Page 46 of Taming a Menace
“Because I would burn this city to the ground with me in it before I let someone hurt you, including me.”
“Can you just take me home?” she requested.
“Yeah. How are your feet?” I asked, remembering that she’d mentioned them being tired earlier.
“Screaming.” She shook her head.
“Come on,” I said, turning and stooping so that she could get on my back.
“Key, what in the world are you doing?”
“Right now, I’m waiting on you. Come on.”
“I’m not getting on your back.”
“All right,” I said, standing to my full height before turning around.
Once I was facing her, I scooped her up and wrapped her legs around me. Her middle was sweltering hot, making me want to dive in headfirst. I tugged the back of her dress down, making sure all that ass was covered. We seemed to be the only ones out here, but that didn’t mean I wanted her ass hanging out for the world to see.
“You better not freaking drop me,” Iyla cautioned, tightening her arms around my neck.
“Shit as long as I been dreaming about this moment, I wouldn’t drop you even if I didn’t have any hands.”
“Shut up.”
She giggled, causing my heart rate to speed up. I wondered if she could feel it. She had to. Hopefully, she was letting her guard back down. I had made so much progress over the past few weeks and reversed it all in the blink of an eye.
I could feel Iyla’s heart pounding as I carried her across the parking lot. Her chin rested on my shoulder, so I couldn’t see her face. I knew she was still scared. I needed to say something to try to salvage what we were building.
It was still early on, but the burning desire to find ol’ boy and finish what I started made me realize that I was crazy about her, crazy over her, and just plain crazy. We already knew thatthough. As I walked to my truck, I thought about what I would say.
“I saw the look in your eyes.” I finally spoke up. I needed to say what I had to say before I had to look in those sorrowful brown eyes again. “The last thing I want is for you to be afraid of me. I’m always going to defend you no matter what it takes. I apologize for scaring you and for losing my temper, but I’m never going to apologize for protecting you, Moon.”
She didn’t say anything and that was fine. I didn’t want her rushing to answer because her response would likely be one that I didn’t want to hear. I wanted her to think about what she would say. I wanted her to give me another chance. Hell I wanted her to give me the first chance.
When I made it to my truck, I placed her on her feet and held on to her shoulders as she steadied herself. Once I was sure she was good, I pulled out my key fob and unlocked the truck. I opened the door and held her hand to help her inside.
“I appreciate you for defending me, but you could have handled it differently. What if you would have gotten shot, Keywan?”
“I didn’t care about that. I cared about you.”
“What do you mean you didn’t care?” She snapped.
“I mean I wasn’t thinking about what could happen to me. I was thinking about you. I wanted to protect you. I want to protect you from any and everything. I agree that I could have handled the situation differently though. That’s why I need your help. I need you to help me figure out why I always go to the extreme.”
She sighed before climbing in the truck with my help. I hurried around to the driver side and hopped in. I looked over at her as she put on her seat belt. I wanted to say something else to her, but I felt like I had already said enough. Maybe we could work the rest out in therapy.
I fired up my truck and tore out of the parking lot, driving toward Iyla’s house. I couldn’t believe that she was letting me drive her home after everything that had gone down. Granted I didn’t think that I had done anything wrong. I knew that I had scared the hell out of her. Anyone in their right mind would have gotten away from me as fast as they could. For some reason she was still right there with me.
My Bluetooth connected to the radio, and I pressed play on my phone to let my old school R&B mix help settle my nerves. I would probably stay up and cook something tonight. I had been working a couple of recipes out in my head that I wanted to play with. It was two in the morning, but I wasn’t going to go to sleep any time soon. When we made it to Iyla’s house, she opened the door and hopped out before I could turn my engine off.
“Iyla, wait,” I called behind her as I stepped out of the truck onto the ground.
“I’m fine, Keywan. I know how to get inside.”
Ignoring her statement, I jogged the few steps to catch up to her. When I was next to her, I reached down and grabbed her hand, taking it into mine.
“I told you I was walking you to the door. I’m a man of my word.”
