Free My Hero Bear by Emma Fisher Page B

the uncaring sky.
     

Chapter 7
     
    Dylan stripped down in the bathroom, discarding his torn up jeans and boxers in a heap on the tiled floor.
     
    Trickles of drying blood adorned his skin like war paint, evidence of the violence committed by him this night. His wounds had already healed, but the blood remained. His skin was still tender where it was knitting itself back together. By morning, even that pain would be gone.
     
    If only the rest of his pain could heal as quickly and as completely. There was no magic healing factor for a broken psyche.
     
    Post-traumatic stress disorder, survivor’s guilt, or just plain regret over everything he had done. Dylan wasn’t sure which one of these things he suffered from. Maybe none of them. Maybe all of them.
     
    Regardless, whatever demons plagued his brain, he had no idea how to exorcise them. There was no purifying himself. No way to absolve himself of all the sins he’d committed.
     
    He was doomed and he wished that Aurora would just let him suffer alone in purgatory like he deserved.
     
    He soaked a washcloth in warm water and began to wash the blood and dirt from his skin. At least he could cleanse himself physically, if not spiritually. It would have to do for now.

    A knock on the bathroom door interrupted his dark thoughts.
     
    “Go away,” he shouted.
     
    Aurora’s voice thundered back at him through the thick mahogany door. “Don’t you tell me what to do. You know damn well what happens when you order me around. Let me in.”
     
    He did know, actually. Aurora was the kind of woman who dug her heels in the ground like a stubborn mule anytime somebody commanded her to do something. It was one of the things he loved about her. Although at that particular moment, it wasn’t her most endearing trait.
     
    He sighed, and opened the door for her. “What?”
     
    Her sharp intake of breath reminded him that he wasn’t wearing any clothes. He was also covered in blood. He wasn’t sure what was more surprising to her, but any shock or offense she was feeling was her own damn fault. She was the one who insisted he let her in.
     
    “You poor man,” she said softly.
     
    Aurora gazed along the contours of his body, taking in every part of him it seemed.
     
    She ran her hands over his stained skin, gently caressing him with her fingertips. Her touch was like heaven on his sore skin. He couldn’t help but be impressed by the fact that she wasn’t afraid of a little blood. She was a tough one alright. Dylan had never doubted that.
     
    But something about the tone of her voice bothered him. He didn’t want her to see him this way.
     
    “Don’t pity me,” he said. “Anything but that.”
     
    She gazed up into his eyes, unashamed and unafraid. “It isn’t pity that I feel right now.”
     
    “Then what are you feeling?”
     
    “Anger,” she said.
     
    The answer surprised him. “But why?”
     
    “All these years we’ve spent apart, I was so mad at you for pushing me away. But now I’m mad at myself for letting you go. I kept blaming you for abandoning me, but the truth is I abandoned you, too. When you needed me, I wasn’t there. It pisses me off so much I can’t stand it.”
     
    “Don’t be silly. It was me. It was all me.”
     
    Aurora frowned at him, but she didn’t respond. “Here, give me that washcloth.”
     
    Dylan did as she said, handing over the damp rag. She dipped it under the steaming water from the sink and wrung it out. Then she dabbed at Dylan’s shoulders, washing away the evidence of his pain.
     
    She used a delicate touch. A warm shiver ran through Dylan’s body at the feel of her cleaning his wounds. It was such a strange sensation. Dylan had suffered countless injuries, but no one had ever tended to his injuries like this.
     
    He thought about pushing her away. This wasn’t the way he wanted her to see him. He never wanted anyone to think of him as the wounded warrior. All he ever wanted them to see was his