Page 18 of Protective Biker
“I truly am sorry. I wish I could take your pain away and make all of your dreams come true.”
My lip wobbles at his sincerity, and I nearly admit he’s already easing my pain by being so wonderful to me. “Thank you, I’m taking it one day at a time.”
“I’m proud of you for being so damn strong, shortcake. Now tell me the name of who threw you.”
I knew it would come to this once I shared my story, so I can’t say I’m surprised by his question. The thing is, now that I have Powerhouse, I don’t want anything to take him from me. Sadly, my trauma will if I allow it, he’ll end up in prison and I’ll be forced to spend the rest of my time on this planet apart from him. There’s no way…He means too much.
He means more to me than dancing ever has, and the knowledge puts everything into clear perspective for me.
I do love him.
I always will.
“It will solve nothing.”
He nods, “Okay, you don’t have to tell me anything you don’t want to. Just know I’m here for you any way you’ll allow me to be.”
Wrapping my arms around him, I tug him close, admitting, “You are already changing my life, Powerhouse. You’ve made me smile more in the past week than I have in a long time, thank you.” I leave off the bit of how he’s made me fall head over heels for him, too. We’ll save that for the future.
He presses a kiss to my forehead before promising, “Anything for you.”
And I believe him.
Chapter Thirteen
Powerhouse
We’re on my bike, and for the first time, she almost falls off. I nearly wreck reaching back to catch her, but mange to stop it in time. I pull off the road immediately, kickstand going down and engine turning off. My heart's about to beat out of my chest, the concern drowning me over whether Raven’s okay or not.
“What is it, what’s happened?” I’m frantic as I turn around, worried she’s burned herself somehow or something else harmed her during our ride. My eyes dart to her face, finding it abnormally pale. Her stare’s locked on a vehicle ahead of us. My hands move to her, rubbing her arms that no longer hold me as I try to get her to respond. It’s how I knew something was wrong in the first place; her hold on me had disappeared.
“Chicken nugget?” I ask again, trying to make her smile, but she’s practically comatose as if she’s seen a ghost. “The fuckis it, baby, G-damn you’re worrying me,” I admit, then finally glance around.
The first thing I notice is the dance center we’re parked directly in front of, and it hits me like a Mac truck.She used to practice here.However, she’s not looking at it; she’s staring off into traffic. I’m not generally a smart type of guy, but it’s not hard for me to eventually get a clue and piece some shit together. She saw something, and there’s only one thing that upsets my woman badly enough to have her fold into herself. Her injury.
“Did you see someone?” I eventually find the courage to ask. She’s silent, so I give her a shake, then immediately lean in to kiss her forehead. “Tell me.”
“I-I-” she stammers, blinking several times as she collects her thoughts. “It was nothing. Nobody, I’m fine.”
“Yeah, sugar cakes, you are absolutelynotfine. Not even a little bit. Tell me who the fuck you saw, now.” I generally never speak to her with such force, but I feel like it’s the only way to reach her so she’ll actually speak up.
She sighs, finally breaking her stare with the now-empty traffic light. “It was my old dancing partner. I wasn’t expecting to ever see him again. He must be in town teaching or something.”
“He moved?” I haven’t pressed her on anything injury-related over the last couple of weeks since she broke down and admitted to me what all she went through. Don’t get me wrong, I wanted to. However, I’m not an idiot. I know when to back off and give someone some space to breathe, and my little paprika needed it. She was back to her sweet smiling self until just now, and so help me, I want to rip the throat out of the assclown who made her look like a G-damn ghost all of a sudden.
She nods, gaze flicking down before meeting mine again. “Yeah, he, uh, went on to dance with a prominent company. He’s practically famous now, well, he is in the dance world.”
“Fuck that pissant. What was he driving?”
“I’m not sure, we should go,” she murmurs, lying. It’s all good, my baby can tell her lies about this all she wants. I’ll find out the truth myself regardless. I’m going to hunt the motherfucker down who hurt her and break his goddamn legs. I’ll bend each of his fucking twinkle toes until they snap. He’ll pay for what he’s done to my girl and wish for the rest of his straw-sipping days I leave him alive that he never hurt my precious gumdrop in the first place.
“Whatever you say, pookey. You need me, just squeeze, okay?”
She nods, and I press a kiss to her lips before twisting back around. I fire my engine up once again, the vibration calming me enough to focus on pulling back onto the street. She’s gripping me tightly once more, so I let the ride do its work. We stay on the road until my fingers are frozen and I can’t feel my nose. Some of my brothers hate riding in the cold, but I don’t mind it. Reminds me of a cold plunge bath in a way, you get just as chilled, all the way to the bone by the time you’re done. Raven’s teeth are chattering as we climb off, and I wrap my arm around her, walking with her tucked into me to warm her up as we head inside the club.
I open the door for her and follow her inside, catching her hand before we’re surrounded by the brothers. She spins to face me and signs.
“I’m headed to the room. I need a hot shower to warm up.”
