Apparently, Sadi had taken the cleaning thing to a whole different level.
My gaze crept to where Sadi stood only a few feet from her, breathing heavily. Her white blouse was torn. Buttons popped and missing. Her normally coiffed hair looked like she’d been inside a wind tunnel, but the best part?
Fingernail marks were etched down the side of Sadi’s face and reddish-blue blood had been drawn. A disturbing level of pride rippled through me.
Kitten got claws and then some.
“She doesn’t play nice with others,” Sadi huffed out. “So I’m in the process of adjusting her attitude.”
“And I’m in the process of getting ready to cut out your heart, bitch.”
In spite of everything that was so damn messed up, my lips twitched into a small smile. “Get out.”
Sadi turned her hateful gaze on me. “I’m—”
“Get the hell out.” When Sadi didn’t move, I stalked over to where she stood, picked her up, and shoved her out of the bathroom. She caught herself and started back toward us. “Rolland has a use for you tonight, so if you want to be able to come through for him, don’t take one more step toward me.”
Her nostrils flared as her cheeks mottled with anger, but she stopped as her hands curled into claws. A second passed and she didn’t move from the doorway. Sadi was going to test me—she seriously was.
I slammed the bathroom door shut in Sadi’s face and then whipped around. Heart hammering, I saw her again and immediately forgot about Sadi.
She still stood in front of the garden tub, the piece of glass in her hand, and she stared back at me like an animal cornered. In that moment she didn’t remind me of a harmless little kitten.
She was a full-grown tigress, and she still looked like she wanted to do some damage. To me. Could I really blame her? Those eyes of hers shifted the longer we stared at each other, turning wet with a sheen of tears, and that was worse than a kick between the legs.
I was in so deep. We were in so deep, and I didn’t want her here. I wanted her far, far away from all of this, but it was too late.
Too late for both of us, and maybe for everyone else, too.
Her lower lip trembled as she shifted her weight from one foot to the other, her toes sinking into spilled conditioner or shampoo. An eternity stretched out between us as I soaked her up with my eyes. A collage of memories—from the day she knocked on my front door and changed my life, to the first time she said those three words that made my life what it was—bombarded me. But it was more than just memories. I knew right then I shouldn’t be feeling what I was, but every cell demanded her. My blood boiled.
I wanted her.
I needed her.
I loved her.
She took a step back, bumping into the tile ledge surrounding the tub.
“Kat,” I said, speaking her name for the first time in days, allowing myself to actually think it, and the moment that happened, the seal inside me broke wide open.