Chapter 216 Kicked Away
?His hands were everywhere, moving restlessly across her skin. Her nightclothes was wide open, and the small plastic buttons had popped off and were scattered across the bedsheets like tiny white seeds. His mouth was pressed against her neck, leaving hot trails over her collarbone and down to her bare shoulder.
?She could feel every inch of him, from his solid weight pressing her down into the bed to his sudden warmth and raw desire. He wanted her completely, and he was not holding anything back.
?She felt like she was drowning in an ocean with no shore. The mental fog in her mind was thick and suffocating, making her limbs feel slow and sluggish. Her body refused to obey her commands, as if she were trapped in a bad dream.
?But somewhere deep inside her chest, a small voice started screaming over and over again to stop. Stop. Stop.
?She blinked hard, and the haze finally cleared away for just a brief second. She looked up and saw him looming right above her, his face flushed with heat and his eyes burning with an intense focus. He had no intention of stopping.
?There was no time to think or weigh her options. She pulled her knee back sharply and kicked upward with all her remaining strength.
?Her foot connected solidly with his stomach, landing a powerful blow. He gasped in surprise, the air rushing out of his lungs, and rolled off her body, tumbling onto the floor with a loud thud.
?She scrambled away in a panic, leaped out of bed, and ran as fast as she could. She burst into the bathroom, slammed the bathroom door shut, and turned the lock in a frantic motion.
?She leaned her back against the cool surface of the door, trying to catch her breath. Her chest was heaving up and down, her heart was pounding like a drum inside her ears, and her hands were trembling so badly she could barely hold them still.
?She slowly looked up at her reflection in the bathroom mirror. Her lips were swollen from the kissing, her neck was covered in red marks, and her nightclothes was torn near the shoulder.
?She reached up and touched her mouth with trembling fingers. A wave of shame, panic, and absolute loss washed over her all at once. She truly did not know how she was ever going to face him again after this.
?She slid down the door until she was sitting flat on the cold tile floor, pulling her knees up tight against her chest. She began replaying everything that had just happened in her mind like a broken record.
?The soft knock at the door, stepping out into the hall, seeing Kaelen and Dorian, letting him inside, taking off his shoes, and trying to make him comfortable. Then the sudden shift when he kissed her, pinned her down, and touched her skin.
?And the most terrifying part was that for one crazy moment, her mind had completely gone blank and she had not resisted at all. Why had she frozen like that?
?She pressed her palm firmly against her chest, trying to calm her racing pulse. Her heart was still beating wildly, her skin felt flushed and warm, and a strange tingling sensation lingered across her body.
?Her physical self had reacted completely on its own, responding to his touch even when her brain wanted to fight back. Just thinking about that involuntary reaction made her want to crawl straight out of her own skin.
?She stood up quickly, turned on the shower faucet, and waited for the water to turn hot before stepping directly under the spray.
?The water was steaming hot, pouring over her hair and shoulders. She began scrubbing her skin frantically, washing her hair over and over again, trying desperately to scrub away the lingering feeling of his hands on her body.
?But when she checked in the mirror after turning off the water, the red marks were still clearly visible on her neck, her collarbone, and her shoulder. They stood out plain as day, obvious and bright.
?She felt so embarrassed that she could not bear to look at her own reflection for another second. She stayed shut inside the bathroom for a long time until the steady heat finally helped calm her frayed nerves.
?She stepped out of the bathroom, dried herself completely, and changed into a fresh set of clean clothes. She pressed her ear softly against the bathroom door to listen for any noise outside.
?Complete silence filled the room. She unlocked the door and pulled it open just a tiny crack.
?The bedroom was dim, lit only by the soft glow of the plug-in nightlight in the corner. Dorian was lying completely still on the big bed, his eyes shut tight and his chest rising and falling in slow, steady breaths. He had finally fallen fast asleep.
?She opened the door fully and stepped back out into the bedroom. She walked slowly toward the mattress and looked down at him.
?He was sprawled out diagonally across the entire bed, his shirt still wide open, his chest bare, and one of his arms dangling limply off the side. He was going to catch a chill lying uncovered like that with no blanket over him.
?She reached over to the nightstand, grabbed a thick book, and poked him gently in the shoulder with it to see if he would wake up. He did not even twitch. She poked him a second time. Still nothing.
?She set the book down, grabbed the quilt from the foot of the bed, and pulled it up to tuck carefully around his shoulders.
?She looked down at the floor near the bedside and saw his discarded clothes lying in a messy heap. His jacket, his dress shirt, and his trousers were scattered everywhere.
?She bent down, picked them up one by one, and folded them neatly. She walked over to her closet, opened her travel suitcase, and tucked his clothes carefully inside it.
?Doing that made her feel a little bit like a thief hiding someone else’s property, but she pushed the suitcase back into the closet anyway and closed the door.
?She looked back at the bed. Dorian was still taking up nearly all the mattress, his arms spread wide and his legs tangled hopelessly in the blankets.
?There was no way she could possibly sleep next to him tonight, especially not after everything that had just occurred. She grabbed her favorite pillow and an extra spare blanket from the chair, walked over to the long sofa near the window, and laid down.
?She pulled the warm blanket up over her shoulders and closed her eyes tight. But sleep refused to come to her. Her mind kept replaying those exact same moments over and over again, his hands, his mouth, his solid weight pressing down on her.
?Eventually, exhaustion took over and she drifted off into a restless sleep. She floated somewhere between being half asleep and half awake, where dream and reality completely melted together.
?In her fuzzy state, she imagined she was back on the bed, with Dorian hovering right above her. His eyes looked intense and fierce, and his hands were roaming everywhere across her skin again. She tried with all her might to push him away, but her limbs felt completely paralyzed.
?He pinned her down hard, forcing himself on her while she was trapped beneath him. She opened her mouth and let out a terrified scream, waking up with a start.