Chapter Eighteen
Kaja
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LEO LIFTED ME, ANDI hooked my hands around his broad neck. My fingers touched the softness of the hairs at his nape. I had to resist stroking them. He walked back to the cabin with long, easy strides, as though my weight was nothing.
“I brought you some clothes,” he said on the way, “but I’ve left them in the car. I’ll get you back in the cabin and then I’ll go and fetch them.”
“Thank you.”
I wondered what kind of clothes he’d bought me, but right now I’d be happy for anything that was clean. It wasn’t just that I’d been crawling around in the dirt that made me feel filthy, it was the thought of that man’s hands on my breasts, and the way he’d rammed his erection against the V of my thighs, and his sour breath on my face. It was the thought of his blood on my skin, and even his skin cells flaking off into my hair. I wanted to rid myself of any trace that he had ever existed.
I had killed a man. Perhaps I wasn’t so unlike my father after all.
I knew I shouldn’t feel safe in Leo’s arms. He was the one who’d got me into this situation in the first place. I should be wanting to escape from him, not seeing him as my ticket out of here—something he’d accused me of the night before. But he had no right to try to control how I felt about things or what I did, considering what he’d put me through. I didn’t owe him a single thing, and I needed to keep reminding myself of that.
The cabin door stood open, and Leo carried me inside, closed the door, and took me straight into the bathroom. A wicker chair was in the corner, and he placed me down, then went to the bath—that was separate from the walk-in shower—put the plug in, and turned on the taps.
“What are you doing?” I asked.
“What does it look like? Running you a bath. You have dirt and blood all over you, and your foot needs cleaning.”
“It’s okay. I can do it.”
“No, you can’t. I’m doing it. Now do as I say and take off your clothes.”
Self-conscious, I folded my arms over my chest. “What? No.”
“Do we have to do this at gunpoint?” He took out the weapon from the back of his belt. “Just do the fuck as I say for once.”
My gaze darted down to the gun. Would he really aim it at me to force me to undress?
I glanced back up at his face. He looked like a man who was sick to death of everyone’s bullshit.
“Okay, okay.”
I tried to stand but almost fell, unable to put pressure on my still-bleeding foot. He was next to me in an instant, still with the gun in one hand but supporting me with the other. I pushed the bottoms off my hips and let them drop to the floor. I told myself it was okay, that he’d already seen me in just my underwear and top. “I can get in the bath like this,” I told him.
“Take it off. It’s not like I haven’t seen a pair of tits before.” He gave a slow smile. “In fact, I had my mouth around one of your nipples last night, so I won’t be seeing something I haven’t seen before.”
My cheeks grew hot. He’d not only had his mouth on my nipple, he’d also had his fingers inside me, too.
He waved the gun in my direction. “Take it off, or I’ll do it myself.”
The bath was filling with water, the steam rising into the air. I had to admit, it did look inviting, but the thought of lying there with him in the room made me feel incredibly vulnerable.
He wasn’t going to give me any choice, though.
Closing my eyes briefly, I sucked in a breath and quickly pulled my top up over my head and dropped it to the floor. I covered my breasts with one arm and used the other to wriggle my underwear down my hips. Frustratingly, because I couldn’t put my foot down, I had to sit back in the chair. Leo caught hold of my knickers and whipped them off my feet. Then, to my horror, he lifted the material to his nose, inhaled deeply, and then tucked them into his pocket.
“Those are mine,” I protested.
“Not anymore.”