Strangers in Love by M. S. Parker

Author:M. S. Parker [Parker, M. S.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Belmonte Publishing, LLC
Published: 2021-01-01T16:00:00+00:00

Thirty-Three

Aline

As I locked the door to the bathroom, I had a moment to wonder if the man whose name I still didn’t know could hear that I’d done it, but then I decided I didn’t care. This was the first time in days I’d felt even remotely safe.

I grimaced as I pulled off the clothes I’d been wearing for almost a week and tried not to think about how awful I smelled. Heat flooded my cheeks as I realized that my rescuer had had me right next to his face. I pushed that thought out of my head, and then I heard a man’s voice close enough that my pulse spiked.

“This is Eoin McCrae in room one fifteen.”

I knew that voice. I closed my eyes in relief. Eoin. That was his name.

The next thing he said had my eyes opening and my jaw dropping. I listened harder, fury rising in me as every word painted a vulgar picture of me and why I was here. I turned on the water, hoping to drown out his side of the conversation. I’d already been angry with him for forcing me to leave the others behind, but I’d partially accepted it because it was the logical choice. I was the one with the emotional investment. The way he was talking about me probably had some logical reasoning behind it too, but I couldn’t see it.

As I stepped into the shower and let the filth of the last week slough off, I could feel the cracks I’d been pretending didn’t exist. Cracks that’d been made every time I’d pushed down the emotions that’d threatened my very sanity.

The strength and optimism I’d portrayed to the others had been as much lies to myself as they had been to them. I’d needed them to survive, but I was out now. Safe. Only one night away from getting on a plane and flying home to everyone and everything I loved.

Except I’d made promises that I wouldn’t be the only one going home, and those promises had been broken. What could I say to them, to their loved ones, about why I’d left them behind? That it’d been logical? That while four innocent people with family and friends were paying the price for my escape, I’d been taking a hot shower and would be eating good food, then sleeping in a comfortable bed?

I used the hotel shampoo, soap, and conditioner twice each, scrubbing my body until my skin turned pink. I used the familiar motions to clear my head, to build those walls back up again. I wasn’t going to break down. Not here and not now. Not with the stranger in the other room who was telling people I was a prostitute. Not when my friends weren’t safe.

A part of me wanted to linger, to simply let the steam and heat surround me. Sink to the floor, wrap my arms around my legs, and just stop. Stop moving. Stop thinking.

But I wasn’t going to do that.

When I

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