“Cathal freed me before something worse could happen to you. Even though I felt the consequences of my actions on my own skin.”
I sigh when he turns and lifts his t-shirt. I was paying too much attention to myself, and I didn’t realise that he didn’t escape unhurt either. A lot of red lines surround his back, almost tearing it apart and cleaving the tattoo on his back. A tattoo I’ve never seen before. It is a gigantic tarantula, full of intricate black details yet elegant at the same time. Dark flowers, vines, spiderwebs - everything comes around the tarantula, creating a beautiful work of art that is stained through his suffering.
“Oh my God, what did he do to you?” I ask softly.
He puts his shirt back in place and turns to face me. He comes closer to me, putting his big thumbs on my face and wiping the tears I didn’t even know I had. He kisses my forehead and retracts slowly. His gaze goes from my eyes to my half-open lips before he talks.
“He punished me for provoking him and took away all my liberty. I barely even got to enjoy it.”
?
One hour later, I am still shaken up by Lucas’s words, and I have to decide whether to get out of the bathroom or not. I tried to process it all until the water got cold and all the pink bubbles disappeared.
What did his liberty mean exactly?
I figured he needed to continue working for Cathal, but what would entail in a detailed manner scared the hell out of me.
Finally, I slip out of the bathroom with a white towel wrapped around my body. When I open the door, a masculinefigure I quickly recognise turns to face me. He watches me while grinning with his intense black eyes, scanning my body like I was an exhibit, and it makes me realise I only had a towel covering me. And it goes just two fingers under my butt.
Not bringing a change of clothes with me was the best fucking decision, what can I say? I almost frown and shiver from the image I am putting myself in my head of the old man masturbating in a big and luxurious bathroom while thinking about what he saw and could’ve seen if the towel slipped.
Always thinking about nasty things, Anmara.
“Keep me posted,Lycos,” Cathal says to Lucas while looking at my body. More at the hand above my boobs that held the towel tightly.
He shoves his hands in the pockets of his pants and gets out of the room without saying a word. I am stone still with a hand on the handle of the bathroom door and one on the towel, trying to get rid of my stupid thoughts.
When I hear the main door closing, I come to my senses and go to the other room to dress up. I change into a pair of black shorts and a black top, but also lingerie underneath, not caring what kind of crazy person was looking at me. I then go back to the safe room.
Lucas is still on his feet, and he looks at me worriedly when I enter the room.
He wants to say something, but he stops when the front door opens. I calmly exhale when Blake comes into the room. I don’t feel like having another uninvited guest this close to me.
“It’s your turn, brother. I’ve got it from here,” Blake says, a little too relaxed.
Something is weird, but he always has this calm aura around him, so I ignore the feeling.
Lucas comes to me and takes my face in his hands, looking in my eyes.
“I promise I’ll quickly come back, and we will get the hell out of this place as soon as we can. You’ll be fine,” he encourages me.
“We’ll talk later about where I will stay, considering Marshall’s true nature,” I say, his name coming out with a little too much acid in my voice, but he deserves it.
“Just… think about how you’ll break up with him without making Marshall suspect a thing until I’m back,” Lucas says in a serious tone, making me freeze under his gaze. “I’m not saying this because I want you, but because I know what kind of man he is and I don’t wanna see you suffer more than you already did,” he whispers, and I begin to get too hot.
Deep down, I know I have to do this to not end up like the others. I can’t risk a fate so cruel. Not when I have so many things to achieve before getting to an obscure universe.
His suave whisper takes over my senses and brings warmth to the most dangerous zone, which makes it worse in this moment, feeling it more as a burn, as my little one is too devastated.
I want you.
His words are the only ones circulating in my mind, leaving me without a voice. I just nod while watching the two full-of-hope emeralds, seeing that he is waiting for a confirmation from my side. He takes his warm and soft hands off my face and moves away without looking back. The air in the room gets colder when the warmth of Lucas’s body disappears from near me, making me shiver a little.
And so I end up with Blake.
I sit on the bed, wanting to hear his side of the story too. I know that Lucas didn’t lie to me on that part, but I want two opinions. Like the books I started writing. I didn’t have a second point of view and couldn’t continue my crazy ideas. I just stopped after 200 pages and threw all of it away in a dark cornerof my laptop, at the bottom of the furthest folder, because my perfectionism got the best of me, judging me too harshly.
“Are you ok?” Blake asks me, but I am still not looking at him.
