THIRTEEN
Eden pov
As the water hit my skin, a sigh of relief left my lips. I couldn’t remember the last time I had a proper shower, or to be fair, any shower.
I spent years using a bucket of semi- dirty water and a rag to wash myself, so this feeling truly was like an out of this world experience.
Since Lucius told me I could use the shower, I doubted if I could use any of the products lined along the wall, so I stuck to a bar of soap.
When I looked down and noticed how dirty was the water that disappeared down the drain, I understood why he was mumbling about changing the sheets – I was, in fact, filthy.
By the time I stepped out of the shower, the bathroom was filled with steam and my skin was bright red. Then, I noticed that there was a neatly folded towel left next to the sink basin. I frowned at it when did someone enter the bathroom? Did they see me… naked?
The very thought of anyone seeing me exposed like this terrified me, so I grabbed the towel and quickly wrapped it around my body. I had suffered a lot over the years, but my purity was the only thing I managed to save, so there was no way I was giving up on it.
I had to take a few deep breaths to brace myself before I exited the bathroom. There could be others in the bedroom and I wasn’t ready to be questioned by anyone.
Besides, what was I supposed to say if anyone asked me questions? That I had no idea why I was there and the man who owned this place was most likely a sick kidnapper?
However, when I finally stepped out of the bathroom, there was no one waiting for me on the other side of the door. Grasping the chance while I had it, I ran into the closet Lucius told me I could grab something from and closed the door behind me.
Alright, shame aside, if I thought the bathroom was amazing, this was a new level of flashy and expensive. The closet was bigger than the living room of my step-mother’s pack house.
Since I knew he was waiting for me downstairs and I couldn’t afford getting distracted again, I grabbed one of his t-shirts and dropped the towel. When I pulled it over my head, I realized that there was an insane size difference between me and Lucius.
His shirt reached my knees, it was a decent length dress for me.
Then, I grabbed the towel from the floor, cursed the greater power for the lack of underwear and tip-toed back to the bathroom to hang out the towel. I might have been a prisoner, but I didn’t want to be rude to the somewhat kind kidnapper.
Just like he mentioned, a woman stood
at the bedroom door and bowed to me once I stepped in the hall: “Oh, Goddess, you aren’t wearing socks. That has to be fixed, the floors are too cold to walk barefoot,” she muttered.
When the woman’s eyes met mine, she instantly averted her gaze to look at her feet and added, “I am sorry, I didn’t mean to disrespect your majesty. Please, forgive me.”
My eyes had to be wider than those of lemurs. “You didn’t do such a thing. And your majesty? What is going on here?”
“I said too much, my apologies. Please wait for me in the bedroom, I will return with a pair of socks and slippers,” she quickly spun on her heel and tried to hurry away, but I couldn’t let this opportunity pass.
“Hey, please wait, don’t go,” I called out to stop her.
The maid froze and slowly turned around to face me again. She didn’t say a word, obviously waiting on what I needed to say.
“This is very uncomfortable and embarrassing, but…” I stopped myself mid-sentence to suck in a breath.
“Please don’t feel that way, I am here to do anything for you, so speak freely,” she smiled to encourage me.
“Could you maybe find me some
underwear? God, this is so embarrassing, but I don’t have any and I’m already wearing a shirt I got from Lucius’ closet. I think both of us can see why I wouldn’t borrow any of his.”
My cheeks burned as she smiled at me like the most understanding person alive. The fact that she simply nodded her head and didn’t ask more questions made the situation a little less tense.
I watched how she hurried down the hall and stepped back into the bedroom, sat on the bed, leaving the door open. No longer than two minutes later, she was back with the promised socks and slippers in her hand. “May I enter?” She asked.
Although her behavior was a little odd, I played along and invited her inside like some vampire.
She hurried to me, handed me the socks and slippers, and then reached into the pocket of her apron. My eyes followed her movements as she pulled out a brand new set of underwear and whispered, “I had to hide them to ensure no one saw and you wouldn’t feel ashamed.”
This woman had no idea how grateful I was. So much so that I jumped to my feet and hugged her.
She was so stunned by my sudden action that she froze up. Then, I ran into the bathroom to put on underwear, socks and slippers. When I returned she still stood frozen like a statue. “I believe Lucius promised me
breakfast?” I giggled as she finally
came to her senses.
“Oh, yes, sorry. I was just… surprised,
is all,” she muttered and walked out of
the bedroom with me hot on her heels.
“What is your name? Mine is Eden,” I tried to ease the tension with some small talk, but the maid in front of me didn’t seem too eager to join in.
“Diana,” she muttered.
“That’s such a beautiful name. It’s nice to meet you, Diana. Oh, and thank you. You know, for everything you did, I really appreciate it.” I must have sounded like a mumbling fool, but I didn’t care.
For some reason, I had a feeling that she wasn’t told thank you often enough so while I was stuck here, I had a chance to change that, if only for the time being.
When we reached the bottom of the stairs, Diana froze on the last step and I raised my gaze from my feet to see what had stopped her. Lucius stood in the doorframe, leaning against it, arms crossed in front of his chest.
I couldn’t tell if he was angry or annoyed, his facial expression was nearly unreadable and for a split second, he looked hurt, but I wasn’t sure.
“Thank you, Diana, you may return to your duties,” he spoke to the maid with such finality in his voice, it was clear his words weren’t to be questioned.
Diana bowed and muttered, “of course,
my King.”
Then, she was gone and for the first time ever, I stood face to face with my captor. To say Lucius was stupidly handsome would be to put it in lightly. Extremely tall, muscular, dark hair and piercing blue eyes. I almost forgot how to breathe.
Only when he pushed himself off the doorframe and took the first step towards me did I realize I was staring. When he stopped in front of the stairs, I still needed to look up at him to meet his gaze.
A corner of his lip twitched as Lucius offered me his hand. “Is it a crime to feel offended to know my mate shared her name with a maid before she disclosed it to me?”
