Brutally Beautiful(79)

I swept the hair away from her neck, tucking it behind her ear and the pulse in her throat came into view, pounding fast under her skin. “It’s because you’re screaming your thoughts at me. And just so you f*cking know, you WILL tell me who Samantha Matthews is and why my brother almost lost his life for her,” I exploded.

That shut her up. Backing up, I walked out of the bathroom.

I shut the door quietly behind me, giving her the privacy that she deserved, even though all I wanted was to sink inside of her and forget about what happened in the last twenty-four hours. I left her there for my bitter curiosity too, I won’t lie, because now I had a name to search, Samantha Matthews from New York City.

I sat at my desk and powered up my laptop, just as small pellets of icy rain began their assault at my window.





Chapter 11





Kade Grayson was the most unbearable, arrogant and demanding man, I’d ever met. What was worse is that he was the only man ever to be able to get me really worked up, and I was like a damn piece of putty in his hands.

From right outside the bathroom windows, a loud roar of rain began crashing against the glass. Within seconds, the even louder roar of my own blood rushing through my ears drowned it out, as I thought about my options. I needed to get away from here. I needed to keep them safe. I had clamped my mouth shut when he told me I couldn’t leave his sight, and tried my best to throw him a hard glare, but I was absolutely positive with the state of my bloody attire and my matted hair, I didn’t look too fierce.

As the tub filled with steamy water and bubbles, the faint smell of cinnamon and apples drifted through the room.

That man bought the soap I used? Opening the large linen closet, I found a bottle of the body spray too. If it weren’t the most heartwarming thing I’d ever felt, I’d think it was a little creepy. But, no I didn’t find it creepy at all. Nope. I found it gave me a warm tingling feeling all over my body. I. Needed. An. Intervention.

Stepping back from the closet, I looked around the bathroom and found myself wondering if anybody ever actually used it. It was too clean, immaculate, and sterile; I loved it. Everything in the closet was in a perfect little neat row, labels facing forward, each item in size order and even the towels were all folded to the same thickness. A perfect textbook example of compulsive behaviors of a control freak who was trying to create order in their chaotic life. It was as if I’d found my OCD-soul mate.

Stripping off my bloodied clothes and stepping into the warm water, I scrubbed my skin of blood, then immediately emptied the tub, refilled it with clean water and laid back into its warmth. Groaning out loud, I covered my face with my hands. I couldn’t think straight. I couldn’t think past the fact that Dylan got shot because of me and that everyone saw me save him. Kade knows I’m not a waitress now and as soon as I step foot out of this bathroom, the questions are going to come flying at me like mortar fire.

The door suddenly swung open, making me gasp, and Kade’s menacing presence filled up the doorway, half freaking naked. Oh, it gets better. Wait for it.

Wait for it…

Then he dove right into the tub.

He splashed through the bubbles and water in nothing but a pair of black slacks. My stomach fluttered, and my hands curled into tight fists as the splashes of the water hit me. Water and suds spilled over the lip of the tub, splatting and sloshing all over the tiles in loud wet thwacks. “Grayson, you are seriously crossing the line of my bathroom boundaries here. I’m…I’m not dressed!”

Grey eyes registering my state, scanned across the bubbles that I was trying desperately to hide under. But with the savage way he dove in, there wasn’t much left to conceal myself with, and I saw his eyes widen and hunger took over reason. Slowly, a flush of heat crept across my naked chest, up my bare throat and onto my cheeks. My God, if I could bottle the way that man looked at me, I’d never feel unattractive again. It was an indulgent feeling, one I wanted to keep, sip at it, swirl it around my tongue for a while, and then swallow. Any sense of guilt or shame, fear or insecurity was absent, and all I felt was beautiful, as if I could stand up before him and be viewed as a priceless, one of a kind sculpture, perfect and unbreakable.