Page 29 of Derek
That’s right, he hit me and ripped my pants. “Don’t leave,” I say firmly. “I can stay in my room and watch tv.” The thought makes me depressed, but I don’t want them to cancel everything over me, and Ash will be snarling at anyone that comes near me in the booth. “I’m not feeling well enough for the plane ride back so soon anyway.” Ash gives me a hard stare for a long moment before sighing.
“Fine, but you stay away from the convention.” He barks out the order, and I flinch.
“Hey!” Janie smacks him upside the head.
“Knock it off!” Ren snaps. “You aren’t her warden. And she’s not a child. Don’t talk down to her that way.”
Janie shakes her head. “Boy, you better hope Sunday doesn’t hear about this.” Ash rolls his eyes before leaving, and Janie sighs while nudging Stevie. “We better go back down there. If the men are alone too long, they start reverting back to Neanderthals.” After they walk out, I turn to Ren and the smiling Howie and clap my hands.
“Gimme the baby!” Ren chuckles before handing over the chunky, grinning Howie. I bounce him on my legs as I coo and shake my curls. Howie loves mine and Janie’s crazy hair. He squeals and lets out a laugh, and I whine. “My ovariesssss.” Ren snorts while lying next to me in bed.
“Trust me, you wouldn’t be saying that at three in the morning when he’s screaming, Bruno is wailing, and Atlas is crying. All three of them wanting my attention and fighting each other for it. Sometimes I lock myself in my booth just for a little bit of silence.”
I laugh as Howie grips my finger in his hand. His little grip is so tight.
“How are you doing?” Ren asks after a quiet moment, and I give her a smile.
“Well, I’m getting to hang out with the most handsome little man in the world!” I coo at him, making him grin and grab a lock of my hair.
“You know if you need to talk about what happened.”
“I don’t,” I say firmly, though the smile doesn’t leave my face. “Nothing happened. I have nothing to talk about.”
“Indy, you were assaulted! He hit–”
I turn to Ren and give her the briefest of looks behind my happy mask before turning back to Howie and kissing his head. “Auntie Indy loves you, little man.” I release his grip on my hair, ensuring no loose strands are in his grasp, before handing him back to Ren. “I love you, Ren. Thank you for helping me. I’m going to go back to my room now.” Ren stares at me as I stand, but says nothing when I give her a final wave and head out of the room.
* * *
Walking into my room,I’m stunned to find it clean of all the glass, and the broken mirror is gone. I raise a brow, but figure one of the girls or Ash saw it and figured I fell or something. Something being the keyword and more, for sure.
I walk into the bathroom and flinch at my reflection. I can’t believe Howie wasn’t afraid of me. My hair is wild, my mascara that Derek took the time to do is smeared, and the side of my lips are busted with a small bruise forming around the cut. I look at my bicep and see the fingerprint bruises, hearing a light tap on the door as I run my finger over the marks.
I walk over, figuring it’s Ren or Ash, but I look through the peephole anyway. “Oh my god.” I gasp, ripping the door open to reveal Derek. His shirt is torn and has what looks like bloodstains on it. He looks like he’s getting a black eye, and his knuckles are completely torn up.
“What happened?” I cry out as I look him over. I notice him doing the same to me, and I watch his lip curl into a dark snarl as his eyes go nearly black in fury.
“I didn’t beat him nearly enough.” He grinds out, turning back to head out the door. I step between him and the exit while putting my hands on his chest.
“What happened?” I repeat, calmer this time. Derek glares at me, well, I think he’s glaring at my mouth, before stepping back.
“What happened? What do you think happened? That fucking piece of shit did–” He can’t finish his words, and I see his fists clench and unclench. “He got away when you passed out before we arrived, so I found him. All I knew was he touched you. Had I known…” His throat works, and he shakes his head. “I would’ve killed him, make no mistake. No one Indy, not one fucking person on this planet, is allowed to touch you that way.”
I… I don’t know what I am supposed to say. I want to yell at him for beating another person up, for getting himself hurt, for doing it all over me. I want to cuss at him because… well, I’m tired of these overly large men trying to tell me what to do and treating me like a damn damsel in distress. Although, this time, I guess I was. But my heroes were Janie and Ren, not the guys. But despite all this feminist energy swirling inside me, it’s being snuffed out by the fact that a feral, muscular, battered man is standing over me. Eyes wild with alpha rage, lip still snarled, and… fuck, this is the lady boner thing Janie was talking about?
“Derek, I think you and I need to have some space between us,” I whisper, trying to look anywhere but at him.
“Why?” His voice is deeper than usual, and I feel like it’s speaking to a part of me that’s been asleep my whole life.
“Because,” I say slowly as my eyes reach his. “You freaked out at a kiss on the cheek. You keep throwing around that masculine energy, and you might have to shove me off you.”
Derek freezes and then laughs.He laughs.And it’s so sweet. Why doesn’t he do it more?
“Darlin’, I try to be a respectable man, but I’m far from a good one. You got your one polite turn down from me.”
“What does that mean?” I ask curiously. I watch his brow arch up before his eyes land on my lips. He must see the cut again because it snaps him out of whatever playful trance that was and back into his furious one.
“You shouldn’t go back to the convention.” He states, and I groan as I lay on the bed.
