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“I’m going to bathe you, we’re going to talk, and then we’re going to bed.” His authoritative tone, which usually annoyed me, instead wrapped me in a blanket of safety.
“Carry me?” I sounded as small and lost as I felt. He scooped me up in his arms, looking pleased that I’d asked him.
I buried my nose in his neck as he carried me into the bathroom. He seated me by the sink and moved to fill the tub before returning back to me. He undressed me slowly, starting with my shoes. I got a bizarre sense of déjà vu, remembering the night he’d carried me, drunk and paint-splattered, into this bathroom. I’d refused to let him undress me, then. I’d held him off and pushed him away. How different things were now.
His gaze landed on the place where Adam had ripped my shirt at the collar, but he said nothing and I was grateful. He stripped me and when he was done I crossed my arms over my naked body, hiding. Gently, he took my wrists and held them to my side. I tried to breathe, to inhale him and force my body to remember that this was Alfie. I could trust him with my body.
He inspected me thoroughly, turning me around, lifting my hair, turning my face up to the light and inspecting the burning place where Adam had struck me.
“It won’t bruise.” He sounded remarkably calm. I wondered how he knew what would bruise and what wouldn’t, but I wastoo exhausted to go down that rabbit hole so I left it alone. He lifted my hand and inspected the swollen knuckles.
“I punched him in the face.” Not that it had done much good. A hot tear fell and slid down my cheek.
“Don’t get upset over him, Lo.”
“I’m not upset, I’mangry. I wish I could have just kicked the crap out of him.”
He gave me a small smile and some of the tension dissipated. He was right, Adam wasn’t worth my tears. I was safe here. Yet Adam lingered, hovering around me like a curse.
Alfie led me to the tub but didn’t get in with me. Instead, he stripped down to his shirt and trousers and, rolling up his sleeves, sat on the marble bed surrounding the tub and began to bathe me. Normally, he would have climbed in with me, but he seemed to know I didn’t want to be in the proximity of a naked man right now.
I closed my eyes and tried to ignore the throbbing in my right hand as he ran the wash cloth over my body, between my toes and fingers, along the lengths of my calves. He took his time and I wallowed in it, absorbing every part of Alfie’s essence so that Adam could fade away and Alfie could fill me once again. I opened my eyes and my stuttering heart eased at the stern look of concentration on his face as he massaged my feet. I was safe now.
“Why was Elliot following me?” My voice echoed around the bathroom. After checking me over he’d switched the light out and, save for the moonlight streaming in through the window, it was dark. I was grateful for it. I didn’t want to be looked at right now. He’d anticipated that too.
His jaw ticked and I watched as he debated whether or not to tell me what was going on. “Turn around,” he said, placing my foot back in the water. I scowled at his evasiveness but complied anyway.
‘Pushover.’That’s what Keira had called me.I shook her words away and pulled my mind back to the man that mattered. He reached for the gold-plated shower head and switched the water on. I tipped my head back as he wet my hair, leaving my mind to race. Eventually, he dropped the shower head into the water and reached for the shampoo.
“I haven’t had him following you this whole time, I promise. It was just a fortunate coincidence that I sent him to watch you tonight.” I stayed silent, waiting for thewhy. “I finally got around to opening the envelope we found on my car on Friday.”
“The parking ticket?”
“Not a parking ticket.” His shampoo-covered hands fell into my hair as he began to wash it, massaging my scalp with those talented fingers that could make me moan in a hundred different ways. “It was a photo of you and Bradley.”Oh God.My stomach twisted. I couldn’t imagine how much seeing that must have hurt, and yet here he was, washing my hair. Keira had called him ruthless, but tonight, all I’d seen was that he was protective.
“I believe Adam put it there in the hopes of separating us.” His tone was business-like, clearly not wanting to dwell on the pain we had already dealt with over the weekend. “I wasn’t sure who had done it at first so I sent Elliot to watch you, just to be safe. Now, I know it must have been him.”Adam.Our relationship had never been anything special. It scared me that his mind was so warped that he could take what little we’d had and turn it into a love story.
I sat in my own thoughts as Alfie finished rinsing the shampoo from my hair before lathering it with conditioner and working it into every silky strand. His movements, once so uncertain, now came easily. He’d taken the time to learn something as trivial as washing my hair. The sweetness of that wasn’t lost on me.
“He’s been following me for weeks.” The thought turned my stomach. Had he watched through my window as I changed? Had he taken other pictures of me? It wasn’t the first time he’d stalked me but this time felt different. More sinister. “What are you going to do?” I asked and there was a short pause before he spoke.
“He will never come near you again. My security team has been alerted and either Elliot or another member of my team will stay with you until we leave this weekend.”
“I don’t want a bodyguard, Alfie.” I hugged my knees even tighter to me.
“Sweetheart, this isn’t your decision to make. Your safety is my responsibility.”
I should have argued for my independence. I used to do that, but I was tired of arguing about everything with everyone all of the time. So, I nodded again and complied. Besides, it wasn’t like I could count on the police to keep me safe instead. They had never helped before and I especially couldn’t turn to them now that Elliot had broken Adam’s wrist. That would throw Elliot and Alfie into a world of drama that I didn’t want to be responsible for.
I closed my eyes as he took his time rinsing the conditioner from my hair, and when he was done he dropped the shower head into the soapy water. I rested my head on his leg, not caring that my wet hair was ruining a very expensive suit. I sighed as he massaged the tension from my shoulders.
“What happened between you and Keira?” Now it was my turn to debate whether or not to tell the truth. I didn’t want to, but as Friday had proved, lies and omissions of any kind would come back to bite me. Hard.
“We fought about you.” I hated this piggy-in-the-middle position. Listening to Keira insult Alfie had only made me hate her. I prayed Alfie wasn’t about to do the same.
“She doesn’t approve of your decision.” It wasn’t a question and I didn’t need to answer. “Sometimes, when people are afraid to walk a path alone, they cling to those around them, and when those around them decide to walk their own paths, they lash out. Fear and jealousy can morph a person you thought you knew into someone you don’t.” Is that what Keira had done? She was lashing out because she was scared of being on her own? It made sense. It made way more sense then Alfie stealing my birth control. “Is she alright?”
I tilted my head up, gazing up into those clear steel-greys. “Do you care?”