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Knowing that there was only one person that could answer those questions for me, I pushed aside the tears, then started washing myself, taking care with my injuries. I even washed my hair, knowing that this was probably going to be the last time that I’d have the luxury. When Avgust had begun pulling out toiletries for me, I’d been tempted to ask for a razor, but Avgust Kotov wasn’t a stupid man, and only a stupid man would willingly hand me a weapon like that. Plus, once I was sent back into that cage, hair on my legs was going to be the least of my worries.
When I was finally done with my shower, I slid open the glass door, and Avgust was leaning up against the counter, a white shirt folded neatly next to him. As his hazel gaze raked my wet body from head to toe, it took everything that I had not to cover myself up like a virginal maiden, and I hated that he could make me squirm like that.
Nonetheless, with my head held high, I stepped out of the shower, then reached for one of the towels hanging on the bar, then wrapped it tightly around me, not bothering with my hair. After all, this wasn’t my home, so I should not be walking around comfortably in it.
“Let’s get your ankle wrapped up,” Avgust finally said.
“Okay,” I replied, resigned to just getting this night over with.
I didn’t move as Avgust grabbed the white shirt, then made his way over to me. I also didn’t say anything as he removed my towel, then begun drying me with it. He even dried my hair, and with each ministration, I felt rage eating at my insides. How dare he take care of me when he was the reason why all this had happened to me in the first place.
When he was finally done drying me, dressing me, and then bandaging my ankle, I’d never felt so enraged in all my life, and that was saying something.
Chapter 17
Avgust~
I knew Samara well enough to know that she was raging inside; it was there in her eyes. Even though she hadn’t uttered a word the entire time that I’d been tending to her, fifteen years had done nothing to lessen the bond that I had with her. I knew Samara Andreev better than she knew herself, so that’s why I wasn’t going to be surprised by whatever came next.
As soon as I was done wrapping her ankle, I escorted her out of the bathroom, and the fact that she smelled like me was really doing a number on me. It’d taken everything that I’d had not to give into my cravings when I’d been drying her off with the towel, and if Samara as a teenage girl had been a vision, Samara as a grown woman was going to be my undoing. She’d only gotten lovelier, her thick body a work of fucking art.
When we reached the bed, I said, “You’ll sleep here tonight.”
She quickly turned to look at me, that fire in her eyes fanning dangerously. “No, I won’t.”
“Yes, you will,” I shot back.
“I’m not sleeping in your bed,” she spat, that anger of hers licking at the surface, ready to erupt.
“Do not test me, Razh,” I warned her. “This isn’t up for debate.”
“You can’t tell me that you don’t have a spare bedroom,” she bit out. “In a house this big, you probably have twenty of them.”
“One or twenty, you will still not be sleeping in any of them,” I informed her. “You are sleeping here tonight, and that is final.”
“Or else what?” she challenged.
I stepped to her, then grabbed her chin between my fingers. “Have you forgotten about your sister so quickly?”
My face snapped sideways with the force of her slap, and I even tasted a little blood inside my cheek. However, when I looked back down at her, Samara didn’t look regretful, horrified, or embarrassed. Instead, her blue eyes were blazing with a fury that almost matched my own. Her chest was heaving, her hands were fisted at her sides, and she looked wildly beautiful.
Before I could do or say anything, Samara’s fists began pounding on my chest, her anger finally getting the better of her, and it was a lot better than that emptiness that she’d been experiencing on the drive over here.
“How could you do this to me?!” she raged. “How could you let your men almost rape me?!” Her fists were wild weapons, but they weren’t harming me in the least. “What is wrong with you?!”
I finally grabbed her flailing hands, trapping them in mine. “You are what’s wrong with me,” I snarled down at her. “You are what’s always been wrong with me, Samara.” I tightened my hold on her enough to make her wince. “You want to know how I could do this to you? The same fucking way that you were able to walk away from me all those years ago.” Her blue eyes widened, though they were still filled with anger. “I loved you more than my own life, but that made no difference to you.”
The corner of her lip sneered angrily. “Yet you had no qualms about lying to me for years.”
“I would have lost you!” I thundered down at her.
“You lost me anyway!’ she yelled back. “At least if you’d been honest, that would have meant something!”
I could feel my own regrets crawling up my spine, and since I didn’t have many-Samara being the biggest-I did not appreciate the feeling. What she didn’t realize was that I was never going to get the image of her inside that cage out of my head for as long as I lived. No matter what I did to Rurik and Vlad, the image of Samara being hurt, scared, desperate, and half-naked was going to stay with me forever. There was also the sound of her voice as she begged me not to hurt her sister, offering herself up to all my men for their use. If she thought that she was angry…well, she wasn’t the only one.
“You want to call me a liar? Fine,” I snapped as I held her hands captive in mine. “But what about you? How many times had you told me that you would love me no matter what? How many times had you told me that you would love me forever? How many fucking times had you told me that there would never be anyone else for you?” I got in her face, the brutal memories of our love battering the both of us like an unrelenting storm. “You told me that nothing would ever change how you felt about me, Samara. You told me that your love for me was something that you no longer had any control over, and that you were mine for as long as I wanted you.” Her jaw ticked as tears sprung to her eyes. “Baby, if I’m a liar, then what the fuck are you?”
“That’s not fair,” she bit out.
