Yeah, so he was tall, muscled with a ripped six pack, and he looked amazing in a tight T-shirt and faded jeans. So what? He was also the man who’d taken her from Pete and brought her here for an undetermined reason. She didn’t wholly believe it was all about regaining her memory. That seemed a little too cut-and-dried.
He had an ulterior motive, of that Libby was sure.
She just hoped that she lived through whatever the hell it was they were after.
“The shower is down the hall. I’ll show you.”
He waited for her, his face closed, distant. Libby arose from the bed, her movements stiff and forced. It seemed that every bone and muscle in her body ached, and the thought of a warm shower seemed too good to be true.
“After your shower, Ana will examine you.”
Yup, too good to be true.
“I am not letting that…that deranged woman near me. Can’t you see that she wants to kill me?”
“We all want to kill you, Libby, but that doesn’t mean it will happen. I’ve talked to Ana and she knows not to cross me. She has given me her word that no harm will come to you.”
With that he turned on his heel and walked out the door, obviously expecting her to follow in his footsteps like a little puppy dog.
“You have got to be joking.”
Libby inhaled softly as Jaxon paused. He was so tense, his body hummed like an energy field. When he spoke, is voice was low, deadly, and the hairs rose on her neck at its the menace.
“I don’t joke. About anything. You will
have a shower and then Ana will examine you. It’s the only way we can hope to gather evidence of where you’ve been for the past three years.”
He turned then and nailed her with a look that told Libby they were done. She sighed, overwhelmed, and adopted the submissive posture she’d only recently begun to fight.
She followed him quietly, stopping only to take two large white towels that he’d procured. A cold knot of fear began to tighten deep in her gut, and the food she had all but inhaled moments before left her feeling sickly.
She opened the door that he indicated with a quick nod and disappeared inside, closing it quickly behind her.
Libby felt like she’d just come off the world’s craziest roller coaster. And she hated roller coasters. She knew that as surely as she knew she was screwed. She was frazzled, sore, sick to her stomach, and wished more then anything that she was somewhere else.
That she was someone else.
Like a normal person with a family and people to love her. What did she have? Who did she have?
She pushed herself away from the door and tried to banish the thoughts that were trying to crowd her too tired brain. Stripping the dirty clothes from her back, she walked toward the welcoming hot spray and hoped it would wash her troubles down the drain.
Better yet, wash her down the drain. Stepping under the hot water, Libby closed her eyes and let everything out. Her tears mingled with the water that fell upon her body, the pathetic sounds she made muffled by the hard spray.
Her eyes fell to the drain at her feet and she watched the water slip away. There was no escape for her. She knew that now. With deep resignation, she reached for the soap and began to scrub the grime and exhaustion from her limbs.
Outside the shower room, Jaxon leaned his tall frame against the cold cement wall. Her scent lingered deep in his nostrils. She’d been dirty, unwashed, and it still called to the primal part of him that wanted her. The animal inside him grumbled at being denied the chance to taste its woman.
He clenched his hands tightly, trying to fight the wave of desire that rushed through him. Visions of her naked and wet form began to dance in front of his eyes. He pictured her hands flowing across the milky white of her breasts and then down her tummy, to rest at the juncture between her legs.
She was so fucking beautiful. Even now, as beaten down as she was, his senses came alive at the sight of her, at the very smell of her. If he could, he would join her in the shower and take what was his.
Savagely, he swore, and in that moment hated Libby with a ferocity that startled even him. He hated the fact that she made him feel, made him want her. After all she’d done to destroy his life.
He still wanted her.
Jaxon shifted his jeans, trying to alleviate the pressure between his legs. Unfortunately it didn’t help. The sensation of the material as it caressed his shaft only intensified the need.
For her.