Page 68 of Allison

“They aren’t coming to my place,” Russell replies with a chuckle. Allison’s mouth drops open. Her eyes wide.

“What do you mean?”

“Your parents don’t know where we are going, so they won’t be there.” Russell keeps his eyes on the road, not bothering to look over at her.

“They…you…what?” Allison sputters. She can’t believe what she is hearing. He just loaded her up and is taking her to his home without telling her parents where they are going? She can’t believe his audacity.

“Look, I know how your parents are,” Russell says, glancing over at her briefly before focusing back on the road. “Emma had Wallace tell me about them and combined with what you’d said at the wedding, I just decided it would be better for you to not have to deal with them. They weren’t supposed to be at the airport, but they’d thrown a fit on Emma. They’d convinced her to let them come and promised to be on their best behavior, but we both saw how that turned out.”

Allison’s mouth is once again hanging open. He’d been thinking about her and what she needed, even when she thought he didn’t care from his silent treatment. She doesn’t know how to respond. Her eyes are stinging again. She blinks rapidly to keep the tears from falling.What the hell is wrong with her?She’s been a blubbering mess for days, which isn’t like her at all. Can you say trauma? Obviously that is why she’s so emotional.

She decides not saying anything is her safest bet. She settles back in her seat and turns her head to stare out the window. The rest of the trip to Russell’s apartment passes in an uncomfortable silence. Neither one of them seems to know what to say.

They pull into the parking lot of an apartment complex. Allison notices the building is well maintained with plenty of outside lighting. There’s a short walkway to the building, where Russell pauses to enter a code to give them entrance to the building. They enter a small elevator going up to the top floor where she notices there are four doors along the hallway, two on each side.

Russell stops in front of 4B, pulling his keyring from his pocket to unlock the door. He ushers her inside before locking the door behind them. She takes in the space, noting that it is sparsely decorated in muted neutral tones. It’s an open floor plan with a view from the door through to the living area where she can see a large leather couch and a wooden coffee table sitting in front of it.

To their left is an archway revealing the kitchen. It doesn’t appear to be a large space. There is a small walkway between the wall where the stove and refrigerator are located and the bar where the sink and a small flat space for eating or meal prep. There is a short solid wall on the right of the entryway with a single door. Russell opens it up to set his duffle bag inside the small storage closet.

He opens his bag and pulls his dirty clothes from it. He turns back to her. “I’m just going to put these in my hamper.” Allison nods expecting him to leave her standing there. “Um, you can come with me and we will put your clothes that need washing with them. I’ll go down to the laundry room in a little while and get everything washed.” Allison blinks at him, not sure she heard him correctly. He’s going to wash her dirty clothes? That is not something you do for just anyone. Why is he being so sweet, when he obviously doesn’t want her? Why all the mixed signals? “Or not,” Russell says when she doesn’t respond.

“Oh, no, I mean, okay, sure,” Allison is stammering again. Why does he make her all tongue-tied? She rolls her eyes at herself. She’s never let a man get her so flustered and out of sorts before. From the moment they’d met, he’s gotten under her skin, making her feel all sorts of emotions she hasn’t felt before. She needs to get a grip on herself and stop acting like a blubbering idiot.

Russell smirks at her as if he knows exactly why she can’t speak a simple sentence when she’s around him. He shifts his wad of clothes to tuck them under his left arm, freeing up his right hand to take her suitcase. He rolls her case toward the living area. He turns to the left to walk along the tall bar of the kitchen to a short hall with two doors.

The first door is on the left and it is standing open. Allison peeks inside to see a full-sized bathroom. A small vanity sink is to the right of the door. A bottle of shaving cream, a tube of toothpaste, and a toothbrush holder are sitting on the counter which is clean as a whistle. The commode sits just beyond the vanity. A curtain is pulled closed over what Allison assumes is the shower/tub combo.

The next door is closed. Russell opens it to reveal his bedroom. Allison pauses at the door. She can see a full-sized bed to the left, made neatly with a dark blue spread over it. It’s a simple wooden bed with a frame and headboard, but no footboard. There is a single nightstand beside the bed with a lamp and clock-radio sitting on it. Just beyond the bed is a large window with only a venetian blind for a covering. The blind is closed, but Allison can see the sun shining in around the edges.

A chest of drawers is sitting to the right of where she’s standing. The top is bare, every drawer neatly closed. Allison can’t help noticing not a single thing is out of place. Not in the bathroom, or in his bedroom. Russell has walked over to a door on the wall opposite the foot of the bed. He opens to reveal a small walk-in closet. He flips open the lid of a wicker clothes hamper and drops his bundle inside.

He had left her suitcase just outside the closet door. He pulls a small folded luggage stand from the back of the closet and pops it open, placing it on the floor next to her suitcase. He lifts the case onto the stand and proceeds to unzip it. Allison cringes when the top pops up as the pressure is released by the opening of the zipper. Her clothes spring forth as if they’d had a spring under them like a jack in the box.

“Umph!” Russell makes a sound as he jumps back from the flying clothing. He glances back at her with a smirk. “Really? Do you think you could have gotten more in here?” Allison rolls her eyes at his sarcastic remark. She moves toward him and her scattered clothes, bending down to pick them up at the same moment, Russell does the same. Their heads collide.

“Ow! Shit!” she exclaims in surprise and frustration, her hand flying up to cover her forehead where it had smacked into the back of Russell’s head.

“Damn, sugar! Are you alright?” Russell asks when he has straightened up.Hard head!Allison thinks to herself, noticing with extreme annoyance, he isn’t rubbing his head. She forces herself to lower her hand, even though her forehead is throbbing like the dickens.

“Yeah, I’m fine,” she manages to say with a clear voice. Russell steps into her personal space. His hand comes up to rub her forehead where it is hurting. She shouldn’t let him touch her like this, but his touch is so soft, gentle, and comforting. His fingers brush over the rising lump, causing goosebumps to rise on her skin. She can’t seem to stop from leaning into him. She shivers when his lips skim a soft kiss over her bump.

43

WORM

Worm pulls back from the kiss, startled that he’d even done it. He’d kissed her booboo.What the fuck??He’s lost his damn mind. Maybe he has hit his head at some point causing brain damage, but didn’t realize it had happened? Perhaps, these last two weeks have all been a dream or hallucination while he’s laid up in the hospital in a coma?

He shakes his head to clear his thoughts. Now, he is just being ridiculous. None of this has been a dream even though parts of the last two weeks have felt like the best and worst dream of his life. He needs to get his head on straight. He’s fucking everything up by sending mixed signals without meaning to do so. He can’t allow her to think they can have a real relationship, but he just keeps doing things without thinking. It’s almost like an instinct to care for and protect her.

Worm hadn’t intended to bring her here, but when he’d heard her father berating her like that? He’d been raging pissed. There wasn’t any way he could allow her to go with them to the hotel or even Wallace’s home where they’d keep harping on her over something that wasn’t Allison’s fault.

He’d already told Wallace, while they’d stood off to the side while Allison greeted Emma and her parents, that if her parents started in on Allison, he would be taking her to his place where she’d have some peace and quiet to recover. Therefore, none of his teammates were surprised when he’d told them he was taking the SUV as he’d rounded it to climb inside after getting Allison buckled into the passenger seat.

Mercury had been waiting for them and he’d given Worm a single nod at his declaration. Allison’s father had called after him, but Worm had chosen to ignore him, assuming Wallace would run interference for him. He hadn’t thought this whole thing through. He only has a one-bedroom apartment with a full-size bed. If he’d at least had a king, they could sleep beside each other without having to touch, but that won’t be the case in his bed.

He steps back from Allison, who has her eyes closed from the intimate kiss he’d place on her forehead. “I’ll just take these down to the laundry. You should lay down, get some sleep. I’ll be gone for a while. It’ll give you some time to rest.”

He inwardly groans. He knows he is rambling, but he can’t seem to put two words together around her now. His heart and his head are at war and he isn’t sure which one is going to come out the victor, but in the meantime, they’re causing him to act like a buffoon. Allison’s eyes open. He can see the hurt and confusion in her eyes. His heart clenches at the sight. Hurting her is the last thing he wants to do, but it’s all he seems to be capable of doing at the moment.

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