“Okaaay,” I mutter. Shane and I still haven’t discussed that phone call. I was expecting him to accost me when I got home, but he just nodded, gave me the smallest hint of a smile and carried on with his life. It was fucking weird, but then that’s Shane in a nutshell. I’ve never been able to figure that motherfucker out.
The drive back is long as fuck as all of us crave alcohol and girls. Jake is antsy as fuck to get his hands on Amalie, and I can’t say I blame him. If I had someone as hot as her waiting to celebrate with me then I’d be impatient as fuck too.
Thoughts of Rae have never been far from my mind. The idea that she could be with Amalie and Camila waiting for me hits me like a fucking truck. I know that Hell is more likely to freeze over than that actually happening, especially after she so easily dismissed me earlier, but a guy can dream, can’t he?
Now this game is over, we need to talk. And I don’t give a fuck if it’s in the middle of tonight’s party. I’ll cancel the fucking thing if it means I get the chance to attempt to put things right. To tell her how I really feel.
“Thank fuck for that,” Jake mutters the second the bus pulls into the school parking lot. The cheer squad’s bus was in front of us, and they’re all waiting impatiently for us to join them, just as ready to party as we are.
I glance out the window and find Shelly staring right back at me. She winks and bites down on her index finger. I assume she’s going for sexy, but after what Shane told me she said to Rae, she can fuck right off. I’ve fucked up enough when it comes to Rae, I don’t need her fucking assistance as well.
The guys at the front start moving before the bus has even stopped, and in only a few minutes the three of us are following Shane down the stairs.
“Ethan.” Shelly’s high-pitched voice goes straight through me. She comes over, her hand wrapping around my bicep as she presses her tits into me.
“Shelly, I’m not—fuck,” I bark when my cell starts ringing in my pocket. I’d finally conceded and spoken to my dad, so I already know he’s out of town for this party—not that I’d have cared if he were here. He doesn’t seem to give me a second thought when he fucks off, allowing me to use his house however I see fit, so why should I care? Pulling it out, thinking there’s an issue, I freeze when I see a name I never expected.
Rae.
Shrugging off Shelly’s unwanted attention, I swipe the screen and turn away from the excitement so I can hear her.
“Rae?”
Her sobs fill the line, and my heart drops into my fucking shoes. “Rae, what’s wrong? Where are you? Fuck,” I ask in a panic. She doesn’t cry. Something has to be wrong.
I don’t look back. Instead, I pull my keys from my pocket and run toward my car.
“A-Aces Ethan, please—”
“I’m coming, baby. I’m coming. Sit tight.” Yanking my car door open, I start the engine and fly from the lot.
“D-don’t h-hang up,” she whispers through my car speakers once they connect.
“Fuck, no. I’m right here. I’m on my way right now.” My heart races as I try to come up with the reason she’s calling me in the state she’s clearly in. “Are you okay? Are you hurt?”
“Yeah, he—I’m sorry, Miss. We need to assess you,” a deep voice says.
“Wait, just wait. I’m coming,” I shout into the phone as I pull into the parking lot.
I just about forget to turn the engine off before I jump out and run toward where she is.
There are police cars, an ambulance, flashing lights and officers everywhere. A crowd is starting to form, nosey fuckers.
“Get out of my fucking way,” I bark as I shoulder through the bystanders until I come to a line of cops in front of the diner.
The place looks like it always does, police aside, and I relax ever so slightly. At least the place isn’t up in flames with her inside.
I rush through them, my desperation to see her getting the better of me.
“Son, you can’t go in there,” one of the officers says, his hand wrapping around my forearm.
“Like fuck I can’t. My girl’s in there. She just called me. I need to get to her.” Ripping my arm from him, I run before he can reach for me again.
The restaurant is empty aside from a couple of officers at the cash register, so I run toward the kitchen and Bill’s office.
There’s another small huddle of officers in the office doorway, telling me everything I need to know.
“Excuse me.” I storm through them. None of them stop me, I think they’re too shocked to react.
“Fucking hell.” I come to a grinding halt at the scene before me.
Rae is sitting with her back resting on the back wall of the office, but that’s not what stops me. It’s the blood that’s covering her face and shirt that has me on the verge of a fucking heart attack.
“Fuck, Rae.” I drop to my knees beside her, forcing the paramedic to stop whatever it was she was doing as I pull her into my arms.
She trembles against my body, and for the first time since I met her, vulnerability oozes from her. She rests the non-bloody side of her face against my chest and cries. Each gut-wrenching sob is like a fucking spear to my heart.
I hold her tighter, hoping like fuck that I’m helping, that it’s what she needs right now. “It’s okay. I’m here. You’re safe.” It feels so fucking weird to comfort her yet at the same time, so natural.
“I’m really sorry, but I need to assess this head wound.”
My eyes meet those of the kind-looking paramedic also sitting on the floor.
“You okay?” I whisper to Rae, and she nods slightly.
Reluctantly, I release her and rest her back against the wall. I move back slightly to give the paramedic some space, but a startled cry from Rae stops me. “No.” When I look up, her eyes are wide and full of panic as she reaches her hand for me.
Slipping my own into her blood-covered one, I keep our connection while she’s patched up. My eyes hold hers and I swear to God that as I look into those brown depths I’m seeing her for the very first fucking time. Gone is the hard-ass bitch part that she plays so well, and staring back at me is just a girl who’s as broken and fucked-up as I am.
“I’m so fucking sorry,” I whisper, guilt over everything that has gone before hitting me like a fucking sledgehammer. Emotion clogs my throat as even more tears mix with the blood on her face and drop down onto her shirt.
She nods, accepting my apology, but like fuck is that the only one she’s going to get from me. I owe her a fucking lifetime’s worth before she even considers accepting them.
I sit with her hand in mine, feeling like my heart’s going to pound out of my chest as I wait to get her back in my arms. The paramedics finish what they need to do before telling her that she needs to go with them to the hospital for stitches once the police have finished with her. I have to bite my tongue to stop me from refusing and demanding that I just take her home to look after her. She’s fucking terrified and exhausted; the last thing she needs is to deal with all these people.
It can’t be more than thirty minutes later when Rae’s given her statement to the officers and they allow the paramedics to take her.
“Can you walk, sweetheart?” the paramedic asks as they tidy up to leave.
“Fuck that.” Standing, I scoop Rae’s tiny body up into my arms. “Okay?” I ask once she’s wrapped her arms around my neck and lightly pressed her head to my shoulder.
“I will be.”
“You’re fucking killing me here, you know that, right?”
“I’m sure I can walk.”
“I’m not talking about your weight, baby. I could bench press you all fucking day.” I drop my nose to her hair as I wait for the ambulance doors to open and breathe her in. “If something fucking happened to you, I never would have—”
“Stop. It wasn’t you who robbed the place. You were… fuck.” She blows out a breath. “The game. Fuck. Did you win?”
A smile curls at my lips. With the
stress of the last hour, it feels like the first one I’ve pulled in about a year.
“Of course we fucking won. Was there any doubt?”
“With the size of your ego, probably not.”
I laugh as I stare down at her. “Good to know he didn’t knock the quick wit out of you.”
“Never.”
I place her down on the gurney in the back, but she still refuses to release my hand.
Sitting in the chair beside her while the paramedic deals with some paperwork at the other end of her bed, I close my eyes and rest my head back for a second.
“Are you okay?” Her soft, concerned voice fills my ears, and I turn to look at her.
“I don’t even know where to start to attempt to explain everything that I am.”
Her eyes hold mine, and she swallows as she thinks. The smooth skin of her neck ripples, catching my eye, and my need to have my lips on her gets the better of me.
Leaning forward, she gasps as she must realize my intention, but she doesn’t move to pull back.
“I’m so fucking sorry,” I whisper so quietly that I doubt she even hears it as my lips gently brush hers.
“Enough of that, you two.” The paramedic laughs.
I lift my lips from hers but rest my forehead against hers instead. Our eyes hold, her dark to my light as a million things pass between us.
“I could never be ashamed of you, Rae. None of this has been about you. It’s all been about me and my fucked-up head.”
Her warm palm rests on my cheek, and it makes me wonder how we went from me comforting her to her comforting me in a split second. “Let me get my head sewn back together and we’ll talk, yeah?”
I nod, unable to speak around the lump that’s formed in my throat. If she’s willing to talk then maybe she will forgive me, or at least put up with me so I can continue to apologize.
* * *
Watching her be tended to and knowing that there’s fuck all I can do to help is frustrating as fuck. But I do what is expected of me and sit in the chair beside her bed as everyone but me it seems gets to touch her.
A nurse stitches her up and gives her some pain relief, and a doctor checks her over before writing her a prescription for a load more painkillers. They want to keep her in but Rae refuses point blank, insisting that she’s leaving.
“I’m not happy about this,” the doctor says, signing off her paperwork. “If anything changes, any extra pain, dizziness, blacking out, anything. You get her back here immediately, you hear me?”
“I will. I’ve had a concussion a time or two, I know the drill.”
“You better, because she’s about to be in your care.”
“I’ve got her. I promise.”
With a hard stare, he leaves us to it.
“Are you sure about this?”
“Ethan,” she sighs, sounding exasperated. “I’m fine. It looks worse than it is with all the blood.”
“You’d better be fucking right. Come on.”
With my arm around her waist and her clinging on to her bag of pills, we make our way to the exit.
Our Uber is idling in the taxi bay, and after making sure she’s settled and comfortable, I run around to the other side and join her.
“What are you doing?” Rae asks when I pull my cell from my pocket.
“There’s a raging party going on at home. I’m calling it off.”
“No,” she snaps, shocking the hell out of me. “You guys won, don’t ruin the night for them as well.”
“I’m not taking you back there. The music will be loud and—”
“So take me somewhere else.”
“Whe—okay.” Leaning forward, I give the driver our new destination before sliding into the middle seat and pulling Rae into me. She almost immediately rests her head on my shoulder and sighs in contentment when I wrap my arm around her waist.
“Thank you,” she whispers. The sincerity in her voice makes my breath catch.
“Baby, you have nothing to thank me for.”
“There wasn’t anyone else I wanted to call,” she admits, her body noticeably tensing beside me.
“I’m glad it was me.”
“Really?”
“Yeah, really.” I press my lips into the top of her head and hold them there until the car pulls up in front of a hotel. I’ve never stayed before, but it’s got the best reputation in town, along with being the most exclusive and expensive.
“We’re staying here?”
“As long as they’ve got a room.”
I help her from the car before booking us a room for the night. Although I ensure it’s not just any room.
“Holy shit, Ethan. This is insane,” Rae gasps as I hold the door open for our suite. The far wall is floor to ceiling windows that showcase not only the huge balcony but the beach beyond.
“W-we can’t stay here,” she says, turning her concerned gaze back to me.
“Why not?”
“Because this place is for…”
“For?” I ask when she trails off.
“Adults.” Her brow furrows, and I bark out a laugh.
“I’m not sure there’s an age restriction as long as you can afford it.”
“Yeah, that’s the other issue. You shouldn’t be spending this kind of money on me.”
Stepping up to her, I press two fingers against her lips to keep her from saying any more.
“I thought you’d learned by now that I do what I like when I like.” I wink, and her cheeks heat a little. “And what you’ve just said is utter bullshit. You deserve this and more. I know I’ve fucked up, but let me show you how it should be. How you deserve to be treated.”
She swallows and bites down on the inside of her lips as she continues to stare at me.
“Tell me what you need, and it’s yours.”
“I don’t—”
“If you say you don’t need anything, then I’ll just order everything I can think of to make you happy. So unless you want his place filled with everything then I suggest you just be honest. Are you hungry? Thirsty?”
“I need…” I raise a brow as I wait for her to finish her sentence. “A wee.”
Barking out a laugh, I drop my hand down to hers and squeeze her fingers. “I think that’s the door.” I lift my chin over her shoulder and she turns to look.
“I’ll just be a few minutes.” She takes a step back but doesn’t get very far. “You’re going to need to let go.”
“Are you going to be okay?”
“Ethan, he only hit me on the head. It’s nothing.”
My eyes flick down to her shirt that’s still covered in her blood, and I remember the panic that filled me the second I stepped into that room and saw her.
“It’s not nothing. You should be in the hospital right now, not here with me.”
“I’m fine. I promise.” When I still don’t release her, she sighs. “You wanna come?”
“Thought you’d never ask.” Rolling her eyes, she walks toward the bathroom with me trailing behind.
“Whoa, it’s huge.”
“So I hear,” I mutter, unable to stop myself.
Ignoring me, she continues. “Most of our apartments have been smaller than this.”
I look around the bathroom and realize that it is a bit over the top. A huge walk-in shower with more jets than I’ve ever seen. A huge roll top bath in the center of the room and a his and hers basin with more worktop space than I’m sure any woman could fill.
“Look at that bath. I bet that’s incredible.”
“You want to try it out?”
“Um… yes.”
“Your wish is my command.”
“Aww, you my fairy godmother now?”
“I’ll be whatever you want me to be, baby.” She stills and stares at me. “What?”
“It’s just weird, is all.”
“What is?”
“You being nice. It’s unnerving.”
“Rae,” I say on a sigh, stepping up to her and taking her
face gently in my hands. “I was a fucking asshole. The things I said to you, the things I did.” I cringe. “They’re unforgivable. I don’t even know how to start apologizing. Then that night, when we… when I… and then I found your diaries. Fuck,” I bark, turning away from her. Placing my palms on the marble counter, I hang my head in shame.
“Ethan,” she whispers, coming to stand behind me. I flinch when her hands land on my side and slip around to rest on my abs. “I never wanted you to find out like that. What happened in the past, that’s… in the past. What happened between the two of us has nothing to do with that.”
Her body heat burns as she holds onto me.
“But—”
She spins me until I’m facing her, my butt resting on the counter, but still, I refuse to look at her instead keeping my eyes on the shiny tiles on the floor.
“No buts,” she says softly. Her palm cupping my rough cheek. “Look at me,” she demands, and I have no choice but to follow orders. My eyes meet hers, and, the same as earlier, everything she’s feeling is right there. For some reason, she’s dropped her walls and she’s willing to let me see her, the real her. “You didn’t do anything that I wasn’t fully on board with. If I didn’t want to, I can assure you that you’d still be trying to retract your balls from your chest now.”
The corners of my lips twitch up in a smile. “I love your fucking mouth.” My eyes widen as I realize the words that just fell from my lips. “I… uh… never know what’s going to come out n—”
Copying my move from earlier, she places her fingers against my lips to stop my rambling. “Every time you touched me, I wanted it. Craved it. That night, I needed you inside me just as much as you wanted to be there. I promise. And if you’d just stuck around or answered your damn phone then I’d have told you that.”
“I’m so fucking so—”
Her lips press to mine and my words die as her heat seeps into me. My hands find her hips as her tongue teases my bottom lip. Knowing that she’s stretching up, I lift her and spin so she can sit on the counter. Pushing her legs apart, I step between them, our lips still connected.
With one hand on her waist, I wrap the other around the back of her neck to cradle her head and slide my tongue between her lips. The kiss is like none we’ve shared in the past. It’s not full of hate, anger, and a need to hurt. Instead, it’s slow, passionate, and full of all the words we’re holding back from saying to each other.
SAVAGE: Rosewood High #3 Page 27