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“I think I want to take a shower.” She scrunches her nose. “I smell like a hospital.”
I press my nose into her hair and drag it down her neck. I smell a hint of her natural scent that drives me wild and if this had been a ride home from anywhere other than a hospital my mouth would have been on her cunt. “You smell good, baby, but I do think a shower will make you feel better.” I want to ask her if she wants my help, but I don’t want her to think it’s solely for sex no matter how much I crave her. I could have lost her and I would be lying if I said I wasn’t fucking desperate to touch her.
The car slows to a stop and I open the door, pull her into my arms and carry her up the walkway to her door. Her assistant had brought a change of clothes to the hospital for her, so luckily, she isn’t in that tight gown from the premiere. She immediately goes up the stairs while I lock up and set the alarm. I follow behind her, and by the time she reaches the top, she’s shedding her clothing and dropping them to the ground, creating a trail to her bedroom. I pick up the discarded articles and by the time I pick up her panties, I hear the water running. I’m just putting her clothes in her laundry basket when I hear her voice.
“Are you coming?” I turn around and see she’s standing in the entrance to her bathroom completely naked and I ball my hands into fists to try and temper the ache in my dick.
I cross the room towards her. “I didn’t want to press it if you needed space.”
“I don’t need space. I needyou.” She grabs my hand and pulls me into the bathroom and steps into the shower. She runs her eyes all over me as I strip out of my clothing and make my way into the shower with her.
She exhales the second the door closes behind me like she was holding her breath and now she feels like she can breathe.
“Tell me what you’re thinking,” I urge her.
“I’m scared and I hate being scared,” she whispers as tears well in her eyes. “I trusted him…he was someone I considered a really good friend, and now I feel like I don’t know who I can trust. I feel like I can’t even trust my own instincts.” She didn’t cry once at the hospital and I think now that we’re alone, the events of yesterday are setting in. “How did I not know?”
It turned out that Jeremy had been obsessed with her for a very long time after the police found a locked room in his basement that he had made into a shrine to her. Thousands of pictures taped to the walls. Things she’d touched, clothes she’d worn; I think there had even been pairs of her underwear.A fact that I have kept from Shay.
I can’t believe I had let my guard down and he’d gotten to her. I’d almost lost her forever.That is never going to happen again.
“He deceived you, baby. He deceived everyone. You believed what he showed you. You can’t blame yourself for that.”
“He didn’t deceiveyou.I should have listened to you.” Her eyes find the floor of the shower as she takes a step back and I feel like I’m witnessing the walls go up around her heart. I can only hope that I’m already in there so she can’t close it off to me.
“Hey,” I say and her eyes snap to mine. “Things happen sometimes. He preyed on you years ago and spent years laying the groundwork. No one could have known.”
“I guess he really was a good actor.” I can hear a hint of sarcasm, but mostly her tone is laced with sadness.
I push her gently against the wall as I prepare to remind her that although a very shitty thing happened, she’s okay and more importantly alive. “I got to you,” I tell her. “I will always get to you.” I rub her face and push her hair back gently. “You’re safe.”
“Because of you. What if you didn’t have the instinct to follow my Airtag?” She shivers even though the water is practically scalding and scrunches her nose. “What if he had gotten me to Europe?” I also learned that he had gotten a fake passport made for Shay so there wouldn’t be any issues at customs.
He had planned for everything.
Except for the fact that I’d stop at nothing to protect her.
“I’ll always find you, baby.”
“I’m sorry for…I don’t know, not listening to you when you said something wasn’t right.”
“Hey, it’s okay. I don’t want you to ever be scared. That’s why I’m here.” I tell her as I pull her into my arms as she succumbs to more tears.
Shay fell asleep shortly after we got out of the shower and despite the two men I had outside and her physically in my arms, sleep never finds me. She’d moved out of my arms at some point while she was sleeping which allowed me to do a bit of work. I’d begun combing through all the pictures of us and all the stories that were starting to report about Jeremy and what this meant for the television show. The picture of me carrying her out of the hospital spread like wildfire and while her team hasn’t made a statement, I know it’s only a matter of time before the romance rumors about Shay and I are confirmed.
Shay begins to stir and a whimper leaves her. I’m just about to wake her when she sits up and looks around frantically. The room is dark except for the light of my phone and the moonlight peeking through her curtains. “I’m here,” I murmur and she’s in my arms instantly. “You’re safe.”
“You stayed.”
“Of course, I stayed. You haven’t gotten it yet? Right next to you is the only place I need to be.”
The room is quiet so I hear her breath hitch in her throat and she grips me tighter like she’s afraid I’ll disappear or maybe likeshe’lldisappear.
“How long have I been out?”
“A while.”About six hours.“Are you hungry?”
“I think so.”