Total pages in book: 159
Estimated words: 155775 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 779(@200wpm)___ 623(@250wpm)___ 519(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 155775 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 779(@200wpm)___ 623(@250wpm)___ 519(@300wpm)
Cash was very protective of women. He’d never harm one unless they hurt someone he cared about. But he’d nearly messed up by not immediately taking her into his arms and giving her aftercare.
That had been a dumb move.
He wasn’t going to make that mistake again.
“Want me to leave the room so you can get into the shower?”
She stared at the shower, then down at herself, and then at him. Then she wrapped her arms around herself and shook her head.
Surprisingly, she wasn’t even trying to talk.
Maybe this was just all too much for her right now.
“How about we take you down to your underwear?” he suggested. “And then you can just hop in the shower with them on.”
She nodded, and he stripped her off. He noticed that she was wearing a pair of the period panties he’d gotten for her. He tried to keep his gaze averted, his touch light and gentle.
Then he helped her clean up. His movements focused and almost clinical.
Yeah, that should have made her feel better.
Addie was feeling terrible, and she didn’t know what to do about it. It was obvious that Cash didn’t want to touch her. He couldn’t even look at her. His movements were brisk, to the point of being impersonal.
It made her feel terrible, but she couldn’t tell him that. Here he was trying to help her, and she didn’t want to seem ungrateful. She was the idiot who had gotten slime everywhere.
It had gone pop! And somehow landed on her hair, on her face, and on her lovely onesie that he’d just bought her.
Her poor, poor onesie.
Growing up, Addie hadn’t had much and very rarely had she had anything new. Her sisters had given her things of course, but this had come from Cash, so it was special.
Part of her couldn’t believe that he hadn’t gotten upset with her for making such a mess. Her mother would have.
Logically, she knew that she wouldn’t be yelled at now. Or, that if she was, she could just get up and leave.
Sometimes logic didn’t always work, though. Sometimes she operated on pure emotion and feeling, especially when she was in Little headspace.
After drying her off, he wrapped a towel around her. She was still dressed in her wet panties and bra.
“Can I get you some clean underwear?” he asked, running his hand over his hair and looking kind of awkward.
In fact, he almost looked like he’d rather be anywhere but here.
She shook her head. She’d get them herself and get herself dressed.
“Good. Okay. I’ll just take your onesie and put it in the wash.” He moved so quickly, she didn’t even have a chance to react. Right now, she was glad that she was supposed to be resting her voice, because she couldn’t find the words to say anything.
She’d heard what he’d said to Ralen about their relationship, and she still remembered how he had decided that she wasn’t quite right.
Those things had all hurt, but somehow not as much as the way he had treated her in the shower just now. As though she was an object rather than a person.
Moving into the bedroom, she grabbed a bra and some more period panties and took them back to the bathroom to get dressed. Luckily, her panties hadn’t leaked in the shower. That would have been embarrassing.
Walking into the bedroom, she found her hoodie and tights, pulling them on. And then she started to tidy up the mess.
At least everything had landed on the mat and not the carpet. That would’ve been terrible.
And not a very nice way to pay Ink back for all the things that he’d done for them.
“What are you doing?” Cash asked as he walked into the room. “I would have cleaned that up.”
She shrugged. Well, now he didn’t have to, did he?
“Here, hop up and let me do that.” He reached out for her, and she shied back away from him.
They both froze. She hadn’t actually meant to do that. It hadn’t been a conscious decision, just something that had happened.
Oh, no. Why did she do that?
“Addie, you’re scared of me?” he asked.
She shook her head.
“I need you to use your words.”
He grabbed the tablet. She stared down at it for a long moment. How on earth did she explain any of this without making herself feel like an idiot or giving away how she felt about him.
So she decided to give him part of the reason why she was feeling off right now.
“When I was a kid and I made a mess, my mother would scream at me. She’d get so mad.”
“But you know I would never do that, don’t you?”
“Yes, of course, sorry. It was just an instinct thing, I think. I feel a bit overstimulated or something. Like my skin is all weird, and I don’t want to be touched. I’m sorry.”