I woke up in Aurelio's bed with his shirt twisted around me and the chair by the window empty.
Coffee smell came from across the room, and so did he.
Aurelio: Towel's on the hook. Don't use all the hot water.
The water hit the burn under my ribs and I bit my arm so he wouldn't hear.
A burning curtain touched me when I ran from my shop, and it left a red mark the size of a hand.
I came out with the towel under my arms and my hair dripping on his floor.
He was at the foot of the bed with his sleeves rolled up, and he stopped talking when he saw me.
Aurelio: Come here.
Veda: I'm fine right here.
Aurelio: I didn't ask.
He crossed the room slow, like he was giving me every chance to run.
One finger hooked the fold of the towel between my breasts and pulled.
The towel dropped. The air was cold and my whole body went hot at the same time.
I crossed my arms over my chest and turned my hip away so he couldn't see the burn.
Aurelio: Don't do that.
Veda: It's disgusting. I know what it looks like.
Aurelio: Then stop telling me what I'm looking at.
He took my wrist and turned me until I was facing the tall mirror on his closet door.
Wet hair, bare skin, my own arms crossed over me like a shield.
In the mirror I watched him instead of me.
His eyes went down my neck and my back and stopped on the burn and stayed there.
Aurelio: You think I'm going to wince.
Veda: Anyone would.
Aurelio: I'm not anyone. I have you under my roof and I'm not sorry about it.
His thumb touched the edge of the burn, so light it was almost nothing.
My whole body shook, and shame crawled up my neck, and I turned away and folded over myself.
He didn't grab me. He stepped back, and I heard his belt buckle hit the floor.
When I looked up his cock was already in his fist and he was already hard.
Aurelio: You want to hide, hide.
Aurelio: I'm still going to look.
Veda: Aurelio.
Aurelio: Say stop and I stop. Anything else, you keep your eyes on me.
The word sat in my mouth and I did not say it.
His fist moved up and down his cock, slow, and he watched me watch him.
Aurelio: This is what you do to me.
Aurelio: You think that burn makes me want to look away? Look at my hand.
My own hand slid down my stomach before I told it to.
My fingers found my clit and my hips jerked, and my face burned like I'd been caught stealing.
Aurelio: That's it. Don't look away from the mirror.
Aurelio: Look at both of us.
The mirror showed all of it. His hand on his cock, my hand between my legs, my own fingers wet and shining.
I had never watched myself do that before. I did it now, with him.
I came with my head back and his name in my mouth, and my legs almost folded.
He came right after, fast and rough, and it landed hot across my stomach.
I stood there with his come cooling on my skin and my heart going like a hammer.
He wet a cloth at the basin and cleaned me himself, and he didn't say sorry once.
Veda: What was that.
Aurelio: Me keeping my hands off you.
Veda: That makes no sense.
Aurelio: It makes perfect sense.
He pulled his own shirt over my head and knotted it at my hip.
Aurelio: New rule. You want to look, you look at me, not the floor.
Aurelio: And when I look, you don't cover up.
The burn was still there under his shirt, and for the first time it didn't feel like a thing to hide.
He hadn't put one finger inside me, and I had never been touched like that in my life.