Free Infraction by K. I. Lynn Page A

wouldn’t allow myself to have. So I buried them.” He picked up my hand and placed
     it palm down on his chest over his heart. “As cheesy as it sounds, this changes now
     because I’m promising you – my heart is yours.”
    My brow scrunched together. “Not all of it.”
    Sadness washed over his features. He couldn’t deny it.

C HAPTER 6
     

     
    W e lay there for a while, me absorbing everything, Nathan taking in my answer. I scratched
     at one of the scabs on my thigh and looked down. My legs were hairy and had bothered
     me all week. It shouldn’t have, but what else did I have to think about after I was
     done counting the dots on the ceiling? It hit me that I was home now; I could bathe.
    “Nathan,” I began, breaking the silence. “I want a shower.”
    I turned to look at him, and he nodded. “Okay.”
    Climbing off the bed, he moved to my side and picked me up, carrying me into the adjoining
     bathroom. Once there, he sat me down on my good foot, careful not to bang my bad leg
     on anything before stripping me of my clothing.
    “Hold on to my arms.”
    It was then I got my first good look at myself in a mirror.
    Just when my bruises had finally disappeared, I had a whole new horrifying set.
    My face was just as bad off as I thought. Black and blue had turned to yellow and
     purple and covered the left side of my face from where I’d hit the glass window. Part
     of my hair not far above my ear was shaved off to get the area around the laceration
     on my scalp cleaned and stitched. My arms also held varying shades of bruise, darker
     around the countless number of stitches that held my skin together. Not too much longer
     until those came out.
    My focus moved to the other figure in the mirror. Nathan was stripping, and my eyes
     went wide. I was about to ask him what he was doing when I recalled the state I was
     in; I wasn’t going to be able to shower on my own.
    It was the first time I’d seen him without his clothes on in nearly a month, and I
     hated to think about how much I wanted him right then. It was like his body was calling
     to mine, and mine was desperate to answer, as always.
    Perhaps I shouldn’t have felt that way with all that had happened, but I still felt
     the pull to him. I was such a mess, my mind and heart both having two different opinions;
     the push and pull was exhausting.
    Once we were both naked, he helped me to sit on a stool that had been brought in.
     I didn’t ask because I noted a few new items around that, when I thought about it,
     were all to help me in some way.
    He pulled some rubbery looking thing over from the counter and began stuffing my casted
     leg into it, being as careful as he could.
    He looked up at me and smirked at my expression. “This will seal off your leg so no
     water gets into your cast. You really don’t want that. Trust me.”
    “Oh. Okay.” I sounded stiff and off to my own ears, but I wasn’t sure how else to
     respond. I hadn’t even thought about something like that, and he had it ready to go
     whenever I was. He had planned everything out for my arrival home. I didn’t know how
     to react to something I wasn’t used to, but it did make my chest clench.
    He moved to the shower and turned it on to warm it up. Tears prick at my eyes. I wanted
     to wrap my arms around him, feel his lips on mine, and forget the last month had even
     happened so we could go back to how it used to be.
    I was lying, and I knew it. I wanted to know everything he had told me, the honesty
     he displayed. The man in front of me was not the man I had known a month ago.
    I took in a deep breath.
    “Lila?” I looked up at him; a tear escaped and slid down my cheek.  His face twisted
     in pain as he walked over to me. “Come on, the water will feel good.” He bent down
     and carried me into the shower.
    I was grateful for the first time that my shower had a built in bench, because I was
     already exhausted from the previous ten minutes. He sat me down, the