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“But, I...I can’t,” Ethan fretted from below.
“You can. You will. I’m not coming.” My robotic voice was stern, but it didn’t convey the emotions I felt.
“Mercer, I can wait with Feebee.” Nonna turned to me, her arms reaching out as if she’d be able to support the weight of another person.
“No. Thank you. She stays with me. She wants to be with me. And nothing in this world will take me from her right now,” my speakers told them all, and Feebee didn’t object.
The doorbell rang again, and I sent my last message.
“You can do it. Don’t let me down.”
I didn’t wait for another objection, knowing all too well Ethan’s parting lips were ready to voice one. I walked to my room, anger and devastation controlling my speed, and I left my cousin to do my work, knowing Nonna would help in any way she could.
In silence, I walked through my room and straight into my bathroom.
I left my keyboard behind and walked us into the shower. I tested the water with my hand before I let it rain down over Feebee.
I sat in the puddle growing below me and ripped her broken nightgown from her body. I tossed it behind us, not wanting anything that scumbag had touched to be anywhere near her. The wet satin hit the wall and then dropped to the floor with a soggy thud.
“I knew you’d come. He said you wouldn’t, that you didn’t care. But I knew you would. I know you feel something...deep inside, even if it’s not for me.”
Her words hammered a crack into my heart, and where the ice had formed around it, it shattered.
She stayed on my thighs but peeled herself away from my torso. My jacket replicated the soggy thump of her dress as I let her push it from my shoulders. She needed my clothes off, this being too similar to the last time we were in here. Her fingers popped the buttons of my black shirt, revealing more of my heaving chest. The dark color hid her blood, my blood, and Damiano’s, but the water revealed it when it fell to the shower floor. Her heart raced, fearing his germs on her body again, so I lifted her legs as I stretched for the shower head. Sitting back down, I found her fingers in her hair, wrapping around strands and pulling out enough to clog my drain.
Taking her fingers in mine, I studied the gashes on her palm. Luckily, none were deep enough to need stitches. But they did need washing, so I did that for her. I then guided them elsewhere, to my neck, for her to hold on tight while I bathed the rest of her.
I washed the cuts on her face, my fingers gentle with soap and water, before squeezing out some shower gel and using my hands to rub it into her body.
She didn’t resist, and she didn’t fight me. Her fingers stayed on my body, keeping busy by drawing circles on my shoulder. The pain in her eyes was horrific, but her breathing was controlled. Long, deep breaths had her small breasts meeting my skin on each inhale.
I guided her back until she was off my lap, and she tugged at my pants.
“Take these off, please.”
The quiet request almost knocked me down until I realized why she wanted that. She didn’t want the power imbalance of being naked with someone who wasn’t. Not today.
I obliged, not wasting another second to strip off my clothing.
Her pretty eyes lit up with terror over my body’s natural response to her naked one.
The semi was uncomfortable, but it was only because she had been in my lap, and her body did something to my senses I couldn’t control.
Lowering down after discarding my clothes, she was already dragging herself back to create distance between us. I wouldn’t let that happen today. I pulled her forward in time to prevent the shower from pelting her bruised face.
My ass hit the water as I sat. I parted her legs—fading muscles catching right below my fingertips—and placed one over each of my hips.
I glanced down, and the shocking state between her legs immediately had my attention zooming in for a second look. My eyes widened in horror. While I had no intention of making her uncomfortable, fate intervened.
How bad had that fucking creep hurt her!
“Don’t look.” Her hands swished the water, washing red stains from her thighs.
Steam from the hot shower allowed me to convey a message on the shower room glass. Grateful I didn’t need to get my keyboard from its balancing position on my towel rail.
I’m going to need to check you over. I promise I won’t hurt you. I have medical training.
She read as I wrote, her eyes watching the letters fade away almost instantly.
