by Leslie North
He immediately shook his head. “No deal. You could slip and fall. Not happening.”
She gritted her teeth at his stubbornness. “I’ll just take a shower.”
He shrugged one shoulder. “Fine, but you’re going to have to strip down for that and I’m staying here to make sure you’re okay. You can’t even stand up now. How do you think you’re going to stand for a shower?”
Sonya’s hands curled into fists. “You’re being ridiculous.”
“You’re not being reasonable.” He moved closer, towering over her. “Believe me, I’ve seen naked women before.”
Oh, that comment just irked her. Gritting her teeth, she took a slow, deliberate breath, trying to get her temper back under control. “How about this? I’ll take off my clothes while you stand outside the door. I’ll carefully slide into the bath and then let you know when I’m okay. Does that work?”
He suddenly realized that the tiny woman was trembling. It wasn’t just nervousness, he thought. There was something…anxiousness? No, it was more than simple anxiety. He wasn’t quite sure, but he was positive that she was feeling the intense attraction towards him that he was fighting towards her. The realization soothed him and his mind shifted, his attitude softening slightly. His hand lifted up, a rough, callused finger skimming down her cheek and neck, sending crazy shivers throughout her whole body. “Will that ease your nervousness?” he asked
Her lips trembled with relief. “Yes! I can’t…get naked…in front of another man!” she snapped.
He looked at her for a long moment, as if he were memorizing her features. “Have your previous lovers allowed this kind of shyness, Sonya?” he asked, his voice almost gentle.
Sonya wasn’t sure how to answer that. She shook her head very slightly, her mouth falling open as she tried to think of a good answer.
He answered for her. “You’ve never had another lover, have you, Sonya?” he asked, his voice lower, more gravelly.
Sonya blushed and looked away, her eyes focusing on the large window over the bath. “That’s none of your business,” she finally answered but her voice was barely above a whisper.
That tremble, that barely-there reaction, startled him. Her innocence, her inability to hide that innocence, shocked him. It also altered everything and answered so many questions he’d had about this woman after reading her background. It shifted his perception of her.
In his world, Jual couldn’t rely simply on facts. He had to rely on his gut, his instincts. From the moment he’d walked into this woman’s hospital room, his gut told him that she was innocent. She hadn’t been a part of the assassination attempt. But his reaction to her had been too strong, too out of character for him. So he hadn’t trusted his instincts.
He couldn’t ignore them at the moment though. If she was innocent, that meant that she was a victim. She needed his protection. And more than likely, she could help him find the people who had tried to hurt his brother.
That changed everything. Instantly.
His touch against her skin changed. His fingers were no longer able to maintain a gentle caress. He wanted her. “It is my business. I’ve decided that we will be lovers.”
She pulled back, her shocked eyes looking up at him with horror. “Oh no we’re not!”
He tucked a lock of dark hair behind her ear. “Why not?”
She was struck dumb again. Why not? “Because you think I’m part of some sort of plot to hurt your brother!”
He shrugged and shifted slightly. “I don’t any longer.”
Well…huh? “When did this dramatic change occur? And when can I go home if you know that I didn’t have anything to do with the assassination attempt?”
His hand teased the delicate shell of her ear, causing the trembling to increase. “I can’t let you go,” he told her.
Those words startled Sonya. They seemed so…final. And she couldn’t deny the thrill that raced through her at the idea of this man “keeping” her. It was so basic, so…politically incorrect to want to be “kept” by a man. But there it was, she thought.
“You can’t keep me,” she whispered, wishing her voice was stronger.
Jual knew she was right. And the idea of keeping this woman, a woman he’d known for such a short period of time, hours really, was insane.
Stepping backwards, he didn’t reply. “I’ll be right outside the doorway, Sonya. Go slowly. Be careful. And call out to me if you need help.”
Sonya breathed a sigh of relief when the man stepped outside the door to the bathroom. She was fairly certain that he was just on the other side of the door, but she suspected it was the only reprieve she was going to get.
As quickly as her wound would allow, she pulled the now-disgusting scrubs over her head and pushed the pants down. She thought about folding them up, but instead, just picked them up and plopped them onto the counter. She wanted to get into the bath as quickly as possible, not trusting the giant man to stay away.
A glance in the mirror showed the bullet wound and she paused for a moment, looking at the evil scar. It was still red and scary-looking, but the damaged skin had closed up. She hated the bullet hole though. She’d never been vain about her body before, but something about this wound just made her feel…ugly.
“Sonya? Are you okay? Why is there silence?”
Sonya jerked her eyes away and hurried over to the edge of the tub, using the countertop for leverage so she wouldn’t fall on her butt. She climbed the stairs to the water’s edge and then discovered that there were steps leading down into the tub. How decadent, she thought with a sigh of relief as her body eased into the warm water.
This was heaven, she thought. Closing her eyes, she leaned back into the water, the warmth surrounding her and instantly relaxing the sore muscles. The lavender scent drifted up to her nose, soothing her mind even as the water soothed her body.
“Are you okay?”
Instantly tensing, Sonya’s eyes flew open and she looked up at the huge man standing next to her. “I’m fine!” she squeaked out, her hands immediately pulling the bubbles closer to hide her nakedness from his too-knowing eyes.
He sat on the edge of the tub and looked down at her. “Yes. You are very fine,” he replied, but she didn’t think he had the same meaning for “fine” that she’d intended.
She tried to relax against the marble back of the tub, but with a man this enormous and enticing close by, it was impossible to calm down. All of her senses, all the cells in her body were painfully aware of this man and his hand dipping into the water. “You don’t need to stay here,” she told him, more aware of herself as a woman than ever before, simply because this man was so close.
Jual ignored her silent entreaty for him to leave her alone. First, he wanted to be with her. Leaving her here, alone and naked, her skin turning soft and pink with the warm water, snapped all of his protective instincts into high gear. Her softness tempted him. He was tempted to strip off his clothes and join her in the water. But he suspected she would hurt herself trying to get away from him. He had to take this slowly.
“Tell me about that day.” His deep voice was gentle. Soothing almost.
Sonya cringed, closing her eyes. “I thought you….”
“I know you didn’t have anything to do with the attempt. Tell me what happened.”
She shook her head, opening her eyes and looking out the window. She had her hands wrapped around her drawn up knees and all she wanted to do was forget about that day. It reminded her of the pain, the way the bullet had torn through her and the fear she felt as she’d lain on the ground in the glaring sun, wondering if she was going to die. People had been running, screaming. No one had stopped to help her and the bullets had continued to fire. She hadn’t even been able to move to safety because of the pain in her side.
Oddly enough, his presence helped. A lot! More than she wanted to admit.
“I’d rather not,” she finally replied.
There was a long silence as he looked down at her dark
hair, now piled on top of her head. “You’re having nightmares.”
Her head quickly swiveled in his direction, her blue eyes revealing the truth before the words hit her. “How did you know?”
“I know.” And he could see the pain in her eyes. He wanted to lift her up, to wrap her in his arms and protect her from the cruel world. How had his perception of her twisted so dramatically in such a short period of time? Her gaze…it was powerful. The pain in her eyes called to him.
Sonya couldn’t seem to look away. “You’ve been there.” Something inside of her ached at this man having bad dreams. She wanted to wrap her arms around him and hold him closely.
“Tell me about the day,” he repeated, neither confirming nor denying that he’d had nightmares in the past.
She leaned her head back, closing her eyes. She was tired, she thought. So tired! She’d pushed herself too hard to get her leg muscles back, plus her body was still recovering from the bullet wound. Not to mention, being in this man’s presence was exhausting!
So instead of arguing, instead of denying him once again, which he didn’t seem to accept anyway, she gave in. Thinking back to that morning, she tried to remember. She pictured the morning, trying to give him what he wanted. Maybe if she did that, he would let her go and she would get back to her safe world where she generally understood what was going to happen. “I’d just left my hotel and was going to walk down the street to see the mosque. I’d read that the tapestries and interior were amazing.”
“They are. I’ll take you there tomorrow.”
She looked up at him and the blue color clouded over. “No. I don’t need to go there.”
Instantly, Jual understood what she wasn’t saying out loud. “I’ll make sure you are safe.”
She shook her head. “No.” She was very firm about this. “Anyway, I was walking out of the hotel.” Biting her lip, her hands played with the bubbles. “I’d always read that a person has a premonition when something bad is going to happen. But I didn’t feel that. No hairs standing up on the back of my neck, no women’s intuition telling me to go back to my hotel room or have another cup of coffee in the hotel restaurant.” She was silent again, thinking about that day. “Just…one moment, I’m looking at my map of the city, worrying about bathrooms being available. The next moment, I’m on the ground, pain in my side and…shouting. I heard lots of shouting.”
He listened, watched her eyes and the way her lips compressed as if she were trying to switch off that scene in her head. “Which way were you facing?”
Sonya worried her bottom lip, trying to think back, to place herself in the heat of that morning again. “I remember looking across the street at the coffee shop. I was wondering if the coffee in those small shops was better than in the hotel.”
“Not always,” he replied with derision, thinking back to times when he’d grabbed whatever coffee was available. Some of it shouldn’t have been classified as coffee, it was so bad.
She smiled slightly, but then let her mind drift back to that day. “It was already painfully hot,” she told him, although that could be said of any day really. It was the desert, after all.
“Go on,” he urged.
Sonya looked out the window again, trying to remember. Now that she wasn’t a suspect, she would love to be able to give Jual something to help him catch the assassin. But beyond the coffee shop and the map she’d had in her hands, she couldn’t remember anything about that day.
She sighed, one hand coming out of the bubbles to rub her forehead. “I’m sorry. After I heard the shot and all of the yelling, I just sort of…went blank.”
He understood without her really explaining. Apparently, she wasn’t completely aware of how to explain either. “You passed out from the pain, Sonya. Don’t apologize for that.”
She turned to look up at him again, somehow forgetting that she was naked and that the bubbles were slowly disappearing. “How many times have you been shot?” she asked. It wasn’t a question of if he’d been shot, but how many times had he been shot.
“A few.”
She hesitated with the next question, not sure if she really wanted the answer. “And how long did the nightmares last?”
He smiled slightly. “I’ll let you know when they stop,” he admitted. He was surprised that he’d said that. He’d never told anyone that he had nightmares. But they weren’t about getting shot. They were about…other things. Images that he didn’t quite understand.
“That’s not encouraging.”
“The more you talk about that day, the faster those images leave your head.”
“I thought that talking about them would just reinforce the violence inside of me. Right now, it sort of feels like I’d just imagined that morning.”
“I’ll help you through the process. It’s slow.”
She would love to talk to him more. But she had to get back to her life. “When can I go back home?”
Never.
He was so stunned by that one word popping instantly into his head that he had to pause for a long moment, his mind reeling with the word. Never?
“When you’re fully recovered,” he finally told her.
Sonya’s body tensed when he reached out and pulled the band from her hair. It tumbled down around her and she grabbed for it. “What are you doing?”
Enough talk about that day, he thought. Time to move on to something more interesting. “I’m going to help you wash your hair.”
Sonya shook her head. “I don’t need help,” she told him, not wanting those strong hands on her again. Once was too much. She was still feeling strange after that one finger touched her skin and her ear.
“You haven’t had a good wash in several days, I’m guessing.” He lifted the nozzle next to the faucet and turned it on, testing the water temperature with his hand. “Relax. Lean forward slightly but tilt your head back.”
“Really, I can…” she couldn’t finish that sentence since he was running the water over her head and she had to either lean forward or get water sprayed in her face. She leaned forward and tilted her head so that she didn’t inhale water. “I can do this myself.”
“You’re too independent, Sonya. You need to learn to accept help.”
A smirk snuck up on her with his admonition but she was careful not to let him see it. “I doubt you ever let anyone wash your hair.”
“Lean back,” he commanded, then gently tugged her hair until she was positioned right where he wanted her. A moment later, he was working the shampoo through her hair, his strong fingers massaging her scalp and the tense muscles at the base of her neck. It felt incredible!
“Oh my!” she sighed and leaned forward even more so that he could press those strong fingers lower along her neck.
“Feels good?”
“Yes!” she sighed, unable to hide the truth from him.
As he continued to massage the shampoo into her head, he asked her questions. Not questions about that day, but about her life, about her hobbies, her preferences, her favorite foods. The more she talked, the more she relaxed. Sort of. It was hard to completely relax with that man’s fingers in her hair.
“Time to rinse,” he announced. “Lean forward again.”
Sonya dutifully leaned forward, her body barely following her mind’s commands but he helped, his strong hands moving down her back. Too far down her back! She gasped when she felt his hand smoothing down in the water.
“What are you doing?” she demanded, arching forward, almost as if she didn’t want him to touch her when, in fact, the reality was the complete opposite. She pulled away so that she couldn’t enjoy his touch. It felt too wonderful.
Too dangerous.
“Stop moving away,” he told her and tugged at a chunk of hair, pulling her back towards him slightly. “Your hair is long. The ends are getting into the suds of the bath water.”
The explanation made sense, but the way his hands were moving along her skin was…wrong? No, that wasn’t the right word. She wasn’t
sure what it was, how to describe the way she felt when he touched her but she didn’t want to examine her feelings too closely.
Sonya leaned back slightly, but she could feel that trembling betray her. “I don’t think I need my hair washed any longer,” she whispered, looking at him over her shoulder.
“You need this,” he argued and his strong hands pulled through her hair. “You’re beautiful, Sonya.”
She shook her head, remembering the disgusting blemish and the surgical stitches that looked harsh against her skin. “I have a bullet hole in my side.” She bit her lip and closed her eyes, cursing herself for uttering that admission.
Jual felt her stiffen and his fingers stilled. “That doesn’t detract from your beauty. You know that, don’t you?”
He’d stopped looking at her hair and glared into her eyes, conveying his message with more than just words.
“I’m not.” She could see his jaw tighten and wasn’t sure how to take that. “Jual, I just…”
“You’re going to force me to prove it to you, aren’t you?” he interrupted.
Sonya shook her head. “I’m not asking you to prove anything.”
He sighed. “Lean back, Sonya. I’m going to finish your hair and then you need something to eat.”
She was hungry. But she wasn’t sure that leaning back and letting this man continue to touch her was a good idea. Already her mind was going down strange pathways. Sensuous roads that led to nothing but trouble. Jual was a strong man and she suspected he had overwhelming desires. Desires she wasn’t capable of handling.
“I think I should do it myself.”
“Lean back,” he commanded once again. When she still hesitated, he changed tactics. His lips changed from grim to…wicked. Oh yeah, that was the only way to describe the way he moved his eyes from her hair down her body. “Fine. You don’t want me to touch your hair, the water allows for…”
She instantly leaned back, her head tilting so that he couldn’t see as much bare skin. Her whole body was trembling, aware of him as a man.
When he chuckled, she shivered and she knew that he recognized her reaction. His hands skimmed over her shoulders in the guise of pulling her hair back once again. Closing her eyes, she tried not to react to his touch, but his hands seemed to sear her skin with the heat.