At this point, I was so nervous because I didn’t want the guys to find out what my life was like. It had never gotten this bad before. Wanting some type of comfort but not wanting to show how vulnerable I was feeling, I tried to hold Asher’s hand again. This time he let me thread my fingers through his, while picking my hand up and kissing the back of it. I didn’t think he realized how much this tiny act eased the tension in my nerves.
Pulling up to Ryder’s house, I could feel the nerves set in again. As Asher got out, I was still sitting in the car wishing that there would just be a hole to swallow me up. For some reason, I felt ashamed that this happened. I knew it wasn’t my fault but I didn’t want anyone’s sympathy or pity.
Asher pulled the door open ripping me from my thoughts. Before I knew it, I was walking up to Ryder’s house. Apparently this wasn’t normal behavior for Asher because the front door opened and the massive frame of Grayson was standing there.
It was dark outside and no one had turned the lights on yet. This didn’t last long since the front door opened and the bright light poured out into the night. As soon as Grayson saw my face he turned redder than a tomato. I hadn’t looked in a mirror since getting hit, so I guess there was still a mark on my cheek.
“Asher, you need to explain what the fuck is going on right now!” Grayson yelled and it was so sudden that he made me jump.
Now I was pissed because I didn’t need anyone talking for me. “Grayson, how about you ask me what is going on, instead of jumping down Asher’s throat like this is his fault?” I yelled right back.
I was so focused on staring down Grayson, I didn’t realize Ryder was here. His breathless voice asking, “What the hell is going on and why is everyone yelling?” Breaking my concentration I glanced at him just as he choked down a gasp, his eyes wide on my face. He quickly calmed down saying, “Alright let’s take this inside, yeah?”
Everyone followed him inside and I felt a migraine coming on. This conversation needed to happen quickly because when I got a migraine, it wasn’t pretty, to the point of possibly emptying my stomach a few times until it went away. The brightness of the house was not helping either. Ugh! I just wanted to get this over with and sleep.
“Everyone sit down. Now, I’ll tell you what happened and then I’m going to crash on the couch until this migraine goes away. So, Asher took me home and was giving me a kiss goodnight when my father came out, and not so politely, told Asher to pretty much fuck off in his own drunken language. I went in to go to my room. The next thing I know I was laying on the floor with my dad yelling shit about living in his house and me being a whore, with a stinging cheek. It was pretty much a blur, until Asher came charging through my house and kidnapped me.” I said with such a sickly sweet smile hoping to change the sour looks on the guys faces.
Apparently, I was wrong to say that because then Ryder and Grayson were yelling at Asher. Time to fix this mess. I guess. “Guys.” This was a bad idea. “Guys!” …still yelling at Asher… Here goes nothing. Putting my fingers in my mouth, I whistled and boy did that get their attention. “For fuck’s sake, it was a damn joke you two! What in the ever-loving hell is wrong with you? Do you really think Asher would take me without my approval?” I asked, throwing a wink in Asher’s direction.
“Now that everyone knows my sordid tale, can someone get me medicine for this awful headache?” I practically begged at this point. All the yelling really did a doozy on my brain. They all seemed to move at once.
When they got up, I laid down on the couch and shut my eyes. I felt a feather-like touch moving down my cheek. It stung, but felt really nice at the same time. Opening my eyes, I saw Grayson looking at my cheek with a sad look on his face. He was so focused on my cheek that he didn’t even notice I was looking at him.
Not wanting to distract him, I kept still and quiet taking this time to really look at him. He had stubble on his face that I thought would feel really nice running my hands on. His nose had a little bump in the middle that made me think it had been broken maybe once or twice. Grayson also had the sharpest jawline that I had ever seen, even though his stubble covered it for the most part. Hazel eyes with the slightest touch of green looked back at me, when I finally reached them.
Asking with his signature smirk, “Are you done checking me out now?”
I wasn’t sure if it was the headache or just me being sick of not doing anything for myself, but I smirked and reached up to touch his stubble before pulling him in for a kiss. He let me take control, but quickly got tired of that and within a matter of seconds I was flat on my back. Hovering over me, he kept his body off mine as he continued to kiss me. Just as I was really getting into it, I heard someone coming down the stairs.
By the time Ryder got to the bottom of the stairs, we had sprung apart like teenagers getting caught by their parents. “Here Malia. Take this and drink some water. You can sleep here if you want. We can take you to school in the morning.”
“Thanks, Ryder, but I don’t have any clothes here. I
