Read Online Monster (Impossible #1) by Julia Sykes - Free Book Online Page A

coldly.
    My only response was a grunt and a jerk of his head.  I took it as a yes.  Gathering up the bag, I marched past him to the bathroom, refusing to let him prod me along now that I knew the way.  I closed the door firmly behind me, although he still stationed himself outside.  What did he think I was going to do, escape by melting down through the drain like Alex Mack?
    Okay, so maybe I had watched some TV when I was younger.  Still, I got the feeling that my sadly outdated pop-culture references would only make Sean mock me more.
    I shook myself, angrily shoving his hurtful words from my mind.  I am not letting him get to me, I thought determinedly.
    I let out a little relieved sigh as I peeled off my dirty clothes and started the water running.  My nose wrinkled as I took in the state of the shower, which looked like it could use a good bleaching.  This was clearly a “boy apartment.”  The neat freak in me felt the urge to clean it, but damn it if I was going to play housekeeper for them.  I was their captive, not their mother.  I stepped tentatively into the porcelain tub, but I soon forgot my discomfort with the men’s dubious cleaning habits as the warm spray hit my body.  I reveled in it, letting the heat of it bleed into my tense muscles until they fully relaxed for the first time in days.
    Reaching for the shampoo, I found myself frowning again.  It was a generic supermarket-brand man product that had a salty tang to it.  No more Herbal Essences for me, it seemed.
    Unless I ask like a good girl, I thought, my mouth twisting down in distaste.
    Nope, I wasn’t going to ask for anything else that made my situation seem more permanent.
    So I rubbed some equally man-scented shower gel between my hands and began furiously scrubbing at every inch of my skin, as though I could wash away the memories of what had happened to me.  But there was no point in trying to forget; it wouldn’t change my situation.  I could only move forward, bide my time and formulate a plan to get to that fire escape.
    There was a pounding at the door, jerking me out of my dark thoughts.
    “Time’s up,” Bradley called harshly.  “I’m not going to let you run up the water bill, princess.”
    Princess?!   God, how could the man possibly make me hate him any more than I already did?
    Reluctantly, I sluiced off the last of the soap and shut off the water.  The towel that Bradley had left out for me was thin and ratty.  Of course.  Still, I wasn’t about to give him the satisfaction of complaining about it; I wasn’t going to let him know that he was getting to me.
    There wasn’t a hair dryer in sight.  No hope of taming my wavy hair to its usual orderly appearance, then.  Whatever.  Who was I trying to impress?  And no makeup either.  But that didn’t really bother me; I never wasted time on it anyway.
    Grimacing, I blindly pulled one of the dresses out of the bag of clothes and jerked it down over my head.  I gazed at myself in the mirror, shocked to find that I looked so much like myself and yet unlike myself.  There were my same grey eyes, the same little dimple in my cheek that I secretly liked.  But my alabaster skin seemed impossibly paler than usual, and my usually carefully-styled hair fell around my face in a damp, untamed mass of dark waves.
    I wanted to linger in the bathroom, to extend my moment of privacy.  But looking at myself was making me feel slightly queasy, so I elected to get away from my reflection.  When I exited the bathroom, I meekly walked back to the bedroom that was my prison cell without Bradley directing me.
    Bide your time.  Be compliant.  Build trust.   Repeating my new mantra in my head made the idea of behaving myself easier to swallow.
    Sean’s eyes were immediately drawn to me, roving over my body in a way that I told myself I did not appreciate.  I didn’t.  But my slight blush told me otherwise.  Had seven years of celibacy really made me so desperate that I