Eyes So Blue I Drown

20| Trauma

LUCA

"Give me a chance, I promise you won't regret" the girl from the restaurant tries to play with the buttons of my shirt near my neck.

I seize her wrist, "If I see you one more time around my house, it will be your last day in this city!" I snap it down and she takes a step back.

Fantino comes to me, "Boss, Leah said Arabella is again having some problems in her room. She isn't listening to her"

What happened to her again that reminded her of her fears?

"Get this girl out of here, and make sure she doesn't enter my places again" I tell him and he nods in response.

I make my way to Arabella's room.

I watch Julian standing in her room. "Where's she?" I ask him.

He points to the bathroom, "Leah is with her. She's all naked... so I had to stay out"

Tensed is all I'm feeling right now. I push the door slightly and see Leah standing just behind it.

"She doesn't want anybody to be here, but she isn't doing well with water. She's hurting herself" Leah tells.

"She's loosing it, I can't see her like this" she holds my arm and tears sparkle in her eyes.

"She will be fine. I'll go check on her" I say and she nods. I make her get out of here and take steps towards the bathtub, a blue curtain fallen between us.

I slowly slide it aside and look down at her seating, staring down in the water quietly. The blurred view of her naked body makes the wave of memories wash over my mind, but I ignore all of that and bend down to her, seeing her knuckles reddening a shade.

I touch her cold hand and she slightly shivers sensing my presence here. "Why you're doing this to yourself?" I murmur.

She flinch her head back just to stare at the ceiling, she sobs while I tuck the tendrils of hair behind her ear.

"I don't want to run away from it. I want to face my fears" her voice comes out as barely a whisper.

I cup her face with my one hand, "I know you can do it. But not like this, Bella" I say and wipe her tears with my thumb.

"I want to fight those memories" she lets out a shaky breath and looks at me, "I never told you from where I'd got this phobia. When I was nine years old, I was kidnapped along with other five girls of same age as me..."

She squeezes her eyes shut and finds it hard to speak as I connect my forehead with her's, caressing her wet back. She was kidnapped? By who? How is it all connected with her phobia of deep water?

She whimpers while speaking further, "The kidnappers got to know about the raid of police, they started killing the girls on their way to outside the city in order to reduce the numbers of girls and to make the risk of getting caught lower"

She cries, "And from the bathtub, pond, water well, sewer, to the last -- the most horrific one... lake, they started to throw the girls inside them to suffer and suffocate until they die. At last... I was the only one left"

I keep caressing her back as she lays her head on my shoulder from front and holds my arm, "Fortunately, law enforcement intervened and raided the vehicle we were in, in San Francisco. They were planning on killing me too by throwing me inside the lake..."

I pull the bathtub's water drain stopper and let it get emptied slowly. Her voice breaks, "They all died in front of my eyes, Lucas, how can I forget those views of them drowning? How can I ignore when their muffled screams keep ringing in my ears?"

The sound of water pushing itself into the water drainer fills the room along with Arabella's sobs. I can't believe any of this. I didn't know she has faced such trauma.

I wrap my arms around Arabella's neck, my shirt soaking in the water droplets on her body. "Thanks for telling me" I sigh, "You're strong, Bella, don't let those evil people control you"

I pull her head away from my shoulder and cup her face. "Look at me" I insist and she glimpses at me with teary eyes, "The thing you had to witness was a crime. They are facing the consequences of their crime and you are safe. I know it's hard for you but you will have to fight your negative thoughts. I'm with you. We will work on it together, okay?"

She nods, swallowing hard.

"I believe you can do it" I say and stand up holding her hand, "Come on, let's get you a good warm shower"

She stands up with her arm on her chest and just then I gape at the ethereal beauty of her body.

Holy fucking heavens. She moves the tip of her index finger and raises my chin up just to close my opened mouth which I didn't realise was open.

I walk behind her to the space where shower head is placed. She sits there on the wooden bathroom stool and I begin to splash some water on her head.

I put on some shampoo on her brunette with a hint of ash colored hair. I rub gently, "You've become more beautiful" I say, not keeping my thoughts locked in my mind.

"Sexier too, but that's not a point right now" I add.

I watch her applying the body wash and biting back a laugh. I smile, she's comfortable now.

I rinse the foam off her head, seeing her arcing her head back, eyes closed. I feel a sensation run down my body while darting at the water making its way from her neck to her cleavage, and it just gets lower, and lower, and... lower.

I lick my lips. I suddenly feel thirsty.

After a few minutes of showering, she stands up and I see her body curves from behind. The tattoo she had on her lower back, just above her hips, was always enough to turn me on.

I'm literally gaping at her like a pervert.

She turns around before leaning against the wall while drying herself with a towel.

I push her against the wall, towering her. Her eyes zooms into mine like a camera lens and I already lost it when she licks her lips. Such a tease.

I grab her by her throat.

My lips pass by her lips to her jaw, and dips into the crook of her neck, tasting her skin whose effect couldn't be replaced by anybody else. "Luca-" she mumbles my name.

The smell of her hair, and the touch of her skin, seem to have gotten inside me. My hand runs over her tattooed thigh and cup one of her breasts, squeezing it slowly.

She suddenly pushes me by my chest and I, at the loss of words, stare at her all baffled. She pulls the towel back from the floor and wraps it around her body, "Thanks for everything you did yesterday night and today"

She walks to the bathroom door and glances back at me over her shoulder, "Trying to be enemies with benefits, I see"

The corners of my lips move, forming a smile, "Yeah, last time you caught feelings. Maybe this time too you'll do the same"

She smiles. I smile like an idiot too.