| ONE YEAR LATER PART 6 _______________________________________________________________________________________ The pain ate through the darkness and I became aware of my surroundings. I was in Jean-Claude’s room lying on satin sheets. I could feel that the top sheet was only pulled up to the base of my spine and the air was cool across my back. I must have been lying in that position for hours because my neck was stiff. I gently raised my head and turned it to the other side and found myself staring into beautiful violet eyes. He reached up and moved a chunk of hair that had fallen in my face. The gesture was so sweet and the look in his eyes so concerned that the tears started again. I turned my head away again – I didn’t want him to see the hurt in my eyes. I felt him draw his hand back. “Why did you let him do this to you?” he asked softly. “I know it’s not the same reason I’ve let the same thing happen; you know when to say stop.” “Because I had to,” I managed to say through the tears. “Why? Why did you have to do this?” I didn’t answer. “You found me in bed with Anita. You should be punishing me, not yourself.” I shook my head “no”, my head still turned away from him. “I drove you to it.” “I thought you had found someone else, that that was why you wouldn’t accept my calls, but I’ve never had sex with Anita, just shared her bed.” He spent the next half hour explaining what had happened while I was gone. How shortly after I had left, so had Anita. How when she finally came back she had done her best to pull the pard back together. He told me what the panwere and his people had done to him and Gregory and again my tears started because I hadn’t been here to stop it. Then he told me about how Micah had come to be the accepted pard leader and why they had been sharing Anita’s bed. I finally turned my head back to Nathaniel. “Micah can stay Nimir Raj,” I said with a sniff. “I’m not up for the responsibility.” “Good,” he said with a smile. “Then you’ve got more time for me.” I began sobbing. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. I never meant for all of this to happen like this. I should have called. I shouldn’t have refused your calls.” The sobs shook my body and I screamed out from the pain. Nathaniel shushed me, stroking my hair, and I finally calmed down. I was physically and emotionally drained from everything that had happened over the past few days. “How did you find me?” I asked quietly. “One of Micah’s people saw you leave with that guy. We confronted him and he finally told us where he took you. Me and Zane got there just in time, he was about to burn the wounds so they wouldn’t heal.” “I know,” I said sadly. “You asked him to do that?” He asked, sounding panicked. “No! But when I was unconscious he gagged me so I couldn’t protest.” “But you asked for everything else?” I nodded “yes”. He went to hug me and then drew away remembering my back. “You need to heal.” “I need a bath” “You can’t have that until you heal. You’re going to have to shift, it’s the fastest way to heal damage from silver and the best way to prevent scaring.” I nodded and he carefully helped me from the bed. My entire body ached and my skin felt raw all over. We finally made it to the bathroom floor where I wouldn’t damage anything with the messiness of a shift. I eased myself to the floor, wincing and groaning every time my body moved. When I caught my breath Nathaniel excused himself to go and call Dr. Lillian to give her an update on my condition. I used the privacy to shift and decided that the pain involved in nearly every bone in your body breaking and reforming is worse that anything else imaginable, but when it was complete I felt better. When Nathaniel came back in he seemed distracted – caught up in his own thoughts. He went about drawing a bath in Jean-Claude’s pool he calls a tub. He added bubble bath and essential oil of vanilla – one of the secrets of his scent, and then sat gently swinging his legs on the side of the tub while it filled. I laid down on my belly with my head on my paws and stared at him. He was different somehow. He had definitely changed while I had been gone He seemed more grown up and I liked it. Normally, I was the one taking care of him no matter what, but here he was doing things on his own and taking care of me. He hadn’t asked permission before doing anything – he just did what needed to be done. It made me see him differently. When the tub was full, he shut off the water and then turned to me. “All ready,” he said quietly. I sat up, and as I pictured myself in human form again I felt my bones slide back into their rightful places. When it was done I was half lying on the floor, barely able to prop myself up. I had used too much energy in the past couple of days. Aside from being unconscious I hadn’t rested since I had shifted back in the woods and I hadn’t eaten either. I was physically exhausted. Nathaniel came over and offered a hand up, but I could barely lift my arm. I struggled to sit up again. “Wait,” he said. “I’ll help you.” He pulled a hair tie from the pocket of his shorts and it was then that I noticed how long his hair had gotten. I was surprised I hadn’t noticed it before – it was down to his ankles and just as beautiful as ever. Once he had pulled his hair back he leaned down and easily scooped me up in his arms – something he had never done before, as it was a very dominant gesture. I managed to get my arms around his neck and enjoyed being carried to the tub. He set me down briefly to remove his shorts and then picked me back up and carefully got into the tub with me still in his arms. We sank into the warm water and just sat there holding each other. He brushed a chunk of hair out of my eyes and kissed my cheek, continuing until he was nuzzled behind my ear. He said something that made my heart beat faster but I wasn’t sure I heard him correctly. “What?” I said breathlessly. He leaned back and looked in my eyes. “I love you.” The emotional jolt was overwhelming and I think I forgot to breathe. This wasn’t something I had expected to hear from him – at least not in the short amount of time I had actually been with him and definitely not after leaving him for so long. I didn’t know what else to do so I just wrapped my arms around his neck and buried my face in his neck and sobbed silently while he held me. When I ran out of tears I leaned back and looked into his eyes, “I love you too.” He cupped my face in his hands and kissed me slow and gentle. He drew back and reached for the large sponge sitting on the side of the tub, poured a generous amount of his vanilla scented body wash onto it and proceeded to bathe me. I felt cherished and definitely loved. Fifteen minutes later he had meticulously cleaned every inch of my body. With ease and grace he lifted us from the water and gently set me on my feet. I was feeling better now but I still needed sleep before I would be one hundred percent again. “Now just stand there,” he instructed, making me smile. “I want to lick the water off of you.” I gave a small laugh. “While the imagery is very appealing, a towel would be faster.” “Please,” he moaned sounding like the old Nathaniel. “Another time.” “Ok,” he pouted and reluctantly used the towel. When we were both dry he again picked me up and carried me back to the bed, laying me gently on the satin sheets. He removed an elegant looking lighter from the bedside table and lit the candles on both sides of the bed. Slowly the air began to fill with the scent of vanilla and Nathaniel crawled into bed with me. We made love oh so slowly and tenderly. A complete opposite of how it had always been, but then we hadn’t admittedly been in love before. It changed everything. I fell asleep curled around his back covered from head to toe by his hair. ________________________________________________________________________________________ PART 7 INDEX |