Ava’s POV
I stood outside the bathroom door for a while, longer than I could admit. My fingers kept tightening and loosening on the knot of the short white shower robe, like I could somehow turn the cloth into an actual armor.
The floor felt like ice under my bare feet, but heat kind of leaked from beneath the door. Steam curled out from the bathroom in lazy fingers, carrying that same whiskey and s*x smell that was already burned into my skin.
Gosh!! I hated him.
I hated myself even more going in anyway.
My hand shook when I finally opened the door.
The air in the bathroom hit me like a wall. It scented with cedar and something darker, something that smelled like Julian’s skin after he’d ruined me.
And there he was.
Julian sat in the massive black marble tub like a demon who
