Chapter 13 #2
“Mickey had you. You both. And he was going to kill you. When I tried to get to you, the fucking curtain wrapped around me and I couldn’t tear it apart.”
I feel Ty chuckle soundlessly, and my eyes flash up to see him shaking his head.
“What?” The one word has bite, and he looks immediately scolded.
“That curtain you were fighting with was Asher. He wrapped his arms around you while I was trying to get you to wake up. You were thrashing and we were scared it was something like a seizure, but then you bit him and he nearly dropped you.”
“Oh shit.” My head falls against his chest with a soft thud. “I’ll have to apologize.”
“He’s a big boy. He’s okay.”
“I bit him,” I say with shock at Ty’s indifference at the fact I bit his friend like a fucking dog.
“He’s fine,” Ty shakes his head. Looking at him, I see the smirk on his face, and indents on his face that look like his fingers.
“Did you fall asleep on your hands?”
Ty laughs softly, “Yeah. I did.” My eyes drift to the desk and the chair’s on its side, papers and pencils strewn everywhere like he threw them down as he was trying to get to me. My heart skips a beat at that.
He stayed.
He gave me my space while being right there.
“Do you want to talk about it?” he whispers against the crown of my head.
“No, not now,” I say honestly. “I’m just so tired.”
“Yeah, it’s been a big day. And you were only sleeping for maybe an hour.”
“I’m sorry,” I say softly, because if I only slept for an hour that means, he’s only been asleep for maybe half that.
“Stop saying you’re sorry.” The words aren’t aggressive, they aren’t mean, they’re honest and true. “You have nothing whatsoever to be sorry about in this situation.”
I yawn, twisting into his arms again, and he gently lays back. His arms start to move away from me, giving me the space that I needed before, but now, now I don’t want him to go. My fingers stay threaded into the soft fabric of his shirt while my face curls into him deeper.
I can’t let go.
Not after that dream.
I don’t think I’m going to be able to let him out of my sight anytime soon.
“Stay,” I whisper.
“Are you sure?” he asks so softly I almost don’t hear it, but I can feel his arms slowly wrap back around me.
“Please, stay.”
“Okay,” he whispers. “Yeah, okay.” The bed moves and dips while he gets comfortable.
And it’s like we’re back in that clearing, when we thought it all went to shit, but it was really just the beginning of hell.
We’re back to those fifteen year olds who were holding onto what they could feel slipping through their fingers. His arms wrap around me like a shield and pull me close.
“I’ve got you, Rox. Nothing’s getting in here,” he says those words like a vow and my eyes close as he turns on his side, cradling me while his back is between the door and I. “I promise.”
A sigh leaves my body like it’s the first breath I’ve been able to release freely in years.
And in a way, it very much is.
“I’ll be in later, do you have someone at ten?” Ty’s whisper pulls me from sleep. I breathe in through my nose and his body goes rigid.
“No, I’m free until one,” Asher whispers back.
“Can you take my ten, it’s a quick one. A wave outline on the ribs. Should be less than an hour even with prep and clean up.” Ty drops his tone so his volume is lower and I do my very best not to squeeze my thighs together because, goddamn, did he grow up deliciously.
“Got it,” Asher whispers back.
“When she wakes up, we’ll head over.”
“No rush.”
“See you,” Ty says softly, and one of his hands slides over my ribs, pulling me into his body. Like a wall of warmth and security at my back as his breath moves my hair and slows.
“Just a little longer,” I hear him say softly, almost in a dream state and his breathing level out as sleep pulls him under.
I wrap my hand over his, keeping him against me.
“Just a little longer,” I whisper.
I don’t think I’ve slept that well in…maybe ever.
Ty’s arm is under my head, but his other one isn’t around me anymore. Turning to face him, with one eye open, I see him on his phone typing out a list.
“Good morning,” I grumble, my voice hoarse from sleep. At my voice, a smile grows on Ty’s face and he puts his phone down.
“Hey, good morning. How’d you sleep?”
“Like the dead,” I say with a half chuckle. “What time is it?”
“Noon,” he tells me so simply that I’m also confused at my own reaction when I jump out of bed, throwing the blankets off and falling to the ground when my foot gets caught in the corner of the blanket.
“Fuck that hurt, shit,” I mutter getting up and standing. It fucking hurts, but I do it.
“You okay?” Ty looks at me with a smirk on his annoyingly handsome face. “Where are you going?”
“I...” Where am I going? I’m not at Mickey’s where I’d be punished for sleeping in. I’m here. Where Ty was holding me and being quiet to let me sleep more. “I don’t know,” I say with a self-conscious chuckle. “It’s habit. To be up and productive early. I don’t want to be in trouble.”
The smirk drops from his face as fast as it appeared. He doesn’t try to move past the moment, he just lets it be for a second and nods.
“Got it,” he says kindly, and stands up, stretching his hands over his head.
Those dark eyes close as he stretches and yawns and my eyes dart immediately–thirsty for it, for him–to the patch of skin he’s exposed to me.
The V of his Adonis belt is visible and I mentally moan as the Roxie in my head melts to the ground.
Because of course he’d have the one thing that makes me feral. And what’s more, he hasn’t tattooed over it. There’s the bottom of a tattoo on the top of his hipbone, but that cut line of muscle? All clean.
“So I have to go to the shop,” he says as he opens his eyes and mine immediately snap back to his face.
I almost thought I got away with it, but my cheeks are so warm I’m sure he can tell.
“What shop?”
“Asher and I own From The Ashes on Main Street.” He says it so easily, so humbly like he didn’t just tell me that he owns a business at twenty-one.
“The tattoo shop?”
“You know it?”
“I’ve heard of fighters getting their tattoos there. You’re fairly new, no?”
Ty chuckles, nodding and walking to the small broken dresser and pulling out a new outfit. “Yeah, I am. But Asher’s been working at getting the shop up and running since he was…”
“Fifteen,” I whisper, remembering that last day where he said he had an idea.
“Yeah, fifteen.” He looks at me like he knows exactly what I’m thinking of and it’s something he can smile about now.
“I started helping him wherever I could, but it’s all in his name.
The lease, the business. Monitarily, it’s all his, but he’s pulling me along like I’ve invested as much as he has.
Telling everyone I’m the co-owner as well.
I hope one day I’ll be able to legally.”
“Wow,” I say softly, and so fucking impressed.
“So I’ve got to go in to cover the walk-ins while he has a scheduled client. Will you come with me?”
“Are you sure?” I ask, a little worried about getting in their space. I’m already taking over their apartment, now their jobs? Come on, that’s a lot, even for me.
“Look, Roxie,” Ty pulls out another t-shirt and throws it towards me on the bed. “I asked you to give you the choice, but you’re coming with me either way. There’s no way I’m leaving you alone. Not now.”
“Ty,” I sigh. I should’ve seen this coming.
“No, Roxie. End of discussion. You want the shower first?”
“End of discussion?” I snap, walking closer to him, arms crossing over my chest in frustration. “End of fucking discussion? I think not.”
“Roxie, you’re hurt, alone, and I just found you again. I’m not going to chance anything happening. And if that means that you’re glued to my hip until we get this Mickey situation handled, then so be it.”
My jaw sets to the side.
“Ty, you cannot protect me and be on guard for the foreseeable future.”
“Oh yeah? Wanna fucking bet?” he snaps, steel in his voice and a simmering anger in his eyes.
Normally, I’d flinch. Bend. Adjust to keep Mickey happy and away from me. But with Ty… I want more of it. “Terecino! You are not going to keep me under lock and fucking key until you can “handle” what’s happening!”
The moment I say his full name, he rounds the edge of the bed and crowds my space, his eyes locked onto mine in a heated standoff.
“Well, Roxanne,” he growls, “I wasn’t thinking lock-and-key, but if that’s what it takes.”
I clench my teeth and am utterly fucking confused by the reaction I’m having in my body. Am I turned on? Am I scared? Am I both? Do I want to fight? Do I want to run?
What the fuck is happening?
“You wouldn’t,” I seethe.
“Oh, I would.” He steps into my space closer, looking at me so hard that I can tell he’s looking for the edge of my comfort.
He’s pushing, testing, edging, but he’s following my lead.
“Fine,” I grumble. “I’ll come today. But we’ve got some things to sort out.”
Ty smirks like he’s won something, and in a way, I guess he has. Again.
And he’s so fucking hot for it too.
“Good girl. Go shower first, just don’t take all the hot water. We have to go in thirty.”
My jaw drops.
He didn’t just say that. He did not just say that.
Fuck, I really liked it.
I’m so shocked at how he sounded and looked as he said those two little words that it’s like my body is rebooting and I’m struggling to figure out what to do. Ty smirks, an infuriating annoyingly smug look, and hands me the shirt on the bed, pushing me towards the doorway softly.
“Liked that, did you?” he asks proudly. “Noted.”
And that fucking ego boost I just gave him makes me want to rip the smirk from his face. So I stop and hold onto the door frame before turning back, just slightly, to look at him over my shoulder.
“I’ll make sure to take an extra long shower… Maybe release some of this tension while I’m under the hot water,” I say in a low, husky tone. “It’ll feel so good.”