Protect Me (18 page)

Again she remained quiet throughout lunch, focusing more on her food than the company. The two men talked before clearing up the empty plates and discarding them into the trash. With lunch being over she could see the exhaustion that had begun to set into Gabe’s face. She made her way back over to the couch as Ryan walked Gabe to the door. He stepped just outside of hearing range before stepping back inside the room. With the click of the door handle the butterflies in Abbi’s stomach went wild. Suddenly it was just the two of them in the room. Alone. Though she was in no way scared of her safety, she was nervous. She wasn’t sure what to say or what to do. Suddenly she remembered her phone was upstairs and that she hadn’t spoken to anyone in hours. Rising she made her way over to the stairs.

“And where do you think you’re going missy?” Ryan shot her a coy smile from the other side of the kitchen before he made his way over to where she stood.

“Uh, I was just gonna get my phone. I will be right back down.” She attempted a crooked smile.

“I got it. You go lie down on the couch and try and rest.” He took a large step onto the stair case and was upstairs and back down in a matter of seconds. “Couch, lay, relax. That’s an order.” He smiled.

“Aye, Aye Mister Captain Sir.” She saluted.

“That’s completely wrong, but I will give that to you since you’re on the meds.” He ushered her over to the couch and laid her down. Grabbing the soft throw blanket that Gabe had been using this morning, he wrapped it around her and tucked her in. “When was the last time you took some medicine?”

“It’s been a while. The last thing I remember is when the doctor gave me some on the boat.” She tried to rack her brain but she honestly couldn’t remember anything since she had seen the doctor.

“I believe Ashley had you take another when we got you home, and that’s been a little over eight hours so you can take another if you’d like.” He sat just on the edge of the couch, his large body towering over her.

“Yeah, my side is hurting pretty bad.” She grimaced when her hand caught the site of the large bruise.

“Your side?” Ryan’s hands reached towards the bottom of her shirt before stopping. Clearly aware that after what she had gone through last night, he should probably ask permission before he touched her.

“It’s ok.” She said lifting the hem of her shirt up just enough for the offensive purple and black marks to show.

Ryan’s face went pale, he swiped his hand across his face before turning away from her. Though she knew she hadn’t done anything wrong, she felt like she was constantly making him angry.

“I’m sorry.” She said timidly looking up towards the ceiling.

“Abbi, you have nothing to be sorry for. I know I shouldn’t react like that, but I can’t help but want to kill him every time I look at you.” He turned back towards her, his eyes engulfed in flames of rage.

“I know. I wish I had never agreed to go.” Abbi could feel the tears threatening again.

“You will never have to worry about that again, I promise.” He smiled down at her reassuringly before rising.

The emotions were welling up inside of her. She tried to distract her thoughts when he handed her a bottle of water and the small round white pill. But as she sat up to take the medicine throbbing pain shot through her side, sending her over the edge. One minute she was swallowing and the next she was sobbing into her blanket. She could feel Ryan’s arms envelop her but it didn’t stop the storm. She was angry, angry with herself. She should have known better, she was so naïve to just assume that Jeff was a nice guy that wanted to take her on a date. She was angry that she had compared him to Ryan, hell she had even used him against Ryan. She felt disgusted, violated, and hurt. Most of all hurt, not physical but the deep rooted emotional hurt that takes time to heal.  She was confused, she was so confused to have gone through the ordeal she had gone through the night before and yet here she was having sexual desires for Ryan. She didn’t know what it meant, or if it made her a bad person.

As she purged the tears from her eyes and pushed the racing thought from her mind, she began to feel like she was on Earth again. She could feel Ryan’s gentle sways back and forth as his hand gently rubbed up and down on her back. He just sat there and held her. Even after the sobs were over, he just held her. Slowly she lifted herself from his chest and wiped the tears from her face.

“I’m sorry everything just hit me all at once. Thank you for being here Ryan. It means a lot to me.” She sniffled

“Abbi, there is nowhere else I would rather be.” Softly he leaned in and planted a kiss on her temple. “I would like to finish our conversation from last night though.”

“Which one, it’s all a bit of a haze.”  

“The one where you stubbornly wouldn’t let me explain myself.” He smiled.

“Oh, yeah that one.”

“Listen, I know you have this hell bent idea that you aren’t good enough for me. I don’t know if it’s because I have money, or because you have things in your past that make you feel that way. But I have never thought about you like that. Abbi I have wanted to ask you out since the first night I saw you.” He reached up and took her hands before he continued, “The only reason I didn’t was because I didn’t think it was fair for you.”

“What do you mean fair for me?” She didn’t understand how his asking her out wouldn’t be fair for her. Shit she would have been thrilled.

“Abbi, there are things from my past. Demons that haunt me that I would never want to bring into your life. I spent fifteen years in the Army and during that time I spent a lot of it overseas in a war zone. I couldn’t expect you to be proud of the things I have done.”

“Ryan, I would never judge you for that. There are parts of my past that I don’t like either, they are a lot of the reason why I feel like I am not good enough. I understand how hard it is to deal with those issues. It is something that can only happen in time. We just have to work it out together.”

“I promise I will work on it, I will not push you away. And if it takes me the rest of forever to make you feel like you belong, well then I will spend every minute working on that.”

“Ok.” Her voice was shy and reserved. No man had ever made her feel so special.

“Don’t worry about a thing ok. I’m here and I’m not going anywhere, you just try and get some rest.”

“I need to call Trent. I don’t know if he knows what’s going on, and I need to call Judy and Ashley they have to be wondering what’s happening.”

“I took care of Trent, I explained what happened and he said to take as much time off as you needed.”

“Oh, ok. But I am sure I will be able to go back in a day or so.”

“Abbi, you have been through a lot in the past 24 hours. You need to give your body time to rest.”

“Well unfortunately, some of us have bills to pay and the only way we can pay them is by working.” She rolled her eyes.

“Abbi, the last thing you need to worry about is money. I can take care of whatever you need. I think I can dig up those jars I buried in the back yard.” He said trying to stifle the conversation.

“Uh, not even on a good day would I let you pay my bills.” The stubbornness was written all over her face. “What do you think I am? A gold digger?”

She wasn’t budging on this. Even though every muscle in her body screamed out to just let him handle things, she couldn’t bring herself to solely rely on a man. A man that she honestly didn’t know that well. Sure it all felt so natural with him, still she wouldn’t let him walk in and dictate her life. She was thrilled to know that he reciprocated some of the feelings that she had, but she wanted the chance to get to know him first before she turned the power bill on in his name.

“I thought we both agreed to work on our stubbornness.” He narrowed his eyes playfully as he continued. “Ok, we will see how you feel in a day or so and go from there, how about that?” He smiled showing his perfect white teeth.

“Don’t use your handsome smile on me. I am going back to work in two days. I don’t care if I have to pour drinks with crutches holding me up.” She crossed her arms and looked sideways at him.

“You think I’m handsome?”

“That’s all you got from that, really?” She couldn’t help but show the smile she was hiding.

“You need to get some rest ok. I have already talked to Judy and Ashley. They are going to come over tomorrow morning. You get some sleep.” He leaned her back on the couch against a pillow.

“Are you, staying?”

“As long as you will have me, yes.” He leaned in and kissed her forehead as he tucked the blanket gently around her body.

She smiled as she closed her eyes. This was going to be the start of something good. She let her thoughts drift off as she slowly fell into a contented sleep.

It had been everything in him to leave Abbi’s side every morning since he had gotten her home. He wasn’t sure how she would take to him taking control of everything but so far she had been only slightly resistant and on only a few issues. But he knew this would be a walk before run kind of situation. Even though he knew deep down inside that this was the woman that he was put on this earth to protect and cherish, he had to work up to that. He had to quell the urge to swoop in and take over everything, it was his personality and he had the means to do it. But that wasn’t what she wanted and a part of him didn’t want that either, his damn head was so confused. This relationship shit was more frustrating than anything he had ever encountered before. Hell, tactical missions in the middle of the dessert made more since to him than trying to be in a relationship.

As he woke this morning he found Abbi in the same position she had been in for pretty much the past three days, asleep on the couch. She was so beautiful when she slept, her mouth parted slightly and her face looked so relaxed, her chocolate brown hair spilling onto the pillow. He had slept in the arm chair across from her every night. It was small and he barely fit in it, but he had also slept on a cot in the dessert for months on end, so he was used to making the best of a situation. Honestly there had been no choice in the matter anyway. He would have slept on the floor if it had meant being able to stay with her.

His normal routine would be to get up and fix her something to eat, he had figured out she liked having yogurt and fruit for breakfast, so he would package it into a container and leave it in the fridge for her. He would quietly tip toe around gathering his things, before leaving a note on the dry erase board on her fridge. It usually consisted of some heartfelt apology on why he had to go to work and that he would be back as soon as he could. Then he would sneak out of her apartment and head off towards his home to get ready and go into the office.

However today was Saturday and he didn’t have a damn thing to do. Since Abbi was getting around much better, he thought she may be up to do something today. Quietly he got up from the chair and gathered the cards from their Go Fish tournament the night before, placing them back into the small box and heading towards the kitchen. He searched quietly for the pans, a bowl, chopping board, a good knife, two plates, and two glasses. He grabbed a package of bacon from the fridge, along with a carton of eggs, and the milk. He cracked a few eggs into a bowl before whisking them with a fork, then pouring them into the warming skillet. He may not be the best cook, but he knew how to fix scrambled eggs and bacon.

As the smell of the bacon and butter began to waft throughout the apartment, he heard Abbi stir on the couch. Looking over he saw her sitting up, rubbing her eyes. Her hair fell loosely around her face and onto her shoulders. The light from the balcony door came through the windows behind her, shining a halo of light around her. She looked angelic to say the least. A sleepy smile spread across her face before she got up and walked towards him. He had to remind himself to breath a few times, her black yoga pants hugging every curve as the over large t shirt dropped down one of her shoulders. She came up to the island and took a deep breath through her nose as she leaned onto the counter across from him.

“I see someone found the bacon.” She said smiling.

“Yeah, well you know us men can only go a day or so on fruit and yogurt.”

“I wouldn’t want you wasting away on me. What else you got going on over there? It looks slightly like a high school science experiment.”

“Scrambled eggs.” He smiled proudly.

“I don’t like eggs.” Her face went blank.

Well shit, it looked like he would be eating a lot of eggs this morning.

“Ha! Got you! You should have seen your face.” She chuckled. “Priceless.”

Oh, you’re gonna get it for that one.” He playfully darted around the island as she squealed and ran the opposite direction. Damn she was quick. There was no doubt that she was feeling better. And he was glad to see that most of the swelling from her face had gone down, only a few marks still remained.

“You better watch it buddy. I am from the South you know. We watched wrestling in my trailer hood.” She was now on the opposite side of the couch from him and stepping up onto the cushions grinning. “You ever heard of the DDP?” She said smacking her left elbow down into her right palm.

He was laughing so hard at this point that it was hard to keep himself up right. “The DDP, really? Of all the great wrestling moves, you call out the Diamond Dallas Page.”

“Do you smell what the Rock is cooking?” The words came out slurred as she launched herself off of the couch and tried to manage landing on his back.

 He caught her mid-air trying his best to not grab her hurt side, but shit he couldn’t remember which one it was at this point. It was hard enough trying to keep her from falling right on her face while her body was failing towards him through the air. She landed safely and laughing in his arms, her legs wrapping around his waist.

“You should have paid more attention to wrestling. I don’t think that is the same move.” He smiled as he stared up into her eyes.

Her hands were wrapped around his neck. He could feel her fingers toying with the short hair at the back of his head. She stared back down into his eyes. He could feel the electricity growing from the pit of his stomach, fire burning through his body. If she stayed in his arms like this much longer she would probably be propped up on his growing erection. He tried to subdue his thoughts. There was no way he would make a move on her after what she had just been through. It had been hell the past few days not being able to touch her or hold her like he wanted. Kiss her, damn those lips. They drew him in, screaming his name. He wanted to feel them pressed against his own as his tongue slid into her mouth slowly teasing hers.