“I’m hungry!”
She tsked but eased back against me, giving me more of her weight as she tried to get comfortable. Eventually, she sighed.
“What is it,liunissa?”
“I’m fighting my inclinations.”
“To?”
She peered at me. “You’re one of a kind, Stan.”
“I am?”
“Yes. You could have made that about sex but you didn’t.”
“You’re in pain, Kitty.Gésu, if you think my dick is twitching right now, you’re crazy.” I cupped her cheek, keeping it soft so that I didn’t hurt her bruises. “Thisismore. That means I care more about your welfare than getting my cock wet.
“Which, technically, it is now, and all it took was me climbing into the bath with you.”
My comment had her smile widening, but it faded fast. “I want to see him suffer. He was going to rape me, Stan. He didn’t. I stopped him, but…” I allowed her to hesitate and let the silence fill the space between us until, eventually: “Vengeance makes for a poor companion.”
She was right.
Luc, Aurora, and I were only in the States because ofvinittas. We’d had different plans mapped out for ourselves before everything had gone to shit and I’d fucked up our world by getting into drugs.
Then, of course, I’d made things worse bymakingdrugs.
For an intelligent man, I was a dumbass.
“That’s a very smart mantra to live your life by,” I assured her, rubbing my hand over her arm, hoping I could soothe her.
“It won’t stop you, will it?”
“It can’t. But that doesn’t mean I won’t make better decisions.”
She toyed with the bandage on her wrist. “Just because it’s smart, doesn’t mean I don’t want it.”
“Will it be enough for me to enact vengeance on your behalf?”
“That’ll make me a hypocrite again. I don’t want that.”
“No, but you don’t need to be in the front row when I take out that fucker either. You can know that he’s gone without witnessing it firsthand.
“I wanted to give you that option because anything you want, anything you need, Kitty, you can have.Capisci?”
Eyes round, she let that truth settle before, eventually, asking, “Would you help me wash my hair?”
“Of course,liunissa.”
Thankfully, I’d grabbed a ton of products from the cabinets, so I leaned over the edge of the bathtub and blindly fielded bottles to her. She huffed out a laugh as I did. “This shampoo will be fine.”
“You sure? I can get out.”
“Honestly, Stan. It’s great. Probably costs half my paycheck.”
It took some maneuvering, but we made it work. I snagged the showerhead attached to the faucet and carefully ran it over her hair before shampooing, rinsing, and then stroking conditioner through the wet locks.
It was at that point thatMatribustled in with a tray in her hands.
