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“Where are we going?” she asks, before she peeks over my shoulder and sees the mess too. “Shit!”
I chuckle, still nuzzling her neck. “I’m going to put you in a nice hot shower, sweetheart, then we’ll change the duvet.”
“I can try to replace it.” She’s lightly tapping my back as she nips at her lip. We reach the bathroom, and I step into the walk-in shower, turning on the overhead rain shower as well as the wall-mounted head. Warm water blasts us both. “How much does a comforter like that cost?”
I know Chloe’s got this thing about people helping her. I assumed it was pride, but this doesn’t sound like pride. It sounds like fear…
“First of all, I’m pretty sure I’m the one that made the mess,” I say, lightly setting her on her feet. “Second. You can splatter paint all over my floors and couch, get blood all over the bed, break the countertops?—”
“Killian.”
“I don’t give a shit about stuff, and I don’t care what you take from my life, Chloe. Take as much as you want. It’s still way nicer to have you here.”
CHAPTERSEVENTEEN
Chloe
Those words explodesomething inside my brain.
Take whatever you want.
My mother killed her first two marriages by taking what she wanted. And the third, she let me pay the price for her needs.
It’s a thing with me, and I get it. But I can’t just take from people around me. It fills me with loathing and dread. “I would never?—”
“Abuse what I offered,” he finishes for me, grabbing the soap. His hands come to my back as he starts to scrub down my body. “There are takers, Chloe, and you aren’t one of them. You could take to what feels like excess to you and I would still be like, baby girl, take more.”
He’s scrubbing the blood from my thighs as he says these words, and I feel the tears that prick at my eyes.
I hold onto his shoulders, gripping him like I’ll collapse without his strength. That’s the thing about Killian. I can put my weight on him, he’s strong like that. I feel myself curling around him. “I’m not sure it works like that.”
Very gently he rubs the blood from between my legs, before he looks up at me. “Tell me how it works.”
“In the beginning it’s alltake whatever you want.Here’s my credit card.And then soon it’s,I can’t afford thatandhow can you be so selfish…”
He chuckles then, and the sound of it, like he’s very amused, makes me stop, frowning at him.
“Sorry,” he says, though he doesn’t stop laughing as he stands. “I lack a lot. And you should be guarded with me for many reasons. But money is the one thing I have in abundance. Well…that and muscles. You can’t use those up either, sweetheart.”
The words make my knees weak, I appreciate them so much. But in terms of really believing them, I’m still not sure.
When we’re done in the shower, I collect up the comforter and Killian shows me to the laundry room. All this man does is take care of me, the least I can do is treat the stain.
But I step into his laundry room, my eyes going wide. The washing machine is huge, there’s a folding table and racks for hanging clothes. I search through the cleaners, finding one for treating stains and then wet the blood spot in the large sink, scrubbing the blood.
Killian must have put a spare comforter on the bed, because he comes back to the laundry room, lounging in the doorway, one shoulder against the jam as he watches me.
“I hope it comes out,” I say, stopping up the sink, to let the stain soak over night.
“We’ll just get a new one if it doesn’t. Maybe I’ll get red, then we can fuck even when you’ve got your period.”
I straighten, my eyes bugging out. “How long do you think I’ll be staying here?” What I really mean, is how long does he think we’ll be seeing each other…
But he must think I’ve meant something else. He shrugs as he answers, “Might be a while. Mason moves fast but the Russians are like the ticks of Vegas. They’re burrowed in deep, and they might be difficult to pull out.”
I shake my head. “You’ve got a way with words, you know that?” But I lick my lips. “And I didn’t mean to insinuate I’d be staying. I meant how long do you think?—”
“Of course you’re staying,” he glares at me. “You have no protection at your place. There is no way you’re going back there.”