Chapter 14
Biology Class
Day 20
I looked over at the empty seat next to me before I flicked my gaze to Mr. Gray, standing by the whiteboard. Dax hadn’t shown up for school today. Rumors of him getting into a fight and being suspended had been filtering through the hallways all morning, but I wasn’t sure what to believe. Thankfully, there were no dead animals or scalpels in sight, so it wasn’t like I needed him to be in class. It was actually nice having the desk all to myself. And you know what? It was even better not having Dax’s annoying comments in my ear during the entire lecture. My gaze, once again, fell on the empty seat before I yanked my attention back to the front of the classroom.
I told Dax I was fine. And I was fine. I closed the door, walked the three steps to the couch, and dropped my purse on the coffee table. Dax’s voice on the porch was loud and humorless as he recounted the incident to Beau. He hung up soon after, and I heard him enter his apartment. His sounds were easily recognizable to me now. The thump of his shoes against the wall as he kicked them off by the door. The bang of the refrigerator closing. Cupboards were opened and shut repeatedly like he couldn’t decide what he wanted to eat. The noises sounded sharper. Harsher. As though he was angry and had only the kitchen cupboards to witness his frustration. I heard the water run for a shower. I needed a shower. I wanted to wash off everything Lucas said, touched, or insinuated, but my gaze was trained on a scuff mark on the wall, so there I stayed.
Being a woman had left me vulnerable to unwanted attention my entire life. I’d had my body looked up and down by men I’d just met, ranging from simple curiosity to vile leering. Men had shouted crude things at me in parking lots. I’d been called sweetheart by male colleagues at the university. A guy at a party grabbed my butt once. He insisted he thought I was his girlfriend and had repeatedly apologized. I had laughed it off, even though it became clear the rest of the night that he didn’t have a girlfriend with him at the party.
Lucas hadn’t hurt me.
He had terrified me.
And I hated that he had made me feel that way. I hated that he thought he could do something like that to me. The second he had me pinned, everything I thought I knew about self-defense had vanished.
I wasn’t hurt.
I was livid .
My fingers clenched at the same time they shook. I didn’t want to give Lucas the satisfaction of my emotions, but there didn’t seem to be enough air on the whole island to satisfy my needs.
My body itched to run a thousand miles, but I never left my couch. The breeze picked up outside, rattling my windows. I tensed at the sound. Another noise came from the window, and my heart lurched in my chest. I double-checked that the door was locked before sprinting to the back bedroom and making sure the window to the side of my bed was latched as well.
Once I heard Dax’s water turn off, I trudged into the bathroom. In the shower, I did my best to scrub Lucas off my skin. I brushed my teeth, turned out the lights, and climbed into bed.
The silence sat heavy, emphasizing every creak, every rattle, and every ticking clock. The sounds must happen every night, but it felt different now. I forced another deep breath into my lungs and convinced my fingers to unclench their hold on my sheets, only to grab them again at the eerie hum of the wind outside my windows.
It was the second bang of the shutters against my window that did it. I reached for my phone in the dark.
ME
Are you awake?
DAX
Yeah
ME
I’m not nervous. Okay?
DAX
Okay.
ME
But I was thinking the other day when I was in your apartment that your couch looked super comfortable. Way better than mine. So, I was just wondering if I could sleep on it tonight?
There was a pause in our exchange, and my heart died a little inside every second my text went unanswered. I sent the words out into the universe, immediately wishing I could gather them back up.
I was fine. I would be fine. Nothing had happened. I was nearly ready to tell him to forget it when my phone lit up.
DAX
I’ll sleep on yours.
I don’t know why I felt like crying when Dax entered my apartment carrying a pillow and a blanket a minute later, but I did. So, of course, I didn’t look at him. I busied myself with tucking a blanket around the cushions on the couch, since I didn’t have extra sheets. I got him a glass of water. And an extra blanket. I made sure he knew where the bathroom was, even though it was literally his house. I told him I had chocolate milk and that I’d get him a glass.
My trembling hands had just grasped the jug from the fridge when I felt him behind me. His hand stopped me from grabbing the milk. He pulled me away, leaning forward to shut the fridge door before slowly gathering me into his arms. Like I was a fragile wounded bird, and he didn’t quite know what to do with me. I didn’t know what to do with me either, but my face pressed against his chest, and when his arms encircled my waist, my world finally grew quiet.
He smelled like soap and sun, and I breathed him in. Ever so slowly, his arms pulled me tighter while I nuzzled my face into his collarbone.
Dax pulled back, his dark eyes intense on mine. “I should have done a lot more than just punch him.”
I smiled lightly at that, amazed at how my anguish over the last thirty minutes lessened at his words. Dr. Barb always spoke about the power of sharing a burden with someone. I had understood that in a therapy sense, but this felt different. Dax had done that just by showing up. I pressed my face back into his shirt once more. He had offered it, and I wasn’t ready to give it up yet.
“I called Beau and told him where to find him. I doubt anything will happen, but I feel better at least having him aware of everything that went down.”
“Thanks,” I said, touched that he would have thought to do that.
Dax held me for another minute, not speaking, until he bent over, picked me up at my knees, and carried me to my bed where he proceeded to tuck me in. My skin ignited everywhere his fingers lingered and grazed. He pulled my comforter up to my chin and raised his hand as if to brush my hair off my face before he seemed to think better of it and stepped back.
“Go to sleep, Ivy. Things will look better in the morning.”
He was halfway through the kitchen when a smile crossed my face.
“You called me Ivy,” I said proudly, turning to watch him kick off his shoes at the door and turn the light out before settling onto my couch.
“Don’t let it go to your head.”
“Too late,” I called out.
“You were significantly less annoying tonight, so Ivy seemed fitting.”
We were quiet for a few minutes, but I found I didn’t want to go to sleep yet. Talking or hugging seemed to be the only way to calm my nerves. And Dax was all the way over there.
“What’s our plan if Lucas comes back?”
“I can’t believe you went out with a guy named Lucas.”
“I’ve known a few Lucases, and they’ve all been nice,” I insisted.
“Complete prep school wasters.”
Despite myself, I laughed. “What’s our plan?”
“I’m going to go to sleep. If he comes, you take him out this time. I’m tired.”
I laid back against my pillow with a smile. The wind still hummed, and the windows still rattled, but the noise no longer bothered me. I did, however, find it ironic that, out of all the people on this island, Dax Miller was the only one I wanted on my couch tonight.
Several loud bangs jolted me awake. I sat upright in my bed while I looked around in confusion. For as rocky as the night started, once Dax had settled onto my couch, sleep had come easily. Another loud thump at the door. I grabbed my phone off the nightstand. It was 1:00 am. Dax flung his blanket off the couch and strode toward the door. I wasn’t about to leave Dax alone to face a drunk Lucas on the other side, so I scrambled over to where he was standing, his hand on the knob, ready to turn.
“Wait,” I whisper-shouted, grabbing his hand to hold him off. “What are you doing?” I motioned toward the door. “Where’s the peephole?”
“It doesn’t have one.”
“What?” I exploded in a soft-aggressive-whisper kind of way. “Why not?”
“I haven’t put one in yet.” His shrug was so casual. Dax’s eyes drifted down at my bare legs clad in green shorts that hit me mid-thigh before glancing away. It was then that I realized underneath my cute, matching silky short-sleeved top, I wasn’t wearing a bra. Nope. Last night, once I was settled under my covers and was certain Dax wouldn’t see, I peeled off the inhumane contraption so I could sleep in comfort. I debated my next move. What if it wasn’t Lucas, and someone was in trouble or hurt, and I had to race to the hospital?
“Shoot! Just a second.” I scampered to the back bedroom, grabbed my bra off the floor, and dive-bombed into the bathroom in time for Dax to ignore me and open the door.
Inside the bathroom, my fingers fumbled with clasps and buttons. When I finally burst out, Dax stood, leaning against the frame of the door, holding it open just enough to show half of his body.
“Do you know where she is?” my dad’s voice broke through the quiet. It was one in the morning, and I was certain I was not in the mood for whatever he was here for.
Dax tossed a glance at me over his shoulder, controlled anger and defiance etched in the stiffness of his body.
He swung the door open wider, though still keeping a firm grip. But it was enough for my dad to see me walking out of the bathroom in my pajamas with my hair probably a fright.
But hey, at least I had a bra on.
My dad’s eyes widened as he took in the pair of us. Dax stood with his bare chest and gray joggers slung low on his hips. I had noticed his bare chest at the door earlier, but I thought it was going to be the thing that would scare off Lucas, so I allowed it to stay naked. Not that he would have put a shirt on at my request. But…now it was going to be the thing that ticked off my dad.
Dad looked at Dax as though he were a piece of trash one might find on the sidewalk. “Your influence knows no bounds.”
“This isn’t what it looks like,” I said.
Anger flooded my body at the way he looked at Dax, what he assumed about Dax, especially after the night we’d had. I didn’t owe him an explanation. But he was still my dad, and I knew how this looked, and I wasn’t about to go down on assumption alone.
“Dax lives on the other side of the duplex. He’s here right now because Lucas ended up being a jerk, and Dax stopped him from hurting me. He’s sleeping on my couch in case he comes back.”
My dad attempted to step across the threshold, but Dax’s arm remained firm, holding the door open but barring him access .
Clayton Brooks’s Wikipedia bio states him being five foot eleven. He was five foot nine on a good day; Dax towered over him. My dad grew more stone-faced, but he stepped back.
With a scoff, he motioned toward me with his hand. “Well, I’m not sure what to believe. That’s not the story Lucas told. You lied to me about where you were staying. Last week, if somebody would have called you a liar, I would have gone to my grave to deny it.”
Dax snorted.
He scowled at Dax. “You got something to say?”
He leveled his gaze on my dad. “Yeah. She’s your daughter. Some jackass just tried to take advantage of her, and you’re taking his side to save face. She should mean a lot more to you than your precious campaign.”
Daggers shot from my dad’s eyes as he fought for control of his emotions. “Didn’t you have an older brother once? Maybe you shouldn’t be lecturing me about family matters.”
Dax’s hands curled on the door slightly. He took a second to recover before saying, “I’m not the one pretending to be something I’m not.”
Steam poured from my dad’s body as he took another step toward Dax. Bolting forward, I slipped underneath Dax’s arm holding the door open and stepped between them.
“Time to go, Dad.”
“You’re coming with me.”
“No, I’m not.”
“So you can spend more time with him? You’ve already had one court sentencing. You don’t need any more.” He tried to grab my arm.
I reared back, fire, not blood, searing through my veins.
“How dare you come here and insinuate anything. You know nothing about him. Or me, for that matter.”
“Time to go.” Dax motioned the senator toward his golf cart.
My dad stared at him before shaking his head with disgust. He was halfway to his golf cart when he called over his shoulder, “We’re not done talking about this.”
“We are,” I said, taking another step forward as my dad retreated. I held myself back from clasping Dax’s arm as he stood near the doorway, watching my dad leave.
Dax closed the door and locked it before turning around. For a long moment, he looked at me in slight disbelief.
“You’ve lived with that your whole life?”
Humiliation painted my cheeks. “It’s election year. He’s always wor?—”
He lifted my chin in his hand, forcing me to meet his eyes, the touch of his fingers halting the words from my lips.
“Stop. He doesn’t deserve your excuses. He doesn’t deserve you . Got it?”
I blinked. Before I could overanalyze the sweetness in that statement, he pivoted and brought us back to lighter ground.
Dropping my chin and taking a step back, he said, “I’ve lived here three years without a single incident. You move in, and bam, constant trouble.”
Another thought came to me as I threw my hands on my cheeks.
“My dad thinks we?—“
“I know.”
The tone of his voice had me looking up at him. “Why are you smiling?”
“I should've kissed you in front of him.” Dax stepped around me and yanked the blanket off the floor before flopping down, re-situating the blanket over top of him. “If he ever talks to you like that again in front of me, you better buckle up.”
I had just gotten off a date where a guy tried to steal a kiss—perhaps more than that. The thought of kissing Lucas triggered my upchuck reflex. Although his reasoning might have been flawed, the thought of kissing Dax gave my body a different reaction—if the tingles lacing my arms and the flood of saliva gathering in my mouth meant anything.
A delicious scenario suddenly burst into my thoughts. It began with teasing and flirting and ended with Dax pulling me closer, his hands gripping my?—
“Hit the lights, would you?”
I bolted forward, remembering myself, and flipped the switch.
The cool sheets welcomed me as I settled into my bed for the third time that night. Stress had run its course, and I could feel the exhaustion settling in my limbs as I found the perfect position to rest my head on the pillow.
“Dax?”
“Yeah?”
“Thank you for all your help tonight.”
A warm pause settled between us as I waited for his response.
“Ivy?”
“Yeah?”
“Anytime.”
His voice and his presence in my space soothed and lulled, and I was almost gone when he pulled me back once more.
“Be sure to keep that bra on in case we get another visitor tonight.”
I moaned and covered my face to the sound of his low chuckle.