Trial And Error

Chapter Fifty-Three

Madison's POV

Pushing herself up from Kian's lap, Madison extended a hand to help the other woman stand on shaky legs. Kian accepted the support, allowing Madison to guide her down the hallway toward the master bathroom.

Once inside, Madison set about running a steaming shower while Kian leaned heavily against the vanity, chest still heaving with the occasional ragged breath. The singer turned, regarding her lover with tender concern. Moving in close, she slowly peeled away Kian's sweat-damp tank top, pressing a trail of soothing kisses along the Marine's collarbone and shoulder. Her stare lingered on the scars but not for long, she didn't dare touch them and the marine was grateful for that.

With deft fingers, Madison rid Kian of the rest of her workout clothes until the taller woman stood nude before her. Drawing Kian into her embrace, Madison simply held her for long moments, stroking idle patterns along the plains of her back as Kian's rigid frame gradually relaxed into the comforting warmth.

When the bathroom had filled with humid vapor, Madison guided Kian into the spacious glass shower, stepping under the scorching spray with her. She reached for a loofah, lathering up Kian's body with gentle, soothing strokes until the tension had fully melted from those powerful muscles.

Kian remained eerily quiet and still, as if trapped in a waking trance. Her eyes were locked unblinkingly on Madison, staring at the singer with an almost haunted intensity - as if she feared the beautiful woman before her would simply vanish into thin air if Kian so much as looked away for a split second.

Her hands hung rigidly at her sides, fingers minutely flexing and unflexing. It was as if Kian's body was poised to lunge forward and grasp Madison at the first inclination the other woman might try to walk away or abandon her. An instinctive desperation to maintain that tenuous physical connection at all costs.

The vacant yet simultaneously hyper-focused look in Kian's eyes sent a shiver down Madison's spine. This wasn't the warm, adoring gaze she was so accustomed to from her lover. No, this was the hollow stare of someone grappling with profoundly deep-seated fears and traumas - the bone-chilling look of a person so acutely terrified of losing their world that they couldn't fully remain present in the moment.

She continued the soothing litany, tracing the sharp planes of Kian's features with a featherlight touch as the shower spray intensified around them. Madison paid no mind to the water quickly saturating her clothes, her sole focus remaining on slowly coaxing her lover back from whatever abyss she'd become entrapped in.

Gradually, almost imperceptibly at first, some of the taut rigidity seeped from Kian's frame. Her eyes lost a fraction of that wild, hunted look as she seeming to re-anchor herself through Madison's grounding presence and tender reassurances.

Then, in a movement so infinitesimal it could have been mistaken as an illusion, Kian's hand lifted and curled around Madison's wrist with a tenacity bordering on desperation. She clung to that point of contact, her throat working convulsively before the first choked syllables finally spilled free in a guttural rasp.

"Don't...go..."

It was both a plea and an involuntary admission of the terror that had so thoroughly unmoored Kian in the first place - the ever-present fear of losing this remarkable woman she loved more than life itself. Because the notion of facing this turbulent world alone again was what truly terrified the Lieutenant beyond the capacity for words.

Madison instantly shifted closer until she was fully enveloped in Kian's fierce embrace, offering the comfort and reassurance of her presence with a tender brush of her lips to the marine's brow.

"Never," she vowed fervently. "I'm never leaving you, Kian. We're in this together, always."

Madison swiftly peeled away her soaked clothing until she was as bare as the woman clinging to her. Kian needed her - wholly, fully, uninhibited. And Madison would be damned if she allowed a stitch of fabric to create even the faintest barrier between them in thatmoment.