I expect him to leave me alone right away like he did before, but instead, he enters the room with me and closes the door behind him. I’m too tired, too embarrassed, and hurt to ask why. It doesn’t even occur to me to argue with him when he takes me by the hand and leads me to the bathroom. It takes no time for him to strip down. I’m not even interested in looking at him or noticing his body as he steps into the shower, turning on the water before extending a hand and beckoning me.

It’s just like it was before, with Nix, when I was too tired and too broken inside to care much about washing myself up. It is good to feel that water on me, though, running over my head and down my body.

He doesn’t say a word. He only gently, slowly washes me with a soapy rag. I close my eyes and give myself over to him for the second time tonight, parting my legs when he nudges them apart so he can slowly run the rag over my pussy. He takes special care with my ass, too, until nobody would ever know I was violated tonight. Again.

It’s only the touch of his fingers against my scar that stirs me to react. I flinch, tensing up, holding my breath. “You don’t have to do that,” he whispers, touching it again. I look up at him, blinking the water out of my eyes, and he’s wearing something close to a smile. It’s soft and almost sweet. “You’re still beautiful, with or without this,” he whispers, stroking my scar. “It doesn’t make you who you are. It doesn’t define you. Don’t let it.”

Tears mix with the water running down my face. Are they tears of embarrassment or gratitude? I don’t know. I don’t have it in me to figure it out right now.

All I know is once we’re out of the shower and dried off, it feels like the most natural thing in the world to hold a hand out when he starts for the door. “Please. Don’t leave. Stay with me.”

He hesitates, his brow furrowing and his eyes narrowing. I pull the blankets back and crawl into bed, never doubting for a moment he’ll join me.

He does, and unlike with Nix, he doesn’t leave any space between us. Instead, he wraps his arms around me from behind and holds me close. For the first time in a week, I truly relax, melting against him, leaving everything else behind in favor of feeling warm. Safe.