Chapter Six

“Charlie—” Gideon began, but she slammed the door.

  Charlie stepped into the shower and turned it on full blast.

  She scrubbed her body vigorously, trying to erase his touch and scent.

  How could her body respond to him?

  How had her dream merged seamlessly with reality so that she thought she was having sex with Lenny instead of Gideon?

  She crumpled to the ground, hands splayed on the floor as she wept. What did Gideon want from her?

  Was he trying to punish her? Haven't he done enough of that?

  If he wanted to make her feel dirty and violated, he succeeded. The shock finally caught up to her and she sobbed uncontrollably.

  “Charlie.”

  She felt a draft as Gideon opened the shower door. At any other, time she would have been mortified by the whimper that escaped from her lips, but she was too far gone to care.

  The impact of seeing him after all these years was like a punch in the gut. The young, slick, sweetest, and loving boy she had loved is gone. stood was the same man that had killed her father, taken her family hostage, assaulted her, and yet again, he repeats what he does.

  His hair was longer than she remembered, and his body had a layer of muscle that made Lenny look like a boy going through puberty. Gideon crouched in front of her and brushed wet hair back from her face.

  “Don't cry,” he ordered roughly.

  She stared into his beautiful eyes framed by dark lashes and had the suicidal urge to punch him. Gideon narrowed his eyes and shook his head.

"Again, you hurt me. Do you not pity me? I'm nothing but the tool to fulfill your lust?"

Her eyes suddenly widen, " Wait! My daughter! Where is Willow?"

Gideon held her shoulder and smiled sadly.

" She is sleeping. I'll bring you there when you're ready."

Her face shows that she wasn't falling for his words, and Gideon probably can feel it too.

" She's my daughter too. She is safest with me. This I swore as your alpha and your mate."

Says the man who had raped her repeatedly.

Charlie swung at his hand.

Her mind skittered as she tried to figure out how to handle him. “Leave me alone.”

Gideon rolled his eyes and picked her up with a show of effortless strength that scared her. She struggled against him and wanted to fight him, but his grip was too strong.

He settled her on a seat built into the shower and squirted shampoo into his hands.

Before she could avoid him, he began to massage it into her scalp. The familiar smell of her favorite shampoo startled even as it soothed her.

Charlie sat like a broken doll as Gideon bathed her. Charlie felt as if she were in an alternate reality. This couldn’t be real. She couldn’t be here with Gideon. She didn’t have sex with him and he couldn’t be washing her as if he had every right to. Charlie retreated into her mind because she wasn’t capable of digesting what was happening to her.

Gideon cleaned himself before he stepped out of the shower with her. He engulfed her in a soft  robe and sat her in front of the vanity as he toweled her hair dry and brushed it. She was blessedly numb and didn’t say a word. She examined Gideon in the mirror as he tended to her. The man in the mirror was a far cry from the man she fell in love with as a child. Back then, Gideon was calm, friendly, kind  and him being the arrogant and possesive, pretty much mess up with her mind.

Most people never witnessed the darkness in him since he was so good at disguising it. Now, it was on full display as if he didn’t bother wearing a mask these days. She pretty much knows he wasn't even hiding it in the first place. It feels as if he just switched and she became the brunt of it.

Although he was tending to her as efficiently as a maid, power emanated from him and kept her still and quiet before him.

Once upon a time she loved him without reservation. She had been a fool. It took many years to realize that she was living a lie. Her emotions were a tangle of nostalgia, rage, fear and betrayal. She loathed him and yet... There was a small part of her that still believed he was the boy she’d fallen in love with.

How could she love and hate him at the same time?

Gideon seemed harder and colder than she remembered and it scared her. Gideon was so familiar and yet... not. How much had he changed these past years? Charlie  reminded herself that Gideon  had never been anything but gentle with her, but she knew that could change in a heartbeat. Charlie didn't realize she was crying again until Gideon crouched in front of her. He cupped her face between his hands and brushed her tears away with his thumb.

Piercing amber eyes moved over her face.

 

“Don’t cry,” he ordered softly.

“I don't know how to stop,” she whispered and began to shake. Tears rolls down her cheek and she could almost see pity in his eyes.

Or guilt.

Gideon gathered her in his arms and carried her back into the bedroom. Panic infused her and she began to struggle as he settled her on the bed.

“I'm not going to embrace you again,” Gideon said.

Charlie took him at his word and curled into a ball on one side of the bed. What can she do anyway if he did lie?

There was an awful silence between them and then arms pulled her back against a large body. Charlie made a distressed sound and tried to get away, but her limbs were weak with exhaustion and shock.

She could feel his body heat through the robe, which reminded her of the dream and how she ripped “Lenny's ” shirt, desperate to feel his skin against hers.

Her eyes scanned the floor and stopped on the buttons scattered over the carpet. She moaned and covered her face with her hands.

Heat burning through her skin. No wonder he fucked her. She practically begged him to do it. Within hours of being in his vicinity, he bedded her twice.

What did this mean? Guilt clawed her insides. She was in love with Lenny.

Shes confident of it...

Yet Gideon made her come and played her body as easily as if she'd never been with another man.

She hated herself.

“I want to see my daughter,” she said. She wouldn't be able to rest until she saw Willow in front of her.

“Tomorrow,” Gideon said.

“No.” Charlie rolled and braced herself to face him. “I want to see her. Me and my daughter are away from home and you expect me to be okay separated from her?? I want Willow!"

"OUR daughter is asleep. She needs her rest just as you need yours. It's night time. We can continue our conversation tomorrow when we're all well rested."

Charlie felt him moving away and the wolf in her immediately grip him in a possesive manner that made him froze.

She wanted to freeze also because she didn't understand why she have done that.

She didn't want to be near him yet her beast wants to.

Horrible, she couldn't even have self control.

When Gideon turn around to face her, she looks up to him with a pleading eye.

" I need to see her, Gideon. I can't sleep without seeing her."

"Why can you not trust me I would keep my daughter safe?" He asked.

" I haven't seen you for years. How would I know if you had hidden her to spite me rather than for her safety."

He cupped her cheek, bending down so they can see eye to eye.

" I would rather die first than let anyone hurt you or her.Both of you are mine."

Charlie smirked with tears again rolling down her cheeks.

" You hurt me, no? How can I trust you?"

Gideon smiled sadly. " I love you. I always loved you."

" What you did to me is not love..."

" To save your life I will. Even if it means you'll hate me, I'll do it."

What?