Chapter 7 #3
She wraps around me, her skirt pulling up and showing her legs.
She buries her face in my neck, and I rub her back, trying to calm her down.
As soon as the car backfired, I heard her scream and watched as she went into her head and lived whatever nightmare is in there.
I tried to calm her along with Wrenn, but she started fighting.
I don’t know who this Bahati person is, but I’ll hunt him down and kill him for hurting her.
I carry her up to my room and lie on the bed with her wrapped around me. Just like the last time she had a panic attack, she is calmed by my presence, and I hold her. Her face buries into my chest, and she inhales deeply, using my scent to steady her nerves.
As I rub my hands along her body, I feel wetness and pull back from her, but she burrows in closer.
“Spitfire, I need to check you over. I think you’re bleeding.”
She nods against my chest. For some reason calling her by her name only took her deeper into her panic attack, but my nickname for her brought her out.
“I—I’m so sorry I embarrassed you,” she says so quietly I barely hear her.
“You didn’t embarrass me. What happened? What have you gone through, spitfire?” I ask as I pull away and turn on the bedside light.
I move to the bathroom and wet down a washcloth.
When I step back into the room, she’s sitting up in bed, her skirt still high up on her thighs, and I see her knees are bruised and bleeding.
Carefully, I move across the room, not wanting to scare her.
She flinches when the cloth first touches her abraded skin.
I clean each knee and then lean down to kiss them. She flinches and looks up at me.
“Will you talk to me?” I beg, but she shakes her head.
“I can’t right now. Please give me time.”
I lean over her body and pull her up by the back of her neck to my lips.
Her soft lips open, and I give her what she’s asking for.
My tongue explores her mouth, and I move us without removing my lips from hers.
Lying down with her, I pull her into me.
I kiss her until we are both breathless.
When I pull away, I roll her so her back is to my front, and I hold her tightly. My chin rests on her shoulder.
“When I was deployed the last time, my unit was attacked. We were hit by RPGs that blew up the Humvees around us. Mine was flipped over. Shrapnel impaled my shoulder after I slammed into the door. I still flinch when I hear loud noises. That car backfiring startled me too.” I share a piece of myself, hoping she will open up to me.
“I’m so sorry you went through that.” She pulls one of my hands up and kisses my palm softly. “I want to be with you. I want to try to make this work, but I’m so broken and afraid.”
“Afraid of what, baby?”
“Of you waking up one day and saying you can’t handle my fucked-up self. Of you not wanting to take on another man’s child,” she confesses.
I roll her again so we are facing each other, then lift her chin so she’s looking at me.
“Sydney, I want you and Mari. I want to make this work, and we can be fucked up together.” I lean in and kiss her again as a knock sounds at the door. I move from the bed and open the door to Aries.
“Everything okay?” he asks me.
He knows, like I do, that from what we witnessed, my girl has gone through something akin to war.
“Yeah, we’re good.”
“Okay.”
He moves away, and I look down the hall to where Wrenn is waiting. I nod at her. She sighs as her hand rests on her large belly.
I close the door and climb back into bed with Sydney. I pull her into my arms, and we fall asleep with her wrapped around me.
When I wake the next morning, I feel her body against mine and let out a huge sigh of relief. I was worried I’d wake up to her being gone again.
“I didn’t run away,” she says sleepily.
I lean down and kiss her forehead.
“Come on, let’s get cleaned up.” I start to pull her up from the bed, but she pulls away from me.
“How many women have been in this bed with you and showered with you the next morning?”
Her question takes me by surprise for a moment, but then I see the determination in her eyes. She’s worried about this.
“Is that why you and Ginger were glaring at each other last night?” I chuckle as I sit down next to her on the bed.
She moves away again, putting distance between us.
I push her back and climb over the top of her.
“First of all, I never slept with Ginger. I’m not a saint, and I have had my share of women, but never in this bed.
And I never wanted them to stick around long enough to shower with me. ”
“You went to their place?” she asks and bites her lip.
“Nope. I’d fuck them against a wall or in the courtyard.” She flinches at my answer. “I’d do it in a corner where no one could really see us.”
“I don’t do that.”
“I don’t want that with you. They were quick fucks to curb the urge. I want things with you. And one of those things is no other man seeing your beautiful body.”
She looks down.
“I’m not beautiful. You’ve only seen some of my scars,” she says.
“To me you are the most beautiful angel I’ve ever seen.
I don’t deserve someone like you, but I’m not letting any asshole get you but me,” I say, and she looks back up at me.
“Now show me those scars and shower with me, baby. You’re dirty from crawling on the ground.
Don’t get me wrong, I want to make love to you, but not yet. You still need time.”
“Okay.”
We shower, and I clean her with my hands and lips.
I kiss every inch of her body, so wanting to taste her, but knowing if I do, I won’t be able to stop.
She uses her hands all over my body too.
When she tries to wrap her hands around my cock, I tell her not yet.
She has scars on her right ankle from surgery and other damage.
The scar on her side goes through to her back, same with the shoulder wound.
Her forearms are covered in scars. Whatever my spitfire went through, it was a lot. More than her mind is ready to share.
I take her home and spend the rest of the day hanging out with her and Mari.
I had messaged her mom and told her what happened, and she confronted Sydney when we got to the house.
I tried not to interrupt and put in my two cents, but I was happy to hear Sydney assure her mother she was going to get help.
Whatever she went through, her mom knows about it, and it was serious enough that I heard them say something about attorneys.
The need to have Titan search is strong, but I’m holding myself back. My father and brothers weren’t there to witness her break down last night, but my club brothers were, and I know they’re concerned. Most of us have military experience, and we all know she’s been through something.
I also learn that Sydney’s friend Lydia will be going through a nasty divorce soon, and that’s why her kids were here yesterday.
Between her friend’s soon-to-be ex-husband knowing where Sydney lives and whatever she’s hiding from me about her past, I’m beginning to worry about all the crap circling around my girl.
I won’t let any of it touch her. I plan on making myself a fixture in her life as much as she’ll let me.