Primal

Chapter Eleven - Bubble Baths and Burning Houses

What have I done?

I sat in a hot bath with the bathroom lights dimmed, but I couldn't relax. Every muscle in my body was tense.

I laid my head back against the tub and stared at the bubbles floating across the steaming surface of the water.

I wanted to go home. I was worried about Vega. I had no clue where her father was or where my own father was. I had a headache from turning each problem over and over again in my mind and I still couldn't comprehend it.

My heart ached at the thought of my mom by herself. She was so fragile and dependent on my dad. I don't think she had gone a day without him up until that point. As much as I hated him, she needed him. That was the sole reason I actually cared to wonder where he was.

Then there was Adam.

God, what a man... I had never met anyone like him.

Adam was a living oxymoron. He could be so sweet and gentle one moment, but so bitter and demanding the next. I fought my consciousness over whether to give him a chance to prove himself a worthy, loving mate or to run as far as I could, determined not to be burned by the fire he seemed to carry inside of him.

When I thought of the word mate, all I could see was my parents. I didn't want that for myself and I was scared that would be what I got.

However, I wasn't just fighting my consciousness— I was fighting myself.

I didn't know how much longer I could tell myself I didn't want him before I became delusional. There was absolutely no denying that I found him attractive... extremely attractive.

His tall, muscular frame was everything and more I ever wanted in a man. The way his arms flexed when he moved them even slightly and the way his back tightened when he walked did not escape me, no matter how much I tried to ignore it. That jet-black, wavy hair was so perfectly messy and his sharp, carnal features formed a face I could stare at for the rest of my life. And those eyes... I could stare into their blue depths endlessly.

That was what scared me: It wasn't him... it was who he was.

But how do I change that?

...can I change that?

Part of me was interested to see the change he made in himself—if there was even going to be one—over those next hundred days.

As my mind wondered on about Adam, the bathroom door opened.

I immediately sunk down into the water, peering over the bubbles to see who had intruded into my deep thoughts.

Speak of the devil...

"Are you in here?" He asked.

I hummed in response.

"Why in the bloody hell are the lights off?"

"They're not all the way off," I countered.

"I can't see you," he said.

"That's the point."

He found the light switch on the wall and turned the lights back up.

I squinted at the light.

"Better," he said, walking into the bathroom.

I quickly sat up and pulled my knees to my chest.

Adam chuckled at this. "I know what a naked woman looks like."

My eyebrows furrowed. "That so?"

Adam walked over the vanity and pulled his white t-shirt over his head.