Chapter 182: Unexpected Progress

The silence stretched between us, filled only by the soft lapping of water against the wooden basin.

Kassie’s back was to me now — pale skin interrupted by the wet curtain of red hair clinging to her shoulders. She’d positioned herself as far from me as the round tub allowed, which wasn’t very far at all. Maybe three feet of water separated us.

Three feet felt like a lot.

Three feet also felt like nothing.

I forced myself to look at the ceiling, counting the wooden slats overhead. Giving her space. Proving I meant what I said.

’This is fine. I can do this. I’m a man of my word.’

The water was warm. The silence was comfortable. Mostly...

"You’re staring at my back."

I blinked. "I’m looking at the ceiling."

"You were staring before that."

"...Maybe for a second."

Kassie didn’t turn around, but I caught the slight tension in her shoulders. Not anger though — this was something else. Awareness, maybe. The kind that meant she knew exactly where I was in relation to her body, even without looking.

’Interesting.’

"I said I wouldn’t touch you," I reminded her. "Never said anything about looking."

"That’s not the same as keeping your promise."

"Technically, it’s exactly keeping my promise. The promise was no touching. Looking is a separate category entirely."

She made a sound — something between a scoff and an exhale.

"You always find loopholes?"

"Only when the alternative is worse."

The water rippled as she shifted slightly. Still not facing me, but the angle of her head changed. She was listening.

"What’s the alternative here?"

"Sitting in complete silence while pretending a beautiful woman isn’t three feet away from me." I kept my voice casual. "That seemed dishonest. And I’m trying to build trust here."

"By being shameless?"

"By being honest." I let that land for a moment. "You’ll always know where you stand with me, Kassie. That’s worth something."

She was quiet for a long moment. The water stilled around us.

Then, slowly, she turned.

Not all the way — just enough that I could see her profile. The curve of her jaw. The wet hair plastered against her cheek. One ghostly eye fixed on me through the curtain of red.

"Most people lie to me," she said. "They think it’s safer."

"Is it?"

"No." She paused. "But they don’t find that out until later."

There was weight behind those words, the kind that left marks you couldn’t see.

’Who hurt you, Kassie?’

I was slightly surprised, at the same time not quite, surely a woman of her caliber would carry many pain.

I didn’t ask even though I was so curious. That wasn’t a door you kicked in — it was one she’d open when she was ready, or not at all.

"I’m not most people," I said instead.

"I noticed."

Her eye traced over me — clinical, assessing. Like she was looking for something specific and hadn’t found it yet. I held still under the examination, letting her look her fill.

"Your touch," she said finally. "You know what it does to me."

"I have some idea."

"And you’re not using it."

"I promised I wouldn’t."

"That’s not what I mean." She turned a little more, her expression unreadable. "You could have before... the firet time. When I was weakened. When I couldn’t resist."

The accusation — or maybe it was a question — hung between us.

I met her gaze steadily. "Yeah. I could have."

"Why didn’t you?"

’Because going ahead to fuck someone who doesn’t want to be fucked just because they’re horny doesn’t make me any less a rapist than one who forced sex on them despite all manner of refusal, and even harmed them physically.’

I didn’t say that. It was obviously too real for a bathhouse conversation.

"Would you have respected me if I had?" I asked instead.

Kassie studied me for another long moment. Then something shifted in her expression — a softening so subtle I might have imagined it.

"No," she admitted. "I wouldn’t have."

"There you go."

She turned away again, but her shoulders had lost some of their tension. The wall between us felt thinner now. Still there — but with cracks I hadn’t seen before.

We sat in silence for a while. Comfortable this time. The kind of quiet that came from two people who’d said something that mattered and were letting it settle.

"You’re strange," Kassie said eventually.

"I get that a lot."

"Most men with your ability would use it. Take what they wanted."

"Most men are idiots."

"And you’re not?"

"Oh, I’m definitely an idiot." I grinned, even though she couldn’t see it. "Just a different kind."

That sound again — almost a laugh, caught before it could fully form. But I heard it. The tiny crack in her inner armor.

’Progress...’

"You should go," she said. "I’ve been in here too long."

"What if I want to stay?"

"You don’t get everything you want."

"Not yet."

She did turn then — all the way around. Her eyes met mine, and something electric passed between us. Not the touch — this was sharper. More dangerous in its own way.

"Confident," she said. It wasn’t quite a compliment, but it wasn’t a dismissal either.

"As always."

Her lips twitched. Just barely. A ghost of a smile that disappeared as quickly as it came.

"Get out, Cade."

’Huhh...’

My head rolled like a ticking time bomb going off in smokes.

’My name. She just said my name!!’

This was the first time Kassie uttered my name through her mouth. I got the message but the fact that she said it in such a manner, made me not even able to complain.

I trembled to maintain my cool, but managed and rose from the water, not bothering to hide anything. Her eyes tracked down my body once — brief and involuntary—before snapping back up to my face. A faint flush colored her cheeks that had nothing to do with the warm water.

’Oh, she definitely looked.’

"Same time tomorrow?" I asked, stepping out of the tub.

"There won’t be a tomorrow."

"Sure there won’t."

I grabbed a cloth to dry off, keeping my back to her now. Returning the privacy she’d given me earlier, even though every instinct told me to look.

"Kassie."

"What?"

"I keep my promises." I glanced over my shoulder, catching her eye one more time. "All of them. Remember that."

She didn’t respond.

But the way her fingers tightened on the edge of the tub said enough.

I left the bathroom with a smile on my face and the image of that tiny flush burned into my memory.

’Same time tomorrow,’ I thought. ’Definitely.’