Royce(49)

“I’ll just take Miss York up to our room. If you wouldn’t mind fixing her a tray…what would you like, Kasey? They can—”

She leaned into his ear and bit him. Hard. “I want you to fucking put me down and stop carting me around like a bab—” The tears came hot and fast. She buried her face in his neck and didn’t say another word. She knew that he’d carried her up the stairs. She knew that he’d spoken to the two ladies there in the hall and the two others she’d not learned the names of. She wanted to crawl in a hole and simply lay there. The bed beneath her made her roll into a ball and weep.

She didn’t know how long it was before she fell asleep, but she woke to a semi-dark room and a warm, hard body next to her. She tried to roll away from him, knowing that it was Royce, but he pulled her back and snuggled over her breast.

Kasey lay there, her heart pounding and her body needing his. She tried again to pull away, to get up to use the bathroom, but wasn’t able to budge him.

“Royce, let me up. I have to use the bathroom.” He groaned when she punched his arm. “Royce, let go of me. I have to pee.”

He rolled and let her go, but before she could get the blanket off and stand, he was there. She wanted to tell him she was fine, but the room tilted a bit and she had to grab onto him or fall. He held her up, speaking to her in low, soothing tones. She laid her forehead on his chest.

“I have to pee.” She hated the way her voice sounded small and weak. “I just…I think I’m fine now. If you’ll just tell me where my clothes are, I’d like to take a shower too.”

“I don’t think so. Not unless you take one with me. Come on, I’ll help you to the bathroom and then we’ll get you changed.” He held her close, but he didn’t pick her up this time.

“I feel fine. I promise to take a quick one. And I won’t lock the door.” He laughed, but said nothing. “Seriously, Royce, this is stupid. I want to…I need to take a shower. I feel nasty.”

He stopped walking and she looked at him. He looked so…sad, and her heart thudded in her chest. Before she could tell him that she was sorry that she was being a pain in the ass, he kissed her gently on the mouth. Then he leaned his forehead to hers.

“I don’t…I can’t tell you how I felt when my brother called me. He was hysterical with worry that I nearly didn’t know what he was saying. He said you were screaming for your uncle. That you kept telling him that there was so much blood. He’d thought…he told me later that all he could think about was that someone had broken in and that they had hurt you. I couldn’t breathe for not knowing. I got a ticket on my way to the hospital.” He kissed her again before continuing. “I love you, Kasey. I know you find that hard to believe after what I’ve done to you, said to you, but I do. I love you so very much.”

He took her the rest of the way to the bathroom and she let him. She didn’t fuss at him when he insisted on helping her with the toothpaste, nor did she say anything when he turned the shower on. She did, however, speak up when he started to peel off his own clothes.

“I’m not taking a shower with you,” she told him as she gripped her own T-shirt over her hips. “I can’t. You have to…Royce, please don’t. I’m…I’ve had…I’m not ready for this. The doctor said no sex so I can’t take a shower with you.”

He stopped undressing and stared at her before he nodded. “Kasey, I’m not an animal. Having sex with you…well, I was going to say is the last thing on my mind, but that would be a lie. I want you with all my heart. But I’m still going to get in with you. You take care of whatever it is you need to for five minutes then I’ll get in and clean up too. I won’t…I won’t touch you unless you need me too, but honey, I’m just as nasty-feeling. I’ve not had even a sponge bath in three days and I need a shower too.”

She supposed she could have insisted that he take one after her, but she only nodded. Kasey turned her back on him while he brushed his own teeth and she hurried into the shower. She wanted to be clean in the worst way possible. She ducked her head under the shower to get her hair wet again when she heard the door open behind her.

Kasey had never had anyone wash her hair for her before. She thought maybe her mom had done it for her as a child, but no one since she’d become an adult. When Royce took the shampoo from her and started massaging it into her hair, she nearly moaned. When he told her to stand under the spray and rinse, she felt his cock brush slightly against her hip. She froze.