In the shower Carol Anne washed all of the
grime off of her body with shaking hands. The gray-brown specks flowed down the
lines of her skin in chaotic swirls mixed with the suds from her beauty bar.
The citrus scent that wafted up into her nose made her feel somewhat cleaner on
the inside as well as the outside but the inside would take much more than
anything Dove could give her. More often than not as she tried to lather up her
torso and legs her ribs would protest, loudly. She held in gasps trying to keep
them quiet and told herself that she could take it; she didn’t want to provoke
the injury unnecessarily so she kept things light and slow.
After the slow torture of simply trying to
clean herself, even the 4 shower heads seemed to only marginally help as she
pushed through the pain of simply standing upright and breathing. Carol Anne
decided that her hair was only getting a token rinse, the bench in the shower
was too far away from the falling water to be of any real use to take a load
off and lifting her arms above her head was just not going to happen. As much
as she wanted to wash the dirt out of her hair she wasn’t interested in
anything other than the body scrub.
She thought of the Jacuzzi tub opposite the
shower. Out the shower door 4 steps and she would have been there. She should
have used that seeing as she could step down into it and sit down but she
thought the jets might have been too much and the simple fact was that the
shower had a barrier. It was glass but that still made her feel like she was
separated from the real reason she was in here now. We start over now. She thought to herself.
The shifting of feet reminded her that she
wasn’t alone. As much as she hated the fact that Robert stuck to her like a
tick on a deer especially after her ‘Punishment’ had been exercised she knew
that in his guilty phase, he wouldn’t let anything happen to her and would
actually be surprisingly gentle. So even though she hated him more than
anything she could even think of, at this moment he would do anything for her.
So if by chance darkness closed in he would stop her from hitting the floor in
the marble confines of the shower.
As if he knew what she was thinking,
“Angel?” his soft voice penetrated the sound of water falling.
Cringe…
She forced herself to speak.
“Yes?” she knew what was coming next and closed her eyes to wait for it. “Do
you need my help?” The sincerity in his voice crushed her. That was a shadow of
the man she fell in love with but in their five years together he had done so much
to alter and completely destroy that perception of him. At least for her the
image was dead and buried. Every now and then though, she would catch a small
glimpse of that person he was before he became the hell on her earth that she
needed to survive.
Ugh…she cleared her throat. “Just a
towel…please.” As slowly and carefully as she could she reached out and shut
off the water. Without the water on she had trouble keeping her balance. It
must have been keeping her upright she figured. With her head down and slightly
hunched over she rested her palm on the wall taking slow deep steadying breaths
while she waiting for Robert to pass her a towel. The tremble in her legs told
her that she was going to fall over soon if she didn’t sit down. She eyed the
bench at the other end of the shower wondering if she would have the steam to
make it there.
When the glass door opened Robert just stood
there, staring at her, soaking in the sight of her wet naked body. Primal need
was behind is eyes and barely restrained. Even though he knew she was injured
his body didn’t care and she watched him harden in front of her. The front of
his pants stretched tight. She froze when he stepped in to wrap the towel
around her shoulders. His gentle hands guiding her to step over the lip in the
shower stall.
Once she was out Robert sat her down on the
step between the shower and the Jacuzzi where he had been perched while he
waited for her and then he ducked out of the bathroom. The chill on her legs
had busted out goosebumps and made her shiver. Not so good with the rib
situation but there was nothing she could do about that.
Robert came back with the biggest and
fluffiest robe she had ever seen and when he wrapped it around her it was warm.
“I popped it in the dryer for you Angel, so it was nice and warm for you.” This
was why she had trouble leaving…before. The sincerity he showed her after the
damage was all a lie and she knew that now. Even if he did honestly feel badly
about the way he abused her, she would never fall for the nice guy routine
again. Now it was all about self-preservation. Her brain kicked into high gear
and she tried to think of what it was this time that made her finally decide to
end it, but she didn’t know where the decision came from only that it was there
now. She was finished with this but he wouldn’t let her go easily and there was
no way to get clear of this while he was breathing.
But she would try.
At least there was one good thing she
didn’t have to think or worry about. The
house, business, the bank accounts…were all hers.
He lifted her to her feet and walked step
by step with her to her bed. She passed the two walls of floor to ceiling windows
and the window seat that looked out over the vast acreage. She wanted to sit
there, but didn’t say anything. She always felt at peace looking at the
familiar treeline and rolling hills. After lowering her gently on to the edge
of the bed, Robert helped her get her legs in and under the covers making sure
not to jar her too much. He fluffed her pillows and even found her the remote
for the wall mounted TV in her room. He was crazy…he had to be.
Once he got her all situated in bed he went
downstairs to make her breakfast. She let the bed consume her body as she
relaxed against the pillows. She slowly let out a deep breath that she was
unaware of holding, and the tears that she had stopped herself from shedding in
the Pit surfaced again. She had mere days to figure something out and get away
from him but only a few days that were not nearly enough time. With a firm mind
she gave herself a timeline that wasn’t too long and not too short. “One week.”
She whispered to herself.
She solidified her courage. “One
more week…and I’m gone.”
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