The door shut with a thud. Before she could fathom that he’d left her again, Natalie wobbled as the heat enveloped her.
His lips came close to her neck as he wrapped the blanket around her shoulders. “I’m very proud of you, my bug.” He kissed her hair.
It wasn’t just a blanket. It was warm like the cloths on the airplane or a garment recently removed from a heated dryer. The plush heat tingled her cold skin. The circulation that had resumed, generated by anticipation, now sprinted to life. The temperature was heaven. Its consequences were hell. Pleasure and pain. Natalie didn’t know which was the cause of her tears.
Dexter crouched beside her, wrapped the blanket tighter. And then with his hands on her shoulders, he asked if she could stand.
Natalie stared.
There was something different in his gaze.
“Bug, answer me.”
She tried to reach up. Her arms were dead weight, lifting them only a few inches took all her strength. Her legs were nothing more than noodled pincushions. It was as if her bones had lost their rigidity. She shook her head. “I-I don’t think so.”
What would he say? Would he be upset?
Dexter nodded and stood. Her heart sank. Would he leave her there?
After removing the tray from the bed and placing it on the floor, in one swoop he reached down and lifted Natalie from the floor, pulling her into his arms as if she weighed nothing.
Nat cried out as her toes and legs exploded in pain. It was worse than any cramp or charley horse she’d ever experienced. Gritting her teeth, she buried her face against his broad chest.
She hadn’t meant to find comfort in his attention, but she did. His shirt smelled like fresh air—clean and cool, so unlike her surroundings—while his cologne added just the right amount of musk and spice.
With her cradled in his arms, Dexter sat upon the bed.
She didn’t know what to say or do. This wasn’t the same man who’d made her kneel for hours on end. It was, but it wasn’t. In her deprived state, her thoughts couldn’t keep up.
“Tell me,” Dexter said.
Natalie looked up to his face. There was something different in his tone as well as his stare. Maybe it was hunger making Natalie delusional. She couldn’t be sure, but for some reason she wanted to answer. “My toes…” Her eyes closed, her lashes dampened with tears. “My legs…”
“They hurt?”
Natalie nodded.
Balancing her on his lap and against his chest, Dexter reached for her foot and his large hand squeezed.
Pain shot up her leg. Natalie screamed, louder than before.
“No, bug,” he said soothingly. “It’ll get better. Give it a minute.”
Biting her lip, she watched as he massaged one foot and then the other. He was right: the prickling subsided and before she knew it, they felt better.
“Remember my saying that the rush of blood to starved tissues can be more painful than the pressure?”
She nodded.
“That’s what happened.” He kissed her forehead. “I didn’t think you’d make it. I really didn’t. You’re so much stronger than I realized.”
His words flowed through her, providing the same effect as the blanket. She didn’t want to like pleasing this man, but she did. She enjoyed this tone, the way he held her and wiped her cheeks. And then he placed her upon the edge of the mattress and stood. All at once, she was hit with the startling realization that she didn’t want him to leave. She didn’t want to be left alone again, even with the blanket.
“Dexter? Are you going?”
When he turned, his lips parted. There was something new in his gaze: shock or surprise. She was too sore and hungry to understand.
He dropped to one knee and placed his hand over her blanket-covered leg. “Say that again.” His command wasn’t urgent, more of a request.
“I-I’m sorry if I shouldn’t…” This was all so new. She didn’t know what she was supposed to say.
Caressing her blanket-covered thigh, he explained, “No, just say what you said, exactly as you said it. I want to hear it again.”
“Are you going?”
His head shook. “My name. You said my name.”
“Dexter?”
“It’s the first time you’ve said it.”
She blinked. “It was?”
Again, his knuckle ran the length of her jaw. “Yes, bug. And I like hearing it from your lips.”
“Are you leaving again?”
“No, not yet.” He reached for her hands. “Now can you stand?”
The feeling was back in her legs. Gingerly, she shifted her weight to her feet and rose. Her legs quivered and her feet were heavy, but his grasp of her hands gave her the extra needed leverage. Like a newborn deer, she stood unsteadily.
“How do you feel?” he asked.
“Sore, but I can stand.”
“And walk?”
Natalie nodded.
Dexter tilted his head toward the bathroom. “Go do whatever you need to do. I’ll give you privacy. When you come back out, we’ll have the talk we didn’t have this morning.”
She tugged the blanket around her, but after only a step, she stopped. “May I…” It felt strange to ask for such a mundane thing. Dexter said they’d discuss the rules, but they hadn’t. She wanted to be sure she wouldn’t upset him. She’d do whatever was necessary to avoid the cement floor. “…may I keep the blanket…around me?”
He nodded. “I think for now…you earned it.”
“Thank you.” Nat hurried toward the bathroom as too many different emotions fought for supremacy.
Somehow, after everything, it was gratitude that prevailed.
Her mind told her she was being ridiculous. Grateful for a blanket? Yet she was. She could cover herself in the bathroom. She could keep it wrapped around her while they talked. Yesterday, she would have told herself it was silly to be thankful for a blanket. That was before.
Today, her life was different.
Chapter Ten
The best way to find out if you can trust somebody is to trust them.
~ Ernest Hemingway
Natalie came to a stop, standing unmoving in the bathroom’s doorframe while contemplating the possibility that Dexter had been right and she was delusional. Hunger and stress can be triggering factors. Sleep deprivation is another. She’d slept, but more accurately, she’d been drugged. Wasn’t that different?
“Come and sit,” he said, turning and catching her stare.
Tentatively, she moved forward, the blanket snug around her.
In the brief time she’d been in the bathroom, he’d set up a small round folding table with two chairs. The cart she’d heard before was now in the room. Two covered dishes, a decanter, and a large glass bottle of water were upon it.
Natalie eased into the chair he pulled out.
“This is still,” he said, pointing to the water. “I can bring sparkling next time, if you prefer.”
She shook her head. “I like still, thank you.”
Definitely delusional, having a surreal conversation discussing water as if she weren’t wearing a blanket and at Dexter’s mercy.
He placed the dishes upon the table. The cake from earlier was gone. In its place were large grilled sandwiches that emitted the most amazing aroma. A side salad of leafy greens and vegetables sat beside it on the plate.