Brock: A Bad Boy Romance (115 page)

Now she looked at Byron he wanted her to be his wife, and it scared her.  He was already trying to control her, and the only thing she could associate with that was Kaiden.  Heather thought she might actual feel a bit of hate towards Byron for forcing this on her.  But now that she looked at him with his small son, she felt her heart warm a little towards him.  She wasn’t sure if she liked that though, so she pushed those emotions down by thinking more about Kaiden and her past marriage.

****

              “Your job is to cook, clean and have sex with me.”   Kaiden had yelled at her in this way more than one time.

              “What if I don’t want to have sex?”  She had asked him one time.  That had been the first time he had hit her and forced her to have sex.  Heather knew that no one would think it was a big deal.  The wife of the marriage should listen to her husband.  She would have been seen as the person who was in the wrong.  She was honestly worried that Byron would also force her to have sex with him.

But she looked at him again as he rocked little Samuel to sleep and couldn’t picture him being mean to her.  Not hitting her like Kaiden had, this man seemed far too gentle.  “He’s with his son; he won’t treat you the same way.”  A warning voice yelled out in her mind.

She tried to shake the bad thoughts of her head.  The fact was that she knew she would have to marry him; he was the Lord after all.  Well honestly, it scared her into feeling and thinking that he was far worse than Kaiden might have ever been.  “No look at him with little Samuel, he can’t be as bad as Kaiden, never.”  She thought.

Byron looked back at her and smiled.  “Okay, if you want we can talk now.” 

Heather honestly hadn’t believed him when he had told her that they would talk about what she wanted later on.  She had figured that he would simply forget and put it off all the time. 

              “I don’t like marriage.  My first husband was not a nice man; he controlled me all the time.  I had to do anything and everything he said.  If I was too slow at something, he would hit me.  If I didn’t feel like having sex, he would hit me, and then force me to have sex.  I’m scared that you will force me to do things that I don’t want as well.  Look you told me, that I was going to be your wife.  How should I act with this type of control?  I don’t want it again.  I’m happy since he’s gone, but now you want to put me into the same type of relationship, why?”  Heather said, but wasn’t sure if she was explaining her feelings well enough.

              “Well, I’m not going to change my mind about marrying you, or making you do it.  I’m sorry, you may not understand it, but there is just something about you that attracts me.  I won’t ever hit you or force you to have sex with me though.  Just so you know I’m not a mean person.  I don’t know how to explain to you my process of thinking of why I picked you.  You’re a bit older, and more mature than the other lasses in the village.  Plus the fact that you were married, it means you know what marriage means, well maybe not though now that I know how your husband was to you.  I’m truly sorry that he was like that to you.”  Byron stated.

Heather looked at him.  He talked a good game, and said he wouldn’t hit her or force her to have sex, but he could be lying.  She didn’t know him well enough to figure it out.  “I’ll marry you, because I have no choice.  But I can’t promise you anything else from there.  I don’t think its fair that to me.  I know nothing of you, besides the obvious that everyone knows around here.   You’re the Lord of the land and your wife died just a few weeks ago now, you have a son, and you’re a decent man.  But just because everyone sees that side of you, it doesn’t mean you are like that behind closed doors.  I know all too well how appearances can fool a person.”  She stated.

              “I’m not him am I?”  Byron challenged her.

              “No but you could be just as mean, if not meaner than he was to me.”  Heather could feel the tears start to slip down her face.  She paused a moment and closed her eyes, she could almost feel the punch of his fist on her skin.  “I really didn’t do anything wrong to him either.  All I wanted was to not be told what to do all the time. To be made to do things I didn’t choose.  That isn’t a life, that’s a prison.  I can’t help but feel you are putting me in another type of prison.”  Heather said.

Byron walked over to her and touched under her chin lightly, and made her look up at him.  He could see the tears flowing freely down her cheeks.  He wiped one of them as it trailed down her cheek.  He felt her tense up.  Bryon took his hand down and walked away from her.

Heather watched as he left the room and wondered what he was doing.  His touch had been so gentle on her skin.  She had seen pain reflecting back from his eyes as he looked at her.  She wanted him to come back now, to comfort her again as he just had.  Heather felt a chip of ice melt off of her heart as she thought of Byron.

She thought of how her parents had always talked about how good Byron’s parents were and that they felt he would be a good ruler.  Heather thought back to when she was younger and she had first met Byron.  She had been about 16 years old and he was 18.  He had been an obnoxious boy who felt that girls were not near as good as boys.  Could he have grown out of that opinion?  She wasn’t sure if that was true or not.  This memory worried her about his ability to not want to control her like Kaiden did, by using his fists and words.

She went over to look down at Samuel as he slept.  He was such a handsome little boy already.  He looked a lot like what she would imagine Byron did as a boy.  She was sure that as he grew up he would be a spitting image of Byron.  She smiled down at him.  “You’re a lucky little boy if you look like your father when you get older.  He’s a very handsome man.”  She said to Samuel.

Heather wasn’t aware that Byron had opened the door behind her and heard those words.  He silently walked back out of the room. 

***

  Byron walked a bit more around the castle after he had heard what Heather had said to Samuel.  He really did find Heather quite attractive.  When he had looked into her eyes he had seen the pain and fear in them.  It had made him hurt inside too.  He had felt upset about the man who had made her feel this way, “If he was alive I would kill him with my bare hands.”  Bryon swore under his breath.

She was so much different from Priscilla, in so many ways.  For one she had a nice figure.  She wasn’t super skinny like Priscilla had been.  Honestly it had been one thing he had never liked about Priscilla, and that was only the beginning of the list.

No one but Byron knew how bad it had been in this castle.  Well some of the staff he was sure had heard her on more than one occasion yelling and complaining about things.

              “I want to have a son to carry on my name.”  He had told her one night.

              “Well then I guess you better find someone to have that child for you.  I don’t think I want to ruin my perfect body.”   She had complained.  Priscilla had been standing in front of the mirror and looking at herself.  It had been a daily habit that she would do for hours on end.  Byron didn’t understand why she found her body so attractive.  He would rather have a bit more meat to her.

              “I think the extra weight would make you look nice.”  He had said to her.

She had turned back to him and the look had been one that could have killed him.  “Extra weight, I don’t think so.” 

The only reason that they had eventually had Samuel was one night in a moment of weakness on her part.  She had been celebrating her birthday and had a bit too much to drink.  He had been shocked by her come-ons that night, but had gladly slept with her.  It had been the one and only time in their whole marriage. 

He did feel some guilt by the fact that it was complications from her pregnancy that had killed her in the end.  But here he was with Heather; she was the type of woman he would have loved to marry the first time.  In fact, if it had been his choice he might have married her.  She hadn’t known how much of a crush he had on her for years.  Bryon didn’t even know if she had seen him watching her on the many occasion he had spied on her.

The first time he met her though he had to admit he was put off.  She had been like a little tomboy.  Byron smiled now as he thought back.  Heather had been playing in the forest and he had come up on her.

              “Hey what are you doing out here?”  He had said to her.  “Don’t you know how dangerous it can be out her for a girl?”  He added.

Heather had looked at him.  Her hair hadn’t been as long back then, but still it flowed over her shoulders.  He had been mesmerized by her when she looked up at him with her big blue pools of eyes.

              “I can handle myself; I’m not some little girl who doesn’t know anything.”  She had spouted at him.  Her shoulders had gone back in a defiant stance too.

Bryon had laughed at that point and it had made her furious.  She had come up to him and hit him.  It had hurt quite a bit, but he would never admit that to her.  “Come on I’ll walk you home.”  He had grabbed her arm.

              “Stop it; I don’t want to go home yet.”  She had yelled and pulled away from him.

              “It’s going to be dark soon; I can’t let you stay out her.  My parents would not want me to be like that.”  He had stated.  She had struggled the whole way back to the village with him.  But he had been stronger than her, though she had almost gotten away a few times.

She had been so spunky, he had found her fascinating.  But after that her parents had kept a closer watch on her and she didn’t go out to the woods as often.  He had tried to talk to her a few times after that day, but she had often ignored him, or found a way to escape the conversation.  So Bryon had instead watched her from time to time from afar.

There had been a few times before his father had told him of his impending marriage he had thought of asking her to marry him.  In fact the night he was going to talk to his father about Heather, he had his world devastated.

              “Son, I have some really good news for our future.”  His father had announced at dinner that one night.  Byron had been 23 at the time.  It seemed like yesterday right now, not 5 years ago. 

              “What is it father?”  He had asked.

              “You’ll be marrying Priscilla McDaniel next month.”  He had stated.

              “I don’t want to marry her.”  He had refused.  “I’d rather pick my own wife.”  He added.

              “Son I’m sorry this is a great strategic move for us.  We need another clan behind us in these times.  This clan would be a very strong alliance for us.  You have to do it, you don’t have a choice. I’ve already agreed for you.”  His father had said.

              “What about love?  Why can’t I have that?  You and mother have always told me to find it.  Now you’re going to steal that chance from me?”  He had argued.

His father had shaken his head sternly.  “Son you may love her, just give it time.” 

Byron had gone out for a walk, he saw Heather at that point.  He had wanted to approach her and ask her to run away with him.  But then he thought about the kind of life he would have offered her.  He couldn’t do it, she deserved better than that.  Instead he had turned around and lost track of her.  He had thought that was her in the village this afternoon.  Byron had thought he was seeing a ghost, but when he had asked her name, his heart had gone through his chest.  He took it as a sign that this was his chance. 

              “Maybe I should tell her about this?”  He wondered as he walked.  Finally, he went back to the room again.  He peaked in first to see if she was talking again or not, but it was silent.  As he went further into the room he noticed she was sleeping in the chair.  He picked her up and carried her over to the bed, and covered her up.

Byron went and got comfortable in the chair.  Soon his eyes closed and he was fast asleep.

***

Heather woke up confused.  She looked around, unsure where she was at first.  As the fog of sleep cleared from her mind she remembered yesterday.  She looked around the room and saw that Byron was across the room sleeping in a chair. 

She couldn’t help but smile at how sweet he had been the night before.  She knew for a fact that it had to have been him who had moved her to the bed.  He had covered her up, and then chosen to not even sleep in his own bed. 

Heather got up and went to check on Samuel, he was just opening his eyes and the first sounds of his cries hit the air.  She picked him up quickly and tried to calm him down until she got his breakfast ready.  She had hoped to let Byron sleep, but she heard him moving behind her.

              “Here you are.”  He said and handed her Samuel’s milk. 

              “Thank you, I’m sorry I was trying to get it done before he woke you up.”  She smiled.

              “I wake up at the first peep he makes.  But thank you for the thought.”  Byron said and smiled at her. 

              “Thank you for moving me to the bed.  I would have slept in the chair though if you wanted the bed.”  Heather said.

              “I just didn’t want to scare you when you woke up and found me beside you, so I decided to sleep in the chair last night.”  Byron stated.

She looked at him; he had a strange look on his face, like he was thinking of something that made him really happy. 

He noticed the confused look she had and laughed.  “I have something to tell you that may help explain this better.  So just please listen to what I tell you.”  Byron said.