Who gets aroused at a time like this? After they just killed someone.
I don’t have time to think about that for long because the next minute he’s lifting me from the bed and guiding me to the bathroom. The tub is almost full but the faucet is still running as he guides me towards it, coaxing me into the hot water. Steam rises from the surface and I sink down, letting the water run over my skin.
“Shh,” Lex soothes, “It’s okay.”
“I hurt her,” I whisper.
“It’s okay.”
I shake my head. How could it be okay?
“You’re in shock. Wren, take a minute, breathe.”
“Get in with me?” I ask, my voice quiet.
“You want me in there?”
I nod. “Please.”
“Okay, give me a minute.” He turns to leave but my arm dashes out, my wet fingers hooking against his shirt.
“No don’t leave.”
He puts his hand over mine and gently pries my fingers off. With his silver eyes holding mine he strips from his suit, revealing all his hard, lethal muscle and for a minute I forget. I revel in the brutal beauty of this man. I commit each scar to memory, each roll and flex of his muscles, the smattering of hair at his navel that travels all the way down to the pubic hair around his groin.
He moves with all the lethal grace of a lion stalking a gazelle. When he climbs into the tub and lowers himself behind me, the water level rises quick, spilling over the rim of the tub but he doesn’t seem to care as his arms reach around and drag me to his chest, settling me into the cradle of his thighs as his arms gently stroke down my arms.
I never thought this man could do gentle.
“You make it look so easy,” I say quietly. “how?”
“It wasn’t always. But I turn it off, little bird, I don’t feel.”
“I killed someone.”
“It’s okay.”
“It’s not okay.”
“Shh, little bird, relax.”
Lex
This should never have happened. I’m distracted. That’s twice now, in less than twenty four hours, that I have been distracted and people have gotten hurt.
I don’t care much for the girl, despite her pleas, I wouldn’t have shown mercy. There will be no mercy for anyone who comes for Wren.
Like this city, she belongs to me.
When Wren is finally asleep, her head in my lap whilst I gently stroke her hair, wild and unruly, I climb from the bed, turning out the light.
The shock will be with her for some time but she’s strong and eventually she’ll realize she did the girl a kindness. I wouldn’t have made it that quick.
“How did she get in?” I ask when I hit the kitchen. Both Ainsley and Ryker are still here, Ryker now sporting a swollen nose with dark bruising starting to appear beneath his eyes.
“Here,” Ainsley points to a camera feed from seven thirty this morning. Most of my house keepers stay on sight in the small annexes set down near the gates but some travel in. They are vetted and searched at the gates before being allowed entry.
I watch the feed and as the guard stops a vehicle I see her slip in whilst he’s distracted. She darts left and tucks herself into a hedge line against the wall. It’s another hour before she reappears again, further up the gardens, close to where Wren is on the balcony. I didn’t notice her when I was watching the feed because she’s not in direct line of the camera but is on the one looking from another direction. She seems to pause when she sees her on the balcony.