Chapter 21 Tenderness
\[Lilia\]
Why is he acting this way?
Why can’t he just threaten me like he always does? Just like how he threatened me with a gun on my head the first time we met? Why can't he just do that? In that way, I wouldn't be so confused about what I should feel towards him.
Yes, I hate him. No, that isn't really the best phrase to express what I was feeling, and I was convinced that what I was feeling was something more. For everything he had done to me, I even hate fate itself for showing me into this kind of life. But why did I feel so warm when he uttered those words?
My jaw snapped shut, locking tightly, and my molars hurt from grinding against each other while I stared intently into the mossy pair of orbs that were sucking me in, absorbing me deeply into a promise of the unknown.
The rough texture of his thumb rubbing the corner of my face, so slowly and sensual, kept me anchored to where I was in the moment rather than becoming lost in his stare. However, the aching burn between my thighs says otherwise.
However, like a bucket of ice dropped over boiling lava, the fire that had begun to burn within me was extinguished as soon as my gaze fell on my arm. The sight of the purplish blot skillfully painted on my flesh brought back memories of what he had done earlier, and how he had forced himself on me, sending an electrifying shudder of disgust down to my spine.
My face hardened. I could feel my eyes smolder with resentment. Abhorrence radiated through me, and Kael seemed to have sensed it and halted his touch on my face.
How could I ever forget that?
Feeling a little bit sick for myself for indulging in that kind of fantasy that Kael will ever be good to me. That he will see me as a human and not an object used for pleasure.
“Let’s get you cleaned up.” That was all he murmured in his deep, chilly voice before getting to his feet, turning around, and padding across the bathroom floor. The only sounds that reverberate throughout the four-cornered walls are the soft sound of a drawer opening and the sound of water rushing out of the tub faucet.
The water filled up to my bust, easing the soreness of my nipples with its warm touch, and for a fleeting second, my mind conjured up images that it was Kael’s hands caressing it.
I close my eyes, scoot up to the corner portion of the tub and rest my head on the edge, fully stretching my legs, though it didn’t reach the other side. It was the ripples of water filling my ears that I was listening to, and I let out a soft sigh as I dipped my body into the comfort it provided, while I was completely ignoring the impending presence that was hovering in my direction.
There was a metallic clanking in the background, and a terrifying thought rushed through my mind, thinking that he would stab me with something. What is it that he took from the drawers? Was he keeping knives in there? That wouldn’t be impossible if he did after my failed attempt of escape. I haven’t checked everything that’s inside there and I am sure Aya wasn’t the one assigned to clean the bathroom.
However, I dare not try prying my eyes open and pretend that I do not care what he’ll do with me despite the fact that my chest is hammering with dripping anxiety.
There was followed by a dragging sound grazing on the marbled floor and a shuffle of what I could make out as the shower hose.
Is he going to strangle me to death? Didn’t he just tell me that he won’t let me die? Was that a hoax? Is he teasing me about my emotions and preying on my anxieties and fears? I took a deep breath and swallowed. My fingers are wriggling to my side, beneath the surface of the water, and my shoulder is stiff against the tub's edge as I have no idea what is going to happen, only assuming the worst.
However, instead of a stainless steel cord coiling around my neck, a spray of heavenly warm water sprayed on the top of my head, careful not to hit me in the face. My eyes shot open in an instant, and the first thing that caught my sight was Kael’s face hovering above me.
“Lift your head.” He gruffly instructed, and I absent-mindedly followed in befuddlement. He sweeps my hair in one fluid motion, letting it dangle over the tub’s edge while, on his other hand, holding the showerhead, delicately soaking my hair with warm water.
“Close your mouth, кукла (kukla). Or you might accidentally drink the bathwater.”
I did not even notice that I was gaping, and my mouth instantly snapped, knocking my teeth with each other.
Who is this man? Where is the Kael that violated me a while ago? Why is he touching me so gently? His hand is no more than heavier of a feather’s touch. Untangling the knots on my hair as he moves the shower over my head.
“Why are you doing this?” My gaze searched his blank face in the hope that he would respond, but instead, he simply drew his lips together into a thin line and concentrated on his task, and I didn't dare say anything further.
Afraid that if I might, this moment would burst like a bubble and disappear into a cloud of smoke.
He turned off the shower for a moment and took a bottle of shampoo he had prepared a while ago, squirting a considerable amount into his palm and lathering it to my hair, producing a cloud of bubbles.
The aroma of flowers with a tinge of vanilla floated through the air, filling my nostrils with great pleasure as I inhaled. A gentle motion was made by his nimble fingers as they brushed the top of my head, inducing me to close my eyes and just experience the tenderness of his touch. I'm not going to lie. His enormous hands and lengthy fingers almost completely fit around my entire head, which feels entirely fantastic.
My breath hitched when Kael hit a soft sensitive spot just below my ear, near the junction of my neck and shoulders.
“Mhhh.” An involuntary moan escapes my lips before I even know it. I immediately stiffened. What the hell? Did I just moan? I quickly cleared my throat to cover it up, though I knew it was already too late, and Kael heard it.
Hence, he did not say anything and continued to lather my head with shampoo and then rinse it again with a showerhead.
The water pelting against the marbled floor is the only sound resounding between us. The atmosphere is thick with tension, but unlike the heaviness, I felt earlier, it turns out to be something else right now.
Kael finished rinsing my hair, and then he stood up once again and turned the shower off. This time I opened my eyes, and I saw him standing on the edge of the tub, towering over me with his exposed glory, looking at me with a stone-cold expression, however, his eyes were conveying differently and the complete opposite.
I raise my hand to the edge of the tub, holding the edge with my hand, and pull myself up into a sitting position. In an instant, my throat had dried up, and my eyes had brushed down to his pectoral muscle, then down even and further.
To his hardened shaft, springing back to life.
When I say big, it’s actually an understatement, and I do not know how that thing even fit inside me in the first place.
No wonder I feel sore.
I should be frightened. I should be scurrying away from this place and getting the hell out of this prison paradise. But I had already resigned myself to the gloom of my dreary destiny.
I did once try to escape, but Kael found me again. Death was on the verge of capturing me, but Kael rescued me from its grasp.
He had already taken all of me.
Yes, I still hate him, and I can abhor him as much as I want, but the gentleness he showed me just a moment ago gives me hope.
Hope that in this predicament, I could still be saved.
Kael suddenly steps into the tub without taking his eyes away from my face.
I am a petite woman, and being in this enormous tub might easily double as a kiddie pool for me. Kael had no trouble getting his half-submerged body into the water with ease.
And the next thing I know is that he pulled me into his lap, and I noticed just now that he had a loofa in his hand.