I snuggled deeper into the arms that held me, refusing to open my eyes and face a new day.
“Mmm,” Someone moaned.
I forced my eyes open and looked up to see Brian asleep as he held me.
He knew the truth now, the ugly truth that haunted my life. I wasn’t one of those victims that went through life thinking it was my fault. I knew it wasn’t, but the fear was still there. All the training, all the self defense, it never made the fear leave. It was always there, waiting silently for me to panic, for a single innocent move that I would take the wrong way. Now Brian knew the cause of that fear.
The ringing phone drew my attention and I reached over to answer it.
“Hello?”
“Hi Ryder. It’s Leighanne. Is Brian up?” her sweet southern voice greeted me over the line. Such a wonderful woman, a woman who didn’t deserve to be betrayed.
“Brian, wake up. Leigh’s on the phone,” I whispered, nudging him awake.
He opened his beautiful blue eyes and grinned at me as he took the phone.
“Morning, gorgeous,” he greeted.
I stood and left the room then. I needed to shower and change and put on the face of the cool confident woman I was. Fifteen minutes later I walked back out to the living room, my blonde hair still damp as I braided the long strands over my shoulder.
“So how is Leigh?” I asked.
“Great. She’s gonna stay in L.A. till she hears something about her audition,” he answered, running a hand through his hair and stretching. His shirt came up slightly exposing a glimpse of his flat stomach.
Without using the brain I was given, I approached Brian and slowly raised his shirt to take it off of him. I traced the scar on his chest from top to bottom with my fingers.
“What are you doing?” he asked softly.
“I’m trying to figure out how a heart with so many problems can be so easily loved by others,” I answered.
I wasn’t trying to seduce him, to turn him on. My act was in no way meant to be sensual or erotic. I was truly trying to understand him and the live in which he had led to get to that moment in time.
“Maybe it’s not so easily loved,” he argued.
“You’re a good man, Brian. Kind and funny and intelligent. Why wouldn’t you be loved?”
“Do you love me?”
I grinned, kissed my fingertips, and pressed them to his scar. “Not quite yet.”
We walked into the kitchen together and made breakfast as we talked about plans for the day. Brian confessed he just wanted to spend some time alone on the basketball court outside his house. The guys were set to go back into the studio in two weeks to work on the next album. He just wanted down time.
“I just want to shoot some hoops,” he said, taking a bite of his cereal.
I nodded and turned to answer my ringing cell phone then.
“Ryder Taggert,” I answered.
“They aren’t after Brian,” Mike said.
Links to other sites on the Web
Chapter 25
Back to Fan Fiction Index
Get your own Free Home Page