Page 127 of A Midnight Romance
I blink a few times to push the memory aside, but I can’t because my skin still crawls with the sensation of his touch. “Yeah. I will be.”
Stevie’s worried pupils bore into me as she watches my every move heading toward the bathroom.
I take each step in stride, but the closer I get to the shower, the more desperate I become to rid my skin of any trace of Andrew.
“I need to get him off me.” With a low mumble, my trembling hands claw at the faucet in the long shower.
“Hey, Lux.” Stevie’s compassionate voice is behind me. “Let me do it.” Her fingers curl around mine, gently pushing them to the side.
I give in and start undressing. Sliding off my ripped white dress, dotted with burgundy blood stains when Stevie’s worried eyes land on me from across the room.
“Are you okay?”
The shower water cascading from the rain faucet in the ceiling is all I hear as my bare feet shuffle across the heated tile floors. I step under the flow and rest my shoulder against the wall.
“Hotter.”
“Okay.” Stevie leans into the shower and turns the knob closer to hot.
“Hotter,” I demand.
Steam fills the room. “Are you sure? It’s already pretty—”
“Hotter.” I know I’m being irrational but I still don’t feel clean.
Without answering, she nods and cautiously moves the knob further to the left. She settles onto the bench that wraps around to the outside of the walk-in shower with her legs crossed underneath her. The scolding water stings my skin and it’s painful, but I am desperate to remove any traces of him.
I reach for the loofah hanging on the wall, then frantically snatch the body wash from the shelf.
“Hey, Lux,” my sister whispers, her hand back on top of mine.
“I need him off of me.” My stomach is churning with disgust.
“Here. “Stevie stands and squeezes the bottle on top of the loofah before handing it back to me. “Did he…”
I quickly grab it from her, shaking my head. “No, but he touched me, licked me—” I rub my legs up and down, then repeat the action on both sides, then reach for my back, but I can’t reach it and panic. “I need to get my back. I have to clean my back!”
“Okay, okay.” Stevie’s voice is soft. “I can do it.”
She’s not cleaning my skin hard enough.
“Harder.”
She increases her pressure.
“Harder.’
With a sigh, she rubs deeper.
“Harder.”
“Lux.”
“Stevie,” I snap, then suddenly my sister’s arms swing around my shoulders once again forcing the breath from my lungs.
“You’re safe, Lux.” She soothes my wet hair. “Andrew’s dead. He can’t hurt you anymore. None of them can.”
I let my head fall to her shoulder, and everything I’ve been holding onto over the last two months pours out of me. A waterfall of tears flows from my eyes, and at this point my body takes over. My stomach contracts, the muscles clenching as I bow forward and dry heave.
