Total pages in book: 96
Estimated words: 89093 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 445(@200wpm)___ 356(@250wpm)___ 297(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 89093 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 445(@200wpm)___ 356(@250wpm)___ 297(@300wpm)
After glaring at me like I’m gum stuck under his school desk, he pivots on his heels and races out of the bathroom.
Unfortunately, he doesn’t forget to latch the lock on his way out.
Chapter Six
My eyes shoot to the bathroom door when it flies open with a terrifying crack. I’m not sure how long I’ve been huddled in the corner of the shower stall, but the water ran dry a while ago, and although I’m somewhat delirious, I am reasonably sure hypothermia is close to setting in.
The shower’s drainage system makes environmental sense, but the amount of wood required to combat the blistering cold conditions its drainage hole creates counterbalances its effectiveness.
Even when surrounded by bushland, fireplaces are hazardous to the ozone layer.
As are brooding men with no idea about privacy.
The still-unnamed stranger bursts into the bathroom without a care in the world that he removed my only article of modesty when he stormed out over an hour ago. He’s wearing a rolled neck shirt, a thick winter jacket, a pair of jeans that wouldn’t look any better on a wrangler, and boots that go to his knees.
If he didn’t wrongly believe you can hold women hostage against their will, I would have said he looks like a sexy, rugged mountaineer, but since he is as delusional as I feel, I’ll keep my thoughts to myself.
With a grunt, he plucks me from the floor. Then, just as quickly as he removed my shirt an hour ago, he replaces it with one that makes my nose tickle with the urge to sneeze.
“What the hell,” I pant out in either shock or deliriousness when he falls to his knees two seconds later. His hairy face is a mere inch from my bare sex, and my woozy head has me mistaking his heated breaths as needy instead of angry.
I warn my head to get with the program when he stretches the waistband of a pair of panties that look oddly similar to the ones I packed for red week. He’s not dressing me so I can attend a fancy gala as his plus one. He’s my captor, not my savior.
My unspoken words taste bitter in my mouth. If he’s my captor, why did he save me from a fiery inferno then keep me alive for three days? If his endgame is to kill me, why prolong the process with unnecessary steps?
Because there is a heap of weirdos in the world, Jae.
I’m drawn from my highly accurate thoughts when the bearded man jerks up his chin. We’re strangers, but the angling of his shoulders has me confident he wants me to use them to balance on while slipping my feet into the opening of my panties.
Although I could never be accused of being submissive, I fan my hand over the taut muscles in his shoulders before stepping into the cotton material of my underwear. Cedric’s betrayal doesn’t have me eager to mix things up. The black object peeking out from the bottom of the stranger’s winter coat is solely responsible for pulling me into line.
He has a gun.
A big one.
“I’ve got it,” I assure him when he commences guiding my panties up my legs. Even with fear being my strongest emotion, my body mistook the slither of his hands. My thighs are shuddering like his head is wedged between them.
Once my underwear is covering my backside, and I’ve had a stern talking with my head, we step through the process again. Except this time, the stranger holds open a pair of fleece-lined sweatpants for me. They’re miles too big, but unlike the shirt, not as dusty.
While yanking the fluffy pants up my legs, a faint memory trickles into my head, freezing my movements. “This isn’t the first time we’ve done this, is it?” I wait for him to finish guiding the polyester material to my waist before finalizing my interrogation, “You’ve dressed me previously, haven’t you?” I more pinch his shoulder than balance on it when a second memory steals the air from my lungs. “Except I wasn’t standing. You were holding me against your chest.” My eyes bulge when the memory playing in reverse reaches the reason as to why I needed to get dressed. “We showered together.” I swallow in rapid succession. “We were naked…” As my eyes fall to his, he tears his away, but it doesn’t stop my confession. “Both of us.”
With his ignorance at an all-time high, I search his face for answers. His expression is nonchalant, but I don’t need to read his emotions to extract some truths out of him.
Today isn’t the first time he’s seen me naked.
While the stranger guides a sock over my mangled foot, I strive to unlock some more memories. There are not many, and thankfully, they aren’t as nightmarish as the ones that still keep me awake a decade later. The slow montages of our daily shower routines remind me of Beauty and the Beast dancing in the ballroom, except Beauty is on the brink of unconsciousness, and the Beast is doing everything in his power to keep her alive, but I must remain cautious.