Emerge (27 page)

             
“I’m so pissed off that I could kill someone with my bare hands.”

             
I thought he meant me.
I knew better, but I still thought it.
I always assumed that one of these days he was going to realize that this was my fault. 
If I stood up to them more.
 
If I wasn’t such a smart ass.
  If I could keep my mouth shut for 5 seconds.

             
“OK, you need to take a shower and get some sleep.  The cut isn’t that deep but it bled a lot so we need to keep an eye on you.  Do you feel sick to your stomach?

             
I still had my forehead attached to his chest and I shook my head ‘no’ and could feel the front of my hair knotting up in his shirt.

             
“For the love of God
,
Jenna, look at me.”

             
He got a head shake ‘no’ again.

             
He
took
three
extremely long deep breaths and said, “Ok, towels are in the cabinet and while you are in there I will find you something to wear.”

             
He moved away and I nearly keeled over the side of the counter head first.  When he left he didn’t close the door all the way. 

             
I felt nasty and sticky and I wanted to just wash away everything that had just happened.

             
I got undressed and got into the shower.  I turned it on as hot as it would go and watched the water turn ‘black cherry
Kool
-aid’ red underneath me and spin into the drain.

             
I tenderly washed my hair and the rest of
myself
got a scrub. It’s amazing what hot shower can accomplish.

             
When I turned off the water a towel appeared over the top of the shower door. I took it and wrapped it around myself under my arms. I stepped out from the shower stall and he was
leaned
up against the counter with his arms crossed looking at the floor.
It was reminiscent of how he stood against my locker.
Even with everything that had happened
,
him standing there with his biceps bulging as his arms were folded was the sexiest image I had ever seen.  My toes itched and squirmed in the bath mat underneath me in an attempt to run to him.

             
“Are you ok? Dizzy?
Nauseated?”
He was still looking down as he spoke to me.

             
“No, I’m feeling a lot better.”

             
“I can’t do this anymore
,
”
h
e whispered
,
and in the split second after he said it I thought me meant me
…again, I underestimated him.

             
But then his body was pressed up against mine and he carefully backed me up into the shower stall and his right hand was between my shoulder blades and his left hand was roaming slowly south down my back. It didn’t stop roaming until it foun
d a resting place between the back of my thigh
and my butt.
And soon after, his left hand joined his right on the other side.
He squeezed slightly and my entire body came alive.

             
I couldn’t reach up because I would lose my towel so I let my arms surround his gorgeous torso and he was looking down at me like it was the first time he had seen me.

             
“I didn’t know what was going to happen.  I didn’t know how hurt you were or in what condition I was going to find you.  I almost lost it Jenna.  What would I have done?”
He was choking up as he said it and I swore I saw tears pooling in his eyes.

             
I didn’t have time to answer.  His lips captured mine and we were aligned from head to toe and pressed together so that there was not an inch of space between us.  I felt his mouth open slightly and I didn’t wait for him this time.  I matched his mouth with mine and our tongues met and we both moaned at the same time in bliss.  This went on for only a few minutes and I could feel him slowing us down.  He pulled back one final time and kissed my bottom lip and then my top lip.

             
“I need to get a shower too. And I need you to stay right h
ere.  I will only be 5 minutes.” My eyes must have grown
three
times their regular size.

             
“Nope, don’t give me those wide eyes.  Turn around or hide your eyes or whatever, but please don’t go anywhere.”

             
He reached in and turned on the shower and I turned around quickly
while he stepped in
and started to put on the navy blue boxers and gray t shirt he put on the counter for me. 

             
After a few minutes,
I heard the water turn off and I threw a towel over the door as he had done for me. 

             
He took it and I could hear the swishing of the towel as he dried off.  He came out with it around his waist and I finally got a look at all of those tattoos.  There was a cross over his chest and a dragon looking thing on his arm.  He also had a spider web on his leg and two tribal looking stars on either side of his chest. 

             
I swiped at my mouth to make sure that I wasn’t drooling. 

             
“Don’t look at me like that
when I’m standing here in just a towel.  It’s dangerous.”

             
“For who?
Me or you?”
I put my hand on my hip and felt like I was ok again.

             
“There she is. My girl has come back.”

             
He walked out of the bathroom and I heard him open a drawer and heard his
towel drop.  He was making me
blush from the next room over.  Boy’s got talent.

             
He came back in and opened a drawer.  It might’ve been my head, but that was the loudest drawer I’d ever heard.  He pulled out a magenta toothbrush still in the package and opened it and handed it to me.

             
“You keep extra pink toothbrushes?”

             
“Not until recently.  I’ve got this amazing girl, and I told her that she was my family now and that this was her home too, so I figured I’d better stock up.”

             
We stood there and stared at each other through our reflections and he finally broke the stare and left, closing the door behind him. 

             
I brushed my teeth and took a look at my head one more time and went into the bedroom.  He was there picking up his towel and coming towards the bathroom.

             
“My turn.”
He smiled and shut the door behind him.

             
I heard the water running and being shut off and on and off again.

             
He came out and I was still standing in the same place.

             
He wrapped his bulky arms around me from behind and said, “
It’s
ok
,
J, are you scared of sleeping?”

             
“Sleeping is not what’s keeping me from that bed and you know it.”

             
“
Well, the sheets are clean. I can’t think of anything else.” He huffed out a laugh.

             
“Hmmm…well, only because you bought me a pink toothbrush.”

             
“I bought three. I hoped that you’d be here often.”

             
He
went around me, turned off the light and got into the bed. He pulled back my side of the covers and waited.

             
He
lay
ba
ck and let me be, let me decide
when I was ready.

             
I crawled in beside him and he turned towards me. And as if we’d laid together for years we both moved arms and legs where we were tangled together comfortably and the top of my head was underneath his chin. He reached down and pulled the covers over us and that was the last thing I remember.

Chapter 20

             
I woke up at who knows what time and stretched only to find that there was someone stretching behind me.  His chest was on my back and one of his legs was thrown over top of mine.  He moved my hair away from my neck and began a cross between kissing and nibbling his way along the back of my neck. 

             
My head lay on his right bicep, it made a perfect pillow. And the other arm was draped around my waist and lay limp across my stomach. 

             
He got closer to my ear and
then his teeth ran along the edge of my earlobe as he said
,
“Good morning.”

             
I smiled and stretched while turning around to face him.  My hand came down and brushed my face as I released from my stretch and I winced.  It was sore.

             
I nuzzled my face in his neck and whispered
,
“Good morning back to you.”

             
As he barely touched my head he said, “How’s your head?”

             
“
Mmmmmm
, it’s been better.”

             
“I always imagined you in my bed in the morning, but not quite like this.”

             
I slapped his chest. “I’m not sure, but I think we missed school.”

             
“I could give a flying flip about school right now.”

             
I had pulled back from his neck and was tracing his cross tattoo with my finger.

             
He looked down to where my finger was and laughed.

             
“Oh, I forgot about your tattoo fetish.”

             
“I don’t have a fetish…it just makes you hotter.”

             
“You think I’m hot?” He was barely whispering
,
his voice had gone so quiet.

             
“You know that it’s all I can do to keep my hands off of you right?

             
He nodded a yes and took my face in his hands and said, “Sometimes I can’t believe you walked into that class with me.  And now you’re in my bed telling me that you want me and I’m about to make you breakfast.”

             
“
Oooh
, yum, I’m starving.”

             
“That’s all you got out of what I said?” He laughed.

             
“Yup.”
I winked and
rolled out of bed on the other side.

             
“Come sit in the kitchen while I cook for you.”

             
“Only if you let me cook for you sometime.”

             
“Deal.”
He pulled out eggs and pancake mix and started pulling bowls and utensils out like a pro.  He made us breakfast and it didn’t disappoint.

             
We finished eating and I looked down at my clothes.

             
“I need to go home and get some clothes.”

             
He had his elbows on the counter and had put his head down and scrubbed his head with his hands. I could see from the side of his counter that he had started the knee bobbing thing again.

             
It was my turn to be the comforter and I took the opportunity.

             
I walked over to where he was and removed his hands from his head and pulled them towards me. 

             
He turned and
held onto me around my waist.

             
“Don’t go home
,
”
h
e said it so desperately.

             
“I just want to go get some clothes right now.  They’re probably not even home.  How long can I stay here?”

             
He fisted the sides of my…well his…t shirt and sounded so pained when he said
,
“I wish you woul
d stop calling this place mine.
Don’t you know by now that anything that is mine is yours?
”

             
“Ok, so can we go to
their
house and get me some clothes and come back
home
?”