She wanted to explain. Wanted to tell him that she'd been scared, that she'd panicked, that the gunshot had sent her spiraling into a terror she couldn't control. But the words stuck in her throat, tangled up with her shame and her pride.
When they finally pulled up to the building, Daniel got out first and extended a hand to help her. She took it; her legs, were still shaky. A squeak of surprise escaped her when he scooped her into his arms and began the long walk through the lobby and into the elevator. The doorman didn't even blink at the sight of her wrapped in a soiled blanket. She supposed that in a building like this, stranger things had been seen.
The elevator doors slid open, and Daniel carried her inside. She braced herself for that familiar drop in her stomach—that strange falling sensation she always got in elevators—but all she felt was the strength of his arms around her.
Seconds later, they stepped out into the quiet hallway. Daniel pressed his keycard to a sleek black door, and it clicked open.
James and Chase had already left for a business meeting earlier, leaving just the two of them alone in the apartment. She expected acrimony and reproach now they were finally alone, but he still said nothing, and she maintained her silence, refusing to say anything to provoke him; that telltale twitch in his jaw let her know he was still mad at her for the stunt she had pulled.
He carried her to the bathroom, where a bath had already been run with jasmine petals floating all over and bubbles;
When did you have time to do this? She asked her question, coming out muffled, "I called the maids ahead." His tone sounded detached as he discarded the thick blanket that wrapped her, and a maid came to pick it up.
"You don't have to bathe me; I am quite capable of bathing myself."
"Not now, Amira. I know you are quite capable of being an adult; you have proven it to me."
Amira blushed at his words but stayed still; she didn't know if he was mocking her or actually being serious.
He proceeded to wash her hair gently with shampoo and then grab a loofah and lather it generously with bath gel before proceeding to run the loofah tenderly down her body, scrubbing every inch of her. Until she was squeaky clean, his hands did linger on her breast and between her thighs, but he stopped just as abruptly, as if he suddenly remembered that he was supposed to be mad at her, he rinsed her quickly.
His face still blank; she couldn't tell if he was still angry at her or just frustrated, his action contradicted his expression, so she just kept mute as he scooped her out of the water and toweled her dry.
Then he dressed her in a silk robe he had found hanging in the closet, her damp hair clinging to the nape of her neck. Daniel moved to the floor-to-ceiling windows, hands buried in his pockets, his gaze fixed on her as if coming closer might make him forget why he was angry. But who could blame him? With her wet hair, the soft pink robe, and bare feet, she looked every bit the siren he could hardly resist.
"Better?" he asked without turning around.
"Yes," she said softly. "Thank you."
He walked toward her then, and the look on his face was unreadable. Not angry, exactly. Not disappointed. Something else. Something that made her chest tighten.
A few minutes later the kitchen staff arrived with a steaming plate of pancakes and warm milk; her stomach growled in response at the sight of food. She hadn't had a proper meal in hours save for the bad combination of whisky and ice cream.
She looked at the food placed on the table and looked at him; he nodded in approval, and she started shoveling food into her mouth like some wild animal, but she couldn't stop if she tried; she was famished.
"Easy, or you would throw it up."
When she didn't listen, he grabbed the spoon from her hands. "I told you to slow the fuck down, Amira." As if to prove his point, the pancake went the wrong way, and she began sputtering and choking.
He grabbed her a glass of water and rubbed her back until she settled. "You are so clumsy."
He painstakingly fed her in bits until she cleared her plate, and then the maid cleared up the dishes. If she questioned why a grown woman who was obviously not an invalid was being spoon-fed, she kept that question to herself, and rightly so.
Daniel's features once again turned rock hard. This has to stop, Amira."
She swallowed hard. "I know."
"Do you?" He gripped her jaw, forcing her to meet his eyes. "Because from where I'm standing, it looks like you're trying to get yourself killed."
"I wasn't." She stopped and took a breath. "I was scared. There was a gunshot. I panicked."
That is not what I was talking about, and you know it. "You ran," he corrected. "You disappeared without a word in the night, you turned off your phone, and you holed up in some dump where God knows what could have happened to you."
"I needed space," she said, her voice small.
"You needed space?" He laughed, but there was no humor in it. "Amira, I gave you an entire penthouse, a driver, and a staff. What more do you want?"
"You could have asked the driver to take you anywhere you wanted, but you chose not to.
You humiliated me in front of my friends and made us worry , we were looking everywhere for you for hours."
"I did not humiliate you."
"Really? Because from where I am standing, you did."
"Daniel, you were the one not listening to me. You made me vulnerable before your friends, and I tried to tell you to stop, and you wouldn't listen."
"Chase and James are like family."
"That makes it worse, because you called me a whore in front of them. Is that all I am to you? a poor girl who happens to be a cheap whore that does whatever you say for money?"
"Amira, you know it's not like that; you are taking this too hard."
"Am I really? Is this all a lie? Am I just another one of the numerous women in your life who mean nothing? Because, Daniel, it really is beginning to feel that way."
Daniel sighed; he hated seeing women cry. Seeing Amira sitting there terribly upset, looking miserable with tears streaking down her eyes, made Daniel feel sorry for her; she looked so fragile and innocent that he stalked towards her and pulled her into his arms.