My assumption about this being an apartment building was correct. I stood in the efficiency and looked around. There was a cornflower blue sofa pulled out into a neatly made queen sized bed with a wicker basket atop it. There was a simple kitchenette, a full sized bathroom through another door, and had simple light gray painted on the walls. It was clean and cozy-ish.
Approachin the bed, I looked at the contents loaded in the basket and could have wept. Body wash, shampoo, a two pack of women’s razors. There was a toothbrush, the holy grail of hygiene products. No one wanted their breath smellin like pork loin.
“I’m going to give you and the basket a few minutes alone.” Grimm half-joked.
“The shower works; just give it a minute. There’s a platter in the fridge to eat for now and the bed is fresh. We won’t be here long, but I want you to sleep a little because you know what happens next.”
“Do you ever miss your old life?” I found myself repeating his own question back to him before he could go anywhere. I was genuinely curious.
I waved my hand around the room, “We’re standin in a town that worships you, in an old fuck pad you were at months ago, so… don’t go gettin the big headed notion I’m jealous, I am, but not cause you were with other people.
“That’s to be expected we weren’t together, and you got to get your kicks from somewhere,” I quickly explained.
He palmed his hair back, shaking his head with a slight twitch of his mouth. “The only thing different about my life is that I have you in it. What’s there to miss?
“I don’t miss fucking the mannequins’ who lie there and moan like I’ve stuck a Jesus piece inside them. I know my dick’s pretty fucking amazing, but that doesn’t do anything for me, just like they never did. They were irrelevant, Brat. Sure as fuck don’t have shit on you.”
“That was real sweet, but you could’ve stopped at the whole, I am your entire life and you need me portion,” I softly joked. “You can go do whatever you gotta do. Imma get acquainted with your shower. But…I’m sorry for what I said. Well, mostly all of it, actually. I wouldn’t really go mess with another man, that wasn’t very nice.” I was rather proud of myself for that spiel.
Holding my hands clasped together, I waited for him to say somethin.
“Come a little closer. Let me tell you a secret.”
Squinting my eyes, I slowly inched towards him, stopping when we were nearly chest to chest.
“I already knew that, Brat.” He gripped my jaw, adding a bit of pressure, leaning down so his mouth was skimming mine. “No one’s gonna touch you the way I touch you, see you the way I see you, break you down, use you, and then build you up like I do. You’re not going anywhere. You’re mine.”
He kissed me, sealin his proclamation roughly, giving it back twice as hard when I reciprocated, nippin my lower lip and soothing the split skin with his skilled tongue before he finally let go.
He was out the door without another word, leavin me alone to clean every crevice on my body and some time to think.
I grabbed the basket and went into the bathroom, seeing a stack of plush towels on a rack.
Pulling the plastic shower liner to the side, I spun the brass nozzle nearly as far it would go, and then waited. Pipes groaned and it sounded like footsteps running inside the wall, but eventually the spicket shook and water began spraying out.
I wasn’t goin to bother lookin in the mirror till I was finished; no need to see what the hell Grimm had been looking at the last few days. I may have been an emotional, unstable, occasionally badass lil bitch, but I was still a lady.
I slowly peeled off my clothes, definitely feelin everything Grimm had done to me. There were dark bruises between my thighs, and the scabby skin where he’d cut me flexed with my every movement.
My ass would never be the same again, of that I was certain, and he’d buried himself inside it for what seemed like a good hour.
Going to the bathroom was not on my top five things to do list, but I did need to pee.
That hurt, too.
Yeah, this was gonna be a pain.
But so worth it. Thirty minutes, maybe hours later––who knows? my scalp was clean, my fur was gone, and my muscles had some much needed relief. I hadn’t been in a real shower in so long, I could’ve stayed there for months.
Sinking down in the porcelain tub, I let the spray come down on me and shut my eyes for a minute. Everythin I’d learned should have dramatically impacted me, but I didn’t really feel any more hurt than I already had––with the exception of Ma.
Not even her actions surprised me as much as they voided the last bit of love I had for her.
People would do anything to hold onto a semblance of power. The mayor was no different; he was just the shittiest kind of person, because he hid behind smoke and mirrors.
It didn’t seem right to think of him as my dad at this point, when he had never really been such a thing. I’d had tutors and nannies, never real parents. My ma gave that up to join him in his quest to rule a city.
My real father was good to me, but we weren’t permitted to spend countless hours together. He’d died in the worst way possible, but I refused to dredge up that initial feelin of loss. I’d numbed myself to it from the moment his life left his body.