them so damn sexy earlier in the night, but now they were just a barrier to taking care of her.
I edged around her, unlacing the corset and grimacing at the red marks it had left all over her body. I hated she was hurting herself, shoving herself into a garment that looked like torture. But I said nothing and let the corset fall to the tiled floor. Her panties were next, and then I scooped her up in my arms, holding her tight for a few long moments because that’s how long it took me to convince myself I should put her down when everything inside me just wanted to hold her.
But I placed her down in the water anyway, sinking her to the bottom and reveling in the sound of her soft moan of pleasure as the water enveloped her.
“Tilt your head back. Wet your hair.”
She did as I’d asked, bending her knees so she could sink right down deep, fully submerging her upper half.
“This bath is amazing,” she said quietly when she resurfaced. “I never fit in regular bathtubs. I haven’t had one since I was a kid.”
It was definitely a rich person bathtub, not the shitty kind that was so small only a toddler could fit in. It was deep and wide and long enough for a woman who was almost six feet tall. She propped her arms up on the sides and tilted her head back, closing her eyes.
There were no bubbles to hide her body from me, and she didn’t try.
God, that was so fucking sexy. The way she wasn’t trying to shy away from me. The way she just lay there, so I could see every inch of her through the sparkling clear water.
I found a bottle of shampoo in the shower and grabbed a towel hanging on a rack. I tossed it onto the floor at the end of the bath and knelt behind her head.
The squirt of shampoo onto my palm left a fruity-smelling tang in the air, and I lathered up my hands before putting them into her hair.
“I’m sorry if it stings a little,” I said into the quiet of the room, working the soap through the matted lengths and rubbing with extra vigor at the strands that were coated with red. “I’m trying to avoid the cuts on your scalp.”
“Don’t. I don’t care about the pain. Your hands feel good.” She swallowed thickly, her dark eyelashes fanned out across her cheeks. “Please, just don’t stop.”
I would do this all fucking day if that’s what she wanted. There was a practical element of it, and that had been my only intention when I’d started, but she could ask me for the fucking moon, and somehow, someway, I would get it for her.
I didn’t know when I’d fallen in love with her, but it had been long before I’d gotten to see or touch her. This was just an added bonus.
I rinsed her hair once, then lathered it up again. The water turned soapy, but she didn’t seem to mind. Her body relaxed, inch by inch with every stroke of her hair, until it was glossy and her breathing had turned so soft and regular I thought maybe she was asleep.
“Levi,” she whispered.
“Yeah?”
“I’m sorry.”
I squeezed my eyes shut. “You have nothing to be sorry for.”
She didn’t argue, just sighed softly. “I don’t know how I got here.”
I didn’t either. But a big part of me felt like the shit she’d gone through in the last few weeks was on my shoulders. I knew I couldn’t take full blame. X and Whip were a part of it too, and her own decisions had brought us here as well.
But it didn’t ease the guilt over my part in Toby’s death. My part in the fact danger lurked outside these walls, just waiting for us in the shadows.
But here, she was safe and warm and taken care of.
Which was all I had ever wanted.
Maybe this wasn’t the house with the picket fence I’d promised her. But it was safety. At least for now.
And with threats and danger knocking on our door every time we stepped out of it, right now was all we had.
