He Didn’t Kidnap Me. Not Exactly novel Chapter 200

Chapter 200

(Daisy’s POV)

The bedroom was as understated as the rest of the apartment, furnished with only the essentials because this place had clearly never been intended to become a home. A neatly made bed occupied the center of the room, a wardrobe stood against one wall, and beyond a partially opened door lay the bathroom.

I slipped inside, closed the door behind me, and released a slow breath.

“You’re fine,” I muttered to myself.

The words sounded considerably less convincing aloud.

I wasn’t fine.

I was becoming flustered by a man handing me coffee.

That couldn’t possibly be healthy.

Shaking my head, I peeled off the fresh clothes we’d bought earlier that afternoon. Every movement had to be careful because my wound still protested whenever I twisted too quickly, but eventually I managed to step beneath the shower.

The moment I turned the handle, warm water spilled from the overhead rain shower and wrapped around me.

Relief came instantly.

“Oh, thank goodness.”

The water rolled across my shoulders, down my back and over my skin, washing away the lingering scent of antiseptic from the hospital

along with some of the tension that had stubbornly refused to leave me since everything had fallen apart.

I closed my eyes.

This was better.

Much better.

The warmth wasn’t suffocating like the warmth outside.

It was comforting.

Safe.

I tipped my head back and let the water pour over my face, smiling to myself as I reached for another control built into the wall. A second stream sprang to life from one side, followed by another from the opposite direction, surrounding me in overlapping curtains of warm water.

Someone had entirely too much money.

I couldn’t deny, however, that they knew how to build a shower.

“This,” I murmured with quiet satisfaction, “is what I needed.”

I stayed there for several more minutes, allowing the water to calm both my thoughts and my embarrassingly overactive heart. By the time I finally reached for a towel, I felt almost normal again.

Almost.

I wrapped the towel securely around myself before reaching to turn off the shower.

The room immediately became quieter.

Only the occasional drip of water disturbed the silence now, and I carefully brushed my wet hair back over my shoulders before taking a step toward the door.

Something yanked me backward.

A startled scream tore from my throat before I even understood what had happened.

My hand flew instinctively toward the wall to steady myself while my heart slammed violently against my ribs.

“What-?”

I tried stepping forward again.

Nothing.

Another sharp tug pulled against the back of my head.

“Ow!”

My scalp stung hard enough to make my eyes water.

Confused, I reached behind me and discovered the problem almost immediately.

My hair.

Somehow, while I had been enjoying the shower like an overexcited child discovering indoor plumbing for the first time, several strands of my long wet hair had wound themselves tightly around the decorative metal hinge connecting one of the adjustable shower heads to its support arm.

I blinked.

“You’ve got to be kidding me.”

Very carefully, I tried unwinding it.

The attempt lasted approximately three seconds.

The moment I pulled in what I thought was the correct direction, the tangled strands tightened instead.

Pain shot across my scalp.

“Ow… okay, definitely the wrong direction.”

I tried again.

Slower this time.

My fingers worked carefully through the wet strands, but water had only made everything worse. The hair had twisted itself into the narrow gap around the rotating joint of the shower fixture, and every attempt to free one section seemed to tighten another.

“No…”

A tiny thread of panic began winding its way through my chest.

“This is ridiculous.”

I shifted my angle.

Another mistake.

The movement tugged sharply against my scalp.

I hissed through my teeth.

“Seriously?”

For the next minute I attacked the problem with every strategy I could think of.

I tried unwinding the strands.

I tried rotating the shower head.

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