Chapter 5 Trauma Bonding
Nell
While Rick was gone, I took a shower and helped myself to one of his t-shirts.
It came down to about mid-thigh which would have been fine if I had a spare pair of panties to change into.
I hand washed the pair I had been wearing along with my bra and hung them over the towel rack in the bathroom to dry.
It wasn’t the best option but I didn’t know when I’d be able to get to a store next.
I had no doubt that Elena had already thrown my stuff out in a fit of rage.
It was exactly the thing she would have done to anyone else.
The only reason I had never seen that side of her launched at me was because I never missed the rent or utilities and was always good to float her when she couldn’t make hers.
It kinda sucked to realize you hadn’t been your best friend’s best friend.
It was more like I’d been her sugar mama without the sexual side of things.
Then again, she’d been okay with her fiancé raping me, so I guess that side existed, too.
Being alone with my own thoughts sucked.
Eventually, I settled in on the couch with my bare legs crossed and a spare sheet draped over them while I watched some reality TV drivel.
I’d only meant to see if the contestants on whatever wild dating show it was had anything intelligent to say, and before I knew it, I was in the middle of episode four.
They were not prime examples of higher education by any means but they did have a certain train-wreck appeal that made me unable to stop watching.
The middle of the fourth episode was where I planned to bail - again - but then things took a turn for the unexpected when a couple paired off and snuck away to hook up in a spot where they didn’t think anyone could see them.
Why on earth they thought that was a good idea when there were literally cameras everywhere, I didn’t know.
Then again, they were more pretty than smart.
The hotel door opened and I nearly jumped out of my skin at the same time a woman on the show shrieked to the heavens. She thought Mark was into her, so I guess the dramatics were warranted when he practically fell on top of her while getting naked with another woman.
“What in the hell are you watching?” Rick called as he moved further into the room.
I picked up the remote control and paused the show. “Honestly, it’s not my usual source of entertainment but once it started, I couldn’t look away.”
The rich sound of Rick’s laughter traveled across the room and landed somewhere near my nerve endings.
Just close enough to tease them into dropping goosebumps all over my skin.
There was something about the man that did it for me, and it wasn’t just his good looks.
His eyes tracked over my face and then down to the rest of me.
“Is that my shirt?”
My biker savior didn’t need to ask. We both knew it was since it had his club logo on it. A skull wearing a crooked crown and a bandanna covering the lower half of what would have been its face. Rick’s eyes bounced back up to meet mine as if he was still waiting for my answer.
“Sorry, yeah. I took a shower and didn’t really think it through that I had no clean clothes with me. I hope you don’t mind.”
His head drifted back and forth as if he was saying,” No,” but he still answered verbally as well. “What’s mine is yours, sweetheart.”
Full-body tingles tickled my nerves again.
The way he called me ‘sweetheart’ made me want to jump on him and proclaim my undying devotion.
I glared over at the TV that was paused mid-two-timing asshole drama as I thought that.
Damn. Maybe I was short a few brain cells, too.
Rick was bound to have a woman, or multiple women, lined up back in New Mexico. Maybe he had a few in Vegas as well.
“You’re back kind of early,” I said by way of starting an exploration into his relationship status.
It was also a change from the subject of my attire because I didn’t need him to know that I was nearly naked.
Truthfully, I didn’t need the reminder that I was beyond easy access while in the same room with a man who got my motor revving without even trying.
Rick’s laughter coasted over me again. “Told you it wouldn’t take long before Bigfoot went looking for his woman. We were at the bar all of thirty minutes before someone mentioned what the women were up to.”
“What were they up to?”
He grinned. “The hen party was being entertained by male dancers. By the time we walked in, one of them had Sammy tied to a chair on stage and my brother charged up there to claim his woman. He dragged her off to a private room and there wasn’t much of a party left after that.
Some of my club brothers realized they’d been hanging in the wrong places to pick up horny women, though.
” His deep chuckle resonated through the room.
“The dancers got them all worked up and my boys swooped in to finish the job.”
“The dancers were probably pissed your guys cut into their end of night tips.” He shrugged his shoulders. “I don’t even know your friends, but I kind of wish I had gone to see them on that stage.”
“The dancers?” Rick scoffed the words as he asked and that made me giggle.
“No, dummy. Your best friend charging on stage to claim his woman. I don’t even know them, but I bet it was a sight to see.”
“There’s always next time,” he suggested.
“Your friends have parties in Vegas often before they get married?”
He shook his head. “No. Well, yeah, maybe. We have a chapter of the club here, so I guess it happens more often than it might for people not in our club.”
“That’s fair.” I shifted to unfold my legs since I’d lost feeling in them at some point. Rick’s eyes tracked the movement and he almost got a whole show when the sheet slid down. I snatched it up so fast his eyes shot up to meet mine.
“What are you wearing under there besides my shirt?”
“Um,” I hesitated to answer.
“Never mind. It’s best if you don’t tell me.” Rick got up and made his way to the bathroom as I sat there staring at the train-wreck still paused on the TV.
It took a few minutes to remember what I left hanging in the bathroom. My face heated to lava-level redness because it took a good long while for Rick to come back out. When he finally did, the man went straight to his duffle bag, grabbed a pair of gym shorts, and tossed them to me.
“Unless you had spare panties hidden in a pocket somewhere, you must be bare under that sheet.” When I didn’t answer to confirm or deny he nodded his head. “Yeah, you should put those on.”
A tiny part of me was disappointed he asked me to cover up. Then I remembered how we met and why I was camped out in his room. Rick was trying to do right by me after what I’d been through. Damn if it didn’t make me like and respect the man even more.
I managed to pull the shorts on underneath the sheet before I stood and tied, then rolled them, as tight as I could get. Once that was done, I turned back to Rick who held the remote. “Are you really invested in this or can we get comfortable and get to know one another better?”
“Get to know one another better?” I parroted his question as my mind immediately went to dirty, naked, sweaty introductions. Rick’s smirk made it obvious he knew exactly what I’d been thinking.
“Like how old are you? More about your art, your background, family, are you dating anyone?” He rattled those questions off so quickly it was clear they’d been on his mind for some time.”
“Will you reciprocate and answer some, too?”
“Sure. A question for a question seems fair.” Rick reached out his hand to me and I took it without hesitation.
We walked into the separate area that had a king bed with a nightstand on each side of it.
He let go of my hand long enough to turn down the bedding on the left side before he indicated that I should hop on in.
“It’s late, been a long, draining couple of days, and I’m not going to disrespect you by trying anything. We’re going to get to know one another in a comfy place so if one of us gets tired and passes out, the other doesn’t have to carry someone to bed.”
A giggle burst free as I slipped between the sheets. “No offense, but carrying you to bed was never in the cards,” I teased.
“Damn. Thought it might be my lucky week.” Rick winked as he rounded the bed and got in on the other side. Sadly, it felt like he was a world away.
Stupid, giant beds.
“Now, tell me about Petronella. Where did you grow up?”
“You go straight for the jugular,” I mentioned as a nervous chuckle escaped me. “Long story short, I grew up in a little town just outside of Phoenix and moved to Flagstaff after my parents disowned me when I was seventeen.”
“Seventeen? What happened to make them decide that?”
“I think it had been in the works for a few years. My dad was an Evangelical pastor. My mom was the cliched pastor’s wife mixed with a good dose of evil nun and she thought very highly of herself.
She had that holier than thou attitude, nose in the air, I’m better than you because I’m married to a man of God entitlement with everyone.
It was worse with me, though, because I could never please her.
” I rolled my eyes as I tried to put a good description of my mother together.
“Do you remember that one pastor’s wife from the big TV church in the 1980s? The one who wore all the clown makeup?”
Baffle chuckled and shook his head. “Bit before my time. I was a kid in the 90s.”