Page 142 of Trigger Happy Ending

“What are you doing?”

“Taking care of you.”

The words steal all the breath from me. I should tell him to put me down, that I can walk, and take care of myself. That I’m not some pathetic, fragile girl who needs a man to take care of her. Instead, I find myself curling into his hard body, cheek against his broad chest, and let him carry me through the cabin. He takes me into the bathroom and sets me down carefully on the closed toilet lid. The room is dark, black tiles, barely any styling, but there’s a claw-foot tub pushed beneath the window. He turns on the taps and hot water pours into the bath. It doesn’t take long before the steam begins to rise.

“You’re running me a bath?”

“Yeah.” He glances at me over his shoulder. “You need one.”

“I smell?”

“No, Raine. Because you nearly died, are still healing, and you walked god knows how long through the dead of night, in the cold, to get to me. Warm water calms the body and resets a shot-to-shit nervous system. That’s why I’m running you a bath.”

I don’t know why that nearly makes me burst into tears. Maybe because no one has ever done something like this for me.

Soren crouches in front of me once the tub’s half full. His hands settle on my knees, thumbs dragging softly over my black jeans.

“Can you stand?”

"Yeah."

It comes out weaker than I intended, but maybe that’s what I am now. Temporarily weakened, but only in the physical sense. I’m much stronger in so many other ways. He helps me to my feet slowly. I sway a little, but it’s for dramatic effect. (I think.) Soren’s fingers find the hem of my hoodie.

"Arms Raine."

I raise my arms lazily. I kinda like it when he tell me what to do.

He peels the hoodie and then my singlet over my head carefully. Then he kneels and eases my jeans down my legs. His face drops when he looks at my body. I look down and realize how truly damaged I really am. I’m covered in cuts, wounds, white and pink scars, and deep bruising marks.

“Turn off the light,” I whisper, ashamed at how broken and beaten I look. “Don’t look at me. I’m disgusting.”

I don’t want him to see me like this. I don’t want to see myself like this.

Soren’s gaze lifts. His eyes flash, his words are instant. “You could have your body ripped apart and stitched back together a hundred times, and I’d still think you are the most beautiful woman on the planet.”

I close my eyes and let the words sink into every one of my wounds.

He slides my underwear down next, then rises. There's nothing sexual about this, yet it's one of the most intimate moments of my life. The bathwater steams behind him, and I admit it; my bruised and sore muscles could use a bath. I reach for the clasp of my bra, but he catches my hands, stopping me. “Let me.”

He undoes it himself in one quick motion, even quicker than I could, and I’m the one with tits. He slides the straps from my shoulders with a tenderness that he himself seems unprepared for.

Once I’m stripped naked, he tests the bath with his hand, then turns back to me.

“Come here.”

He helps me into the water one step at a time. The warmth of the water wraps around me instantly, pulling a sound from my throat before I can stop it.

“Too hot?” he asks.

I sink deeper, letting the water climb to my ribs. “No. It's perfect.”

He grabs a washcloth, then kneels beside the tub. For a second, I just stare at him. We’ve come so far since that first day in O’s office. He didn’t want to ‘babysit no bitch’ and now he’s bathing me.

“What?” he asks quietly.

I shake my head. “Nothing.”

But it isn’t nothing. It’s everything. He’s everything.