She hesitated. Did he really expect her to shower with him standing there?
As if reading her mind, something that could have been guilt contorted his expression, displacing the rage. Silently, he moved to stand just outside the door with his back to her—but that was all the privacy he seemed willing to give. His body language said it all—I’m not leaving you.
Strangely enough, a part of her wanted him there. His presence helped her face the mud and blood that washed off her without screaming. Without seizing up in fear at the memory of an unfamiliar hand inching up her leg. Imbued with the scent of pine, she washed up in minutes and blindly reached out for the towel.
“No.” Officer McGoven still stood near the door, but the man seemed to have eyes in the back of his head. “Again,” was all he said.
Loren lathered up in even more body wash. The second she started to rinse, another bellowed command came from the doorway. “Again.”
She shampooed her hair twice.
“Again.”
Another rinse. Another. It felt like ages before she felt clean enough—and at least three more passes of lather before Officer McGoven seemed satisfied. A part of her almost instinctively knew when she could finally shut the shower off and shimmy nervously into her towel.
The second she was fully covered, a dark T-shirt appeared before her, thrown by an unseen hand. After making sure his back was to her, she dropped the towel and wrenched the garment over her head.
A glance in the mirror revealed a logo for the New Walsh police department stamped across the front of the gray cotton. It smelled like him—overwhelmingly. As if this was the very shirt he’d worn while tailing Kyle’s truck, dripping with furious sweat. The mental image stole her breath.
Unfortunately, the ensemble didn’t improve her appearance any. She looked a mess. Her hair hung limply over her shoulders. She wasn’t wearing a bra, and the shirt’s thin material clung to her in all the wrong places.
And he noticed. A glance out the corner of her eye revealed him watching her unashamedly.
Strangely… She didn’t feel the same crippling impulse to hide she felt around everyone else. The sight of him inspired jealousy instead. Even streaked with dirt, and with blood seeping through the leg of his sweatpants,hestill managed to look brave. Invincible. Strong enough to face a group of four men head-on without flinching.
“I’m sorry.” Guilt instantly transformed him, making him look less fierce, and those eyes a little less silver. Nervously, he ran a hand through his hair, ruffling it into a messy tangle. “I shouldn’t have yelled, but I couldn’t bear to smellthemon you.”
The heat in his tone shocked her—or maybe it was the subtle possession lying beneath it?I couldn’t bear to smell them on you.Was that why he kept his distance and made her shower until her fingers ached?
Hell yes,that dark gleam in his eye claimed. Not only that, but…she could tell from the way his fingers twitched at his sides that he wasn’t satisfied with just wiping the strangers’ scents away. No, he wanted to replace them. Needed to.
With his touch. His scent. The impulse was so strong Loren’s knees buckled, and she gripped the counter. If she didn’t, she might go to him. Demand he do…something. Anything.
That uncomfortable, prickling heat was back, building beneath her skin. Her chest. Between her legs.Only him,a part of her whispered, pleased.Only he can touch me.
Overwhelmed, Loren sat on the lid of the toilet, wrapping her arms around her chest. Where the hell had that come from? Obviously, she had hit her head during the attack. She even felt along her swollen bottom lip, hoping the pain might snap some sense into her.
“I’ll kill him—” Officer McGoven stood by the sink, glaring at the mirror. He wet a rag and tackled his legs and arms haphazardly before washing his hands beneath the faucet. Afterward, he remained there, in between her and the door. Massive, his body blocked her in, but for whatever reason, she wasn’t alarmed.
“Kyle, that son of a bitch, will pay for this,” he growled as the last droplets of water dripped from him. “He should haveneverleft you alone. Not there.”
Buthelet her go in the first place, a tiny voice inside her argued. If he hadn’t followed her…
“Did you kill them?” Again, Loren didn’t know what made her speak at all. She couldn’t even look at him and stared down at her knees instead.
He didn’t answer, but the look in his eye—once she found the strength to peek at him—said without words what he wouldn’t.
“Loren, there is something you need to understand.” He reached for her, and Loren jerked back.
Not out of fear, she told herself—for some reason, she couldn’t bring herself to truly fear him—but…
The heat in his gaze startled her. No one ever looked at her like that. Ever. It was so much more than just anger or fear. No. Protectiveness? An emotion that drove him to kill.
“Loren…” Awkwardly, he held his hand in the air, inches from her face. “I would never hurt you. You know that, don’t you?”
Something made her nod before her mind had even processed the words. He wasn’t like her father or the men from the woods.
She knew that.