I’m not letting anyone hurt her.
I throw open the front door and that’s the only warning he gets before I’m on him. I grab him by the collar and pull him to me as I punch with my right hand, making the hit land with much more power.
“What the fuck?!” he cries, trying to get away, but I’ve got him. I hit him again, this time my knuckles connecting with his rib cage as he grunts.
“Ty,” Roxie says so softly I almost forget the guy and turn to take her in my arms.
But I think her rage would turn on me if I tried that.
“Don’t youeversay that to her again. In fact, get the fuck off my property. Don’t look at her again, don’t talk to her again, don’t even fucking breathe in her direction again, do you understand me? You got your fun, nowdisappear. Or I’ll make sure you do.”
Fuckhead shuts his mouth and with one look at Roxie–who says absolutely nothing, by the way–he walks off, holding his sore ribs.
Once he’s out of my sight, I feel like I can breathe a little steadier. The red tinge of rage is fading and I’m aware of my heart beating again.
“What the hell, Ty?” Roxie whispers. Not angry, not sad, just curious. Like I handed her some kind of puzzle piece that she didn’t know existed.
“What?”
“Why…” She lets the word trail off, never finishing the full thought, but then again… maybe ‘why’ is the full thought.
“You deserve better than that asshole.” I shake my hands gently, I just need to get rid of the tension in my body now. It’s been so fucking long since I’ve gotten any, so long since I’ve felt Roxie around me and jerking off has long since stopped being satisfying.
“I had it handled,” she snaps, her eyes glaring at me with more anger than I’ve seen from her fairly laidback attitude for the last two months. After the talk in the breakroom, she didn’t confront me again. In fact, she kind of…friend-zoned me. Hard.
It was like any and all romantic tension we had was buried. She greeted me warmly, she gave me high-fives and fist bumps, she complains and teases me like she does Asher. But she’s not asked to talk about what happened anymore.
She’s not asked to try to get back together or anything like that.
And what’s fucking worse is that she’s started letting her one-night douche bags walk her to work. I have to see their smug fucking grins when she walks away like they can’t believe how lucky they are.
I know exactly how lucky they are.
It’s killing me, but I watch. I watch and I protect and I sit and I wait. She doesn’t need or want me, but I need her. I want her so bad it hurts.
“Sure you had it handled,chica,” I roll my eyes. “You’ve nevernothad your stuff handled, but that doesn’t mean that I’m going to sit here and let some pretentious ass think he can talk to you like that.” My voice is raising but I can’t control it.
“Oh, but you can?” She throws the question in my face and it knocks me off guard. Everything inside me cringes.
“That was different.”
“Oh, sure. It was so different. Got your dick wet, then I lost my use, no? I’m nothing. But at thevery leastI know I have power over every man.” She huffs a laugh and steps back, the plaid shirt opening slightly so I can see the sexy little black dress she’s wearing. “You all want me, and I can choose or decline, depending on whatIwant. Not you. I have the power here.”
I know she’s talking about all men, not me specifically, but my pupils have to widen because she’s a literal goddess in front of me, and now…for some reason,now, she finally sees what I’ve seen all along. She’s powerful, smart, breathtakingly beautiful. And she has every man she meets falling to their knees.
“You know that wasn’t what it was, right?” I ask, more hurt and gentle than I’ve talked with her since that first day.
“Wasn’t it?”
“You’re the best thing that’s ever happened to me, Roxie. Since that day you walked into homeroom… Since the day you tied that leather cord around my wrist, I’ve been yours.”
Her eyes drop down to my wrist where the ratty string is still hanging on.
“I’ve been yours, and I always will be. But…”
She rolls her eyes and laughs. It’s the kind of laugh that is meant to cover real visceral pain, and I see right through it.
“‘But’. Right. There’s always a but. I’m so fucking sick of this,” she mutters, looking down and taking a breath before looking at me. “Are you going to tell me why you did what you did now?”
