I looked over my shoulder when I got to my bedroom, making sure that Nick put them in the right spot. He got the right cabinet…and then the right shelf. He caught me in his peripheral vision and shooed me away.
“Bath!” he said. “Before it overflows!”
I smirked and headed for the bathtub. I dipped my toe into the water, and somehow, he had gotten it to be just the right temperature. Hotter than what most people would want, but not so hot as to be scalding and burn things. I took off my clothes, but just before I dipped in, I looked in the mirror.
I was a little aghast at the extent of the bruises. I knew what parts hurt more than others, but this was the first time I was seeing myself naked with all the marks. I felt…
Vulnerable.
I’d never felt this way before physically, not to this extent. I had markings all over my face, but I also had purple spots all over my arms and ribcage. My left hip also had an ugly marking, likely where I had been kicked. And that didn’t even account for the blow to the back of the head that had initially all but knocked me out.
And if he had struck me any harder or in any of the wrong spots, I might be dead. I…
I turned away. I wasn’t ashamed per se, but I knew if I kept going down that dark path, I’d think about Ryan’s life without me. And even just acknowledging that thought was crippling enough. Some darkness did not need light shined upon it.
I slipped into the water, occasionally fidgeting to avoid putting too much weight on one particular spot of my body. Once I was fully slid in, I let some bubbles run under the faucet, filling the capacity of the tub. The water had reached about halfway up my waist, and feeling it gently rise was the best sort of feeling I could have asked for. The only thing that would have made this moment a little bit better was some wine, but that would have just been the icing on top of the already-placed icing on the cake.
I waited until I felt the water reach my breasts, at which point I leaned forward and turned it off. Then I leaned back, closed my eyes, and just tried not to think about anything. It was almost a form of meditation, though I had never actually tried to meditate before.
But it was a bit of a struggle. I tried to be nice to myself, considering it had been all of three days ago that I had suffered a traumatizing attack, but I just couldn’t get settled, no matter what I did. It seemed like something was missing.
Music.
I leaned forward, but just as I did, I heard Nick entering the bedroom and soon the bathroom. I leaned back down, knowing that he’d probably give me grief about needing to relax at a time like this or something else silly.
“Well,” he said when he entered and saw me naked.
I turned my head, pretending to just now have noticed that he had entered, and smiled at the sight. He had in one hand a glass of red wine, and in the other, my phone.
“Hello,” I said. “I see you’ve brought me gifts.”
“Indeed. I couldn’t help but notice you had some Ferrari Wine in the fridge. Figured it was only appropriate that you should have some. And I thought you’d want your phone.”
“Oh, well, thank you.”
He put both of those down gently on the edge of the tub, and then turned to…leave?
“Where do you think you’re going?” I said as I took the glass of wine and had my first sip.
Nick halted in his tracks and turned. It was pretty easy to see that he was getting hard very fast.
“Oh, I, uh, just have to finish cleaning your dishes—”
“That can wait,” I said. “Why don’t you stick around and join me?”
He chuckled nervously.
“It’ll be hard for me to be in the tub and not touch you,” he said. “That’s getting into some—”
“I’m well aware,” I said.
I didn’t think we’d have sex in the tub. But there were a whole lot of things that we could do that would be rather enjoyable. Nick gulped, and I had to laugh.
“You’ve already had sex with me, and now you’re nervous about getting in the tub with me?”
“I just don’t want to hurt you—”
“That’s not possible, Nick,” I said. “You’re too good to me.”
Of course, he could wind up touching me in a way that might draw a gasp or a wince of pain. But that was very, very different from him hurting me. And I did not believe Nick would ever hurt me.
But he was still hesitating.
“Either you’re getting in this tub voluntarily, or I’m chasing you through this apartment naked.”
Nick chortled.
“As amusing as the sight would be of you doing that,” he said.
He finished his words by removing his shirt and jeans in short order. Boy, he had a fucking great body—I know I’d already slept with him and felt the effect of that body, but seeing it from here just gave me even more of an appreciation for it. Fuck, it looked good.
Then he took off his boxers, almost looking sheepish about how hard he was, and I couldn’t help but feel incredibly aroused myself. I scooted forward a bit so he could sit behind me, and I leaned back into him.
“Now see, wasn’t that pretty good?” I said. “You were acting all scared.”
“Still got dishes to wash,” he mumbled sarcastically. “But yeah, I think this is much better.”
He started to rub his hands on
