Rescuing the Unknown, Protecting the Loved

Chapter 6

“So far you haven’t given me reason to believe you are either slow in the head, or unfamiliar with the English language… So I am sure the words ‘help you get cleaned up’ are not beyond your brain’s abilities to process.”

She looked at him like one looked at a very annoying child they wished they could beat. “Are you always this much of an annoyance, or are you putting in a special performance?”

Edward tilted his head like he was actually giving the question serious thought. For all she knew, maybe he was.

“It’s all me, darling.”

“Don’t call me that.”

He reached his hand out and tested the warmth of the water in the shower, then turned and faced her. “I will call you anything I like… you have no name, remember? What? Would you prefer I refer to you as ‘woman’? Or ‘lady’? Maybe something special like ‘b***h’?”

A low growl of annoyance vibrated in her throat. “Your options leave much to be desired,” she told him in an angry voice through her clenched teeth.

Her anger did not faze or bother Edward. He had a response for her already on his tongue. “Darling, for someone without a memory and in clearly some heap of s**t… you have too much attitude.” Then he sounded bored. “Enough talking anyway, time to get you cleaned and back in bed.”

Her mouth gaped when just like that, Edward pulled his shirt over his head while he simultaneously toed off his shoes and, in a blink of an eye, he was half naked in front of her. 

Her eyes followed the play of tattoos from his arms all the way to his chest. A hard, muscled chest and abs that would make any gym freak green with jealousy. Her mouth went dry when she followed the line of dark hair that disappeared into his jeans.

Oh, God. She quickly looked up and gave him a horrified look, even as her cheeks got really warm.

“Why are you undressing?” she asked in a shaky voice. 

“Rephrasing a question doesn’t mean the answer will change,” he answered.

Before she could say more, he reached for her and, with practiced ease, brought his hand around her and unclipped her bra. She barely reacted in time to grab the front and prevent it from dropping, exposing her breast.

Outrage suddenly swamped her. Her free hand rose with little thought to it. “How dare you!” she shouted just as her hand came sailing in the air, ready to connect with his face.

Edward was quick and had excellent reflexes, however. He grabbed her wrist from the air and held on firm enough to hurt a little. He hissed through his teeth. “You try that again and you will be sorry.”

The bathroom was filling with steam from the water running in the shower, but she could see the cold in his eyes as he glared at her, her wrist still gripped in his hand. For a moment, it felt as though her skin was burning from the contact.

Her mouth opened and closed repeatedly for almost half a minute without words making it out. She had to shut it, take a breath before she could locate her voice and speak again.

“You are undressing me without my consent.” She wanted to sound really pissed, but it came out more in the lines of apologetic and scared. 

Not that she actually feared him, per se. Grabbing her wrist was the first show of aggression she had seen. She didn’t think it was fair to pass judgement just yet. Especially considering she had almost slapped him. A slap he fully deserved. 

The man looked like he could do a lot of damage, but the hold on her was only firm enough to ensure he had her full attention and wouldn’t be pulling out of it at will. It wasn’t injury causing.

After a moment, he let go of her wrist as though it were on fire. He frowned, but it quickly passed and morphed into something else.

Edward looked at her with puzzled amusement. If he was a gentleman, even half a gentleman, he would have probably cared. Edward thought to himself. But unfortunately for her, ‘gentleman’ didn’t feature in his long list of important qualities to have or those he aspired to acquire. And she wasn’t going to change him, or make him feel suddenly guilty for the way he was. 

A malicious smile spread across his lips. He reached out and tagged the loose bra out of her hands, forcing her to cover her breast with her bare hands. Edward lost his line of thought for a few seconds. He had noticed before that she had a healthy package on her, but seeing it now, barely fitting in her own hands, was mouth watering. 

Damn.

He quickly gave himself a mental slap and forced his perverted mind back to the task at hand.

“I don’t see what the problem is here. You need to clean up… I am going to clean you up. And before you say anything… You can barely stay on your feet, so unless we all want to risk your already delicate head meeting the marble in my bathroom… you need someone to hold you up and help you clean.”

She opened her mouth to say something, but he cut her off.

“Hold your tongue, I am not done talking.” He waved his hand irritatedly in the general direction of her boobs. “As for your garments… I am no expert on how women take their baths… but I am pretty sure they do it without panties and bras.”

“You are not taking off my panties.”

“Darling, the bra is gone. What makes you think the panties will stay?”

Defiance flashed in her eyes. She crossed her legs. “You are not, hell no.” She shook her head for emphasis.

Edward sighed like a man very tired of childish drama. He stepped to the side and opened the top drawer on the vanity unit. When he turned back, her eyes were wide, but she obviously couldn’t put it together what was about to happen.

With a step, he closed the distance between them and showed her how efficient a pair of scissors were at taking care of a simple problem like panties.

She shrieked and stuttered, but nothing coherent left her lips. 

Edward didn’t give her time to recover. He threw the scissors back in the drawer, slammed it shut. Then picked her up off the marble, matching for the showers.

Her next shriek came when the water hit her skin. The sound didn’t alarm him. He knew the water wasn’t too hot. After all, he was also getting soaked by the same spray.

He stood with her in his arms until the water had drenched them both and some of the dirt caked on her skin had washed away. He set her on her feet but kept an arm around her, her back pressed to his front. Then he grabbed the bath gel with the other hand, and poured a generous amount all over her shoulders, letting it run down her body.

She didn’t move or voice any more complaints. He had either shocked her into silence or the water had calmed her down. Whichever it was, he was grateful she wasn’t fighting him at that very moment. He had no illusions she wouldn’t be back in the ring soon enough with her fists raised. But for now, she kept quiet as he grabbed the washcloth and began scrubbing at the dirt that covered her skin.

She kept her hands over her breasts. That was how she felt her n*****s peak into shapely mounds. Her helpful mind quickly came up with an explanation: Her body was probably reacting to the cool breeze in the bathroom despite the hot shower. It had to be. She didn’t want to imagine that her body was responding to the bath she was receiving. A rather gentle bath, which was contrary to the brutality and undignified behavior the man had shown before.

But regardless of how gently he washed away the dirt on her body, she couldn’t allow herself to be moved by it. She couldn’t even think in those lines. She couldn’t let her guard down.

Uncomfortable facts flooded her mind. She was a woman without an identity. Exactly what had happened to her remained a mystery the size of an ocean. Including the knowledge of who exactly Edward was. What if she had a husband and child desperately looking for her somewhere? She looked down at her body as though she could tell by looking that she was a married woman. Or at least in a serious, committed relationship. Her body told her nothing.  

But even that put aside. There was no way she could be attracted to a man like Edward. Decent, law-abiding men did not paint their bodies with ink and walk around with an air as though they own the world. Attracted? She cringed internally at the disturbing direction her thoughts had taken. 

Her troubled thoughts sapped the last of her energy and her knees suddenly gave up the important task of holding her up. Lucky for her, his arm was like a steel anchor around her waist. It immediately tightened and drew her back fully against his body.

“I am almost done,” he told her quietly.

She didn’t bother to respond. She had run out of fumes to keep the engines running. Even keeping her hands over her breast was becoming a task too great for her.

As though reading her mind, he used his free hand to pull her hands down, then he moved the washcloth to her breasts. Around, over, in between, and under, he was very thorough in his task. Heat filled her cheeks all the way to her ears, but she didn’t protest or attempt to pull away.

After finding more areas to clean on her body and finally finishing with a one handed, barely decent hair wash, he carried her out of the shower.

They dripped water together all the way back to the bedroom. By then, her eyes were barely open. She felt him set her down on the bed, wipe away the water, then settle her under the sheets.

If she was supposed to feel some amount of embarrassment for sighing happily and comfortably into the pillow and immediately falling asleep, that emotion would have to wait until she had more energy.

Edward stood and watched her fall asleep. Her face now clean, showed so many bruises. His gut clenched with anger. What made matters worse was the realization it wasn’t just her face that showed signs of violence. Which animals had done this to her?

But the anger did nothing to kill the erection he had gotten while bathing her. f**k, he was so hard it hurt. And he knew it wasn’t just a case of a woman’s naked body within his reach. No. He had felt the pull the instant he had seen her unconscious on the road.

Something was seriously wrong with him. Or it was a case of blue balls. After all, he had gotten no action in a while. He could barely remember the last time. Was it the blond or the brunette? He wondered.

He looked at the woman asleep in his bed again. s**t. He needed a shower.

Edward made his way back to the bathroom for his own shower, this time around. A cold one, to be precise. Maybe it would also jolt his blood back to his brain and the damn thing would start reasoning with sense.