Safe by Rachel Hanna Read Free Book Online Page B

vanilla and cherries? He wondered what she would do if he burst through the door of that bathroom and kissed her.
     
    Aidan walked slowly up the stairs. He was going to do it - walk through that door and tell her how she had hurt him. He was going to kiss her like a man this time, not like some young high school boy. He was going to show her how rough and rugged and manly he really was.
     
    He walked into her room and stood on the other side of the bathroom door. Anger welled up inside of him as he heard the jets running. He imagined that she was laid back in the tub, daydreaming about some hunky guy who would whisk her away from here. As he put his hand on the knob, the jets turned off. Waiting for a moment, he heard something. It was sniffling.
     
    “Carly? Are you okay?” he called out. Carly jumped out of her skin. Was he listening on the other side of the door? Had he heard her crying?
     
    “I’m fine. Go away,” she said through unintentional sobs.
     
    “I’m coming in,” Aidan said forcefully.
     
    “No, you can’t come in!” Carly yelled back, starkly aware that she was naked in the tub. To her surprise, Aidan backed into the bathroom and faced the door.
     
    “I’m not leaving until I know you’re okay,” he said sharply.
     
    “I’m fine. Girls cry all the time. It’s okay,” she said through breathless sobs.
     
    “It’s not fine with me. Here,” he reached behind his back and handed her bubble bath off the counter.
     
    “What’s this for?” she asked confused.
     
    “Turn on the water and cover yourself with bubbles,” he said. His voice was one of authority, which was new for Carly to hear. She did as he asked.
     
    “Okay, I think I am covered,” she stammered, worried that he would see some part of her that she wasn’t ready to show him.
     
    Aidan slowly turned around. He saw Carly slouched down in the tub, covered in bubbles with a red, tear-stained face. She looked small, sad and defeated. What had happened between the time he talked to her outside and right now?
     
    “What’s going on, Carly?” he asked as he sat down on the cold, tile floor beside the tub. He couldn’t help but let his eyes slide up and down the bubbles, looking for signs of her porcelain skin, like some hormone-riddled school boy.
     
    “I guess I just let my thoughts get away from me,” she said trying to catch her breath. Carly was not a crier. She never had been. Aidan had never seen a tear fall from her eyes. Now, he wasn’t sure if the bathtub was filled with more water or more of her tears.
     
    “Tell me what you’re thinking,” he said softly. He was surprised at his feelings for her right now. He felt sorry for her situation. And, he felt anger at the man who had been blessed to be called her husband but was trying to kill her.
     
    “I just wonder how I could have been so blind - so stupid - to pick someone like Ethan,” she stammered as she finally slowed her tears.
     
    “You aren’t stupid, Carly. You are one of the smartest people I know. You said yourself that he was a good guy early on.”
     
    “But maybe I missed the signs. I was in such a hurry,”
     
    “Why were you in a hurry?” Aidan asked confused.
     
    “Aidan, you have no idea what I went through when my parents divorced. You were in England. Their divorce rocked my world so bad. Then my Dad ran off with his mistress all the way across the country. I just wanted to get out of there, away from that town and those memories. I had been Daddy’s girl for my whole life, and then he just left me like I didn’t matter. I had made plans to leave for summer classes. Then you came home,” she said.
     
    “And I confused you, didn’t I?”
     
    “Yes. Majorly. I didn’t know what to do. You were my best friend, but you were acting differently toward me. I didn’t know how to handle the new feelings I was having. I just wanted to escape, and Ethan appeared. He allowed me to be someone else. He didn’t know the