Sam spoke through the door. I hadn't answered his knocking or pounding. "Jules, I know you're in there. The security guard saw you. Please, just tell me you're alive."
"Leave me alone." I ripped another paper towel from the dispenser, wet it, and reached behind to scrub my lower back.
"We need you to come out. I need you to come back to the suite with me."
"I can't." I scrubbed harder. "I can't."
Sam muttered to someone, "Open it now, or I'll use your head as a battering ram." Then rattling of keys. "Christ, I could have picked the lock faster than your security can get off its fat ass."
"Good old Sam, always gotta bump heads with the locals." Mallory's cocky voice didn't chaff me as usual. Knowing three armed guards stood outside the women's bathroom, where I'd holed up, helped ease my tensions about being ambushed again by Stone, the motorcycle gang, or Vilet.
Once the door snapped open, Sam jumped inside the bathroom and stopped, staring at the pile of used towels on the floor.
I pressed harder and harder, but the towel started to fall to pieces, just like the others. "I can't get him off. You gotta get him off me."
"What the hell?" Mallory came up behind Sam, and the security guard behind her.
"Get out. And shut the door." He pushed her back and shoved the door closed himself.
I was already wetting another towel and hitting the soap dispenser with my fist for the last drips of liquid. Then I scoured.
Sam raised his hands on approach. "What do you need, Jules?"
"Just get him off me." My shoulder pinched from reaching behind, but the feeling of Stone's hand still pressed its way under my skin, into my bones. "Get him off me!"
"He's gone, baby. Just me now." Sam's hand landed on my arm, slid down to stop my movements. "Look at me," he said, raising his face to the mirror.
I lowered my head. Mirrors had been my enemy since the night I'd been abducted.
"Jules?"
My shoulders followed my descent, and my arms curled to my chest.
"Just me now." Sam leaned over, kissed between my shoulder blades. He trailed more kissed down my spine to where my skin was so raw his lips felt like steel wool. "Just me, baby."
My body folded. How could he call me that? How could he want to touch me?
His arms wrapped around my shoulders, even as I formed a ball and sank to the floor. I couldn't get small enough to disappear.
"Tell me what happened," he whispered. "Please, baby. I need to know if he hurt you."
No. I couldn't say that. I can never say that to him. "You can't love me. You can't."
"Too late for that." He gave a light squeeze.
I realized then Sam was on his knees and my face was inches from the cold tiles. I leaned sideways, so he took my weight. "It's so cold in here."
Sam removed his suit jacket and wrapped it over my shoulders. "Let me take you back to the room. We can talk later."
Biting back sobs, I turned my head into his chest and squeezed my eyes shut. "I can't."
"Shhh." A few awkward moves as Sam managed an arm under my thigh and another around my back. He lifted me, and the pang of guilt, of his enduring gentleness when this wretched coward didn't deserve his help let alone his affection, brought the burning back to my eyes.
