Page 40 of A Midnight Romance

Lux

I barely make it out of the elevator when my sister jumps into my arms. “Lux!” she shouts, burying her face in my shoulder.

Tears immediately spill from my eyes. “Stevie.” I tighten, forcing a deep hug.

It feels so good to be in my sister’s arms. What also feels good is that I don’t have to hide what happened to me from her.

The first time was difficult because I wanted to cry on her shoulder as we held each other like we were kids, but couldn’t.

This time, I don’t have to hide it. She’s here and she knows everything.

River rests a gentle hand on my back, and in this moment I know I’m truly not alone.

“Lux, why don’t you and Stevie go get you cleaned up,” River says before pressing a soft kiss on the top of my head. “I’ll call Ben, and send over some food.”

“This late at night?” Stevie asks with a cheeky undertone.

River pays her no mind and heads toward the North Wing. “I’ll let you know when he arrives.”

I break from our embrace, keeping my arms locked with hers. “I’m glad to be home.”

Stevie lifts a brow. “Home?”

This is my home now. River is my home. “I’ve been here for so long, I guess I’m getting confused. ”

Stevie’s body twists to the side, and finally takes a look at my state. “Are you hurt?”

“Not really.” I usher her toward my bedroom.

“But you’re covered in blood?”

A smirk plays on my lips. “That seems to be the norm for me lately.”

With her free hand, she twirls a corkscrew curl then flips it to the side. “Yeah, you’re definitely changing, big sister.”

I swing open the bedroom door and my eyes fall directly on the bed. A sudden memory of being secured to the mattress by Andrew a few hours prior flashes through my mind, sending my heart into a frenzy and my thoughts in a spin.

“U-uh,” I stutter, backing away.

“Are you all right?”

I blink a few times to push the memory aside, but I can’t because my skin still crawls with the sensation of his touch. “Yeah. I will be.”

Stevie’s worried pupils bore into me as she watches my every move heading toward the bathroom.

I take each step in stride, but the closer I get to the shower, the more desperate I become to rid my skin of any trace of Andrew.

“I need to get him off me.” With a low mumble, my trembling hands claw at the faucet in the long shower.

“Hey, Lux.” Stevie’s compassionate voice is behind me. “Let me do it.” Her fingers curl around mine, gently pushing them to the side.

I give in and start undressing. Sliding off my ripped white dress, dotted with burgundy blood stains when Stevie’s worried eyes land on me from across the room.

“Are you okay? ”

The shower water cascading from the rain faucet in the ceiling is all I hear as my bare feet shuffle across the heated tile floors. I step under the flow and rest my shoulder against the wall.

“Hotter.”

“Okay.” Stevie leans into the shower and turns the knob closer to hot.

“Hotter,” I demand.

Steam fills the room. “Are you sure? It’s already pretty—”

“Hotter.” I know I’m being irrational but I still don’t feel clean.

Without answering, she nods and cautiously moves the knob further to the left. She settles onto the bench that wraps around to the outside of the walk-in shower with her legs crossed underneath her. The scolding water stings my skin and it’s painful, but I am desperate to remove any traces of him.

I reach for the loofah hanging on the wall, then frantically snatch the body wash from the shelf.

“Hey, Lux,” my sister whispers, her hand back on top of mine.

“I need him off of me.” My stomach is churning with disgust.

“Here. “Stevie stands and squeezes the bottle on top of the loofah before handing it back to me. “Did he…”

I quickly grab it from her, shaking my head. “No, but he touched me, licked me—” I rub my legs up and down, then repeat the action on both sides, then reach for my back, but I can’t reach it and panic. “I need to get my back. I have to clean my back!”

“Okay, okay.” Stevie’s voice is soft. “I can do it.”

She’s not cleaning my skin hard enough.

“Harder.”

She increases her pressure.

“Harder.’

With a sigh, she rubs deeper .

“Harder.”

“Lux.”

“Stevie,” I snap, then suddenly my sister’s arms swing around my shoulders once again forcing the breath from my lungs.

“You’re safe, Lux.” She soothes my wet hair. “Andrew’s dead. He can’t hurt you anymore. None of them can.”

I let my head fall to her shoulder, and everything I’ve been holding onto over the last two months pours out of me. A waterfall of tears flows from my eyes, and at this point my body takes over. My stomach contracts, the muscles clenching as I bow forward and dry heave.

“Let it out,” Stevie comforts me, rubbing my back. “You’ve been holding on to so much, for so long.”

Panting and screaming, I grip the side of the shower in an attempt to let it all go. “Goddammit!”

“I know, Lux,” she reassures again in a soft voice.

“I feel like the weight of the world is on my shoulders.”

She cocks her head to the side. “I bet.”

“I can’t believe all of this happened. It’s all so overwhelming.”

My sister remains silent for an unclear amount of time, letting me cry on her shoulder, before she speaks. “Lux, you’re a strong badass woman who saved herself. You took your power back, and that’s something unworldly. “

I’ve gained my power back over the last couple months and I’m not the woman I was before.

But am I finished? Why do I feel like there’s still more work to be done?

There will always be a predator who slips through the system, and I’m confident River and his team will be hot on his trail making sure he doesn’t hurt anyone again.

Can I be a part of this world, too ?

Because I’m not the woman hiding from her inner darkness any longer.

Even though Andrew and his men are dead, I can’t fully say I’m done. I have unleashed a monster so powerful and intense, and nothing can suppress it again.

I turn my back to Stevie, and she squirts shampoo into my hair.

“What if I’m like River and want to continue doing this?” I confess.

“Do what?”

“Like hunt people down and kill them.”

Stevie’s scrubbing on my head slows. “You want to be a part of what they do?” she asks as if confirming more for herself than me. “Like how he and Sebastian have a full on operation hiding behind Thompson Innovations. You want to do this with them?”

“I think I do.” I glance up at my sister.

Her expression is filled with disbelief. “Maybe think about,” she suggests. “I mean, you might think you know what you’re getting into, and obviously you know, but do you really know?”

I rest my head against the tiled wall, facing my sister who is standing right outside the large walk in shower. “Stevie, I know everything. Including how much I care for River.”

She sighs. “That man does have it bad for you, doesn’t he?”

“Should I be scared?”

“Um…” Stevie sighs. “I don’t think so. You seem more confident with this than I’ve seen you with anything.”

I pop a bubble floating nearby. “But shouldn’t I be? It’s weird that I’m not, right? And if anything, I want to continue what we’re doing. I can’t imagine going back to my old life. “

“You have a gift. An ability to read people.” With a soft hand, she moves my face, forcing my eyes to fall in sight with hers. “And you can choose whatever life you want with whomever you want.”

When she finally gestures for me to leave, my fingers and toes are wrinkled from the water.

“Stevie,” I say as my sister stands to grab the white robe hanging on the wall by the bathtub.

“Hmm?” she answers, handing it to me.

“I have so deeply fallen for him.”

“I know,” she says, as if not surprised by the affection between River and me.

Stevie helps me onto the bed, because my limbs are weak and craving a minute of rest. Then she grabs some comfy clothes for me to put on. “Is it that obvious?”

She aches a brow in my direction.

“I guess that’s a yes.” I smile. “He’s been there through all of this. Holding my hand, comforting me, giving me the tools to get my voice back…” I trail off.

“Helping you is not charity to him. He is all in with you, Lux.”

In a brief moment of raw joy, I let myself feel the flutter in my chest, but it’s quickly interrupted by the rumble of hunger in my stomach.

“I’m starving,” I say.

She rolls her eyes with a smirk. “Your personal chef is probably here already preparing our food.”

“He’s not mine, he’s River and Sebastian’s,” I correct, pulling on the sweater she grabbed for me.

Stevie falls to the bed, her head resting in her palm. “But you two are out of your minds for each other,” she gushes. “It’s only a matter of time before this manor becomes yours, too. ”

My eyebrows snap together. “What do you mean?”

Does she think I’m moving in here permanently? River and I discussed only having me stay here until it was safe for me to return home. It’s safe now.

Do River and I continue seeing each other after I move back into my townhouse?

“I just assumed you’d stay here. Your eyes literally sparkle when you talk about him.”

“We haven’t discussed any of that yet,” I say.

“That’s why you have me.”

There’s a light knock on the door.

“Speak of the devil,” she jokes, popping off the bed.

I cross my arms over my chest and blush. “You don’t know it’s him.”

“He barely lets you get ten feet from him,” she says, placing her hand on the knob and giving it a twist.

When it opens, my eyes meet River’s with a rush of energy. “Ben said the food is almost ready.”

River and I exchange charged looks.

“We’re coming,” I say.

Stevie grins, giving his arm friendly pat. “She’s all yours.”

River humors my sister with a half-smile, before she slips past him and skips down the hall, leaving him standing in the door frame.

“How are you feeling?”

I saunter over to River, eating the distance between us. “Much better.”

“Good to hear.” The back of his knuckles feather my cheek. “Shall we? I’m sure you’re hungry.”

I nod, tucking myself under River’s arm, but after my conversations with Stevie, there’s only one thought at the forefront of my mind.

What happens next?