Us

Chapter three

I went through the gift basket and was impressed when they had given me things that were actually really sweet. They’d given me a box of super deluxe, chocolate chip biscuits that melted in my mouth when I took a bite. It came when with a frappe recipe book and a coffee scented body wash set that included a scrub. They were really sweet and I felt like I didn’t deserve this. I would have to get them something in return, but what do you get for a bunch of guys who seemed to have everything they wanted? I dismissed the thought that would have to wait, it was Saturday and it was my day to myself. I took the basket up to my room and cleaned off the paint before slipping onto a swimsuit to take a dive into the pool while the sun still shone high. I cursed because I hadn’t bought a new one-piece which meant I was supposed to dive quickly in the bikini I had before anyone saw me, especially Henry. I wrapped a towel around me like a five year old as I walked down the stairs and once I opened the sliding door to the pool, I dropped it and dove in immediately. My heart raced in my chest as I looked around the houses that could see into the back yard, my anxiety was sky high because I wasn’t one to wear such revealing clothes. It was my mother who’d sent the bikini all the way from Greece and I didn’t want to upset her by telling her that I only wore one-pieces.

I closed my eyes and took deep breaths while I floated in the middle of the pool. I heard rustling and I could feel someone’s eyes bore into the back of my skull. I turned around quickly and I felt all the life of me being sucked out of my body. “You look so good all wet.” Henry said, his voice sounded so animalistic and I swallowed, my mouth had gone dry and my hands started shaking under the water. He took his shirt off in one swift motion and I saw that look in his eyes, that look he gave me in the café when he told me what he’d do to me. He dived in and I tried my best to swim to the ladder on the other side, cursing my father for having an Olympic sized pool fitted in. I got to the ladder and before I could climb, he grabbed my foot and tugged me under water again. I tried to scream when he pulled me up from drowning but he covered my mouth with his big hand and pushed me up against the pool wall, his front in my back. “You’re going to enjoy what I’m about to do with you, you are going to wish you’d let me have your virginity sooner.” I felt my eyes burn from the chemicals of the pool and the tears that started rolling down my cheeks. The pool wall started turning my skin raw from the weight of him behind me. He was massive in muscle mass and I could not take him on my own. My cries were caught in my throat as he moved to shove his hand in the front of me, down the bikini bottom.

No, I was not going to lose the one thing I had left, be taken away. I opened my mouth as wide as it would go and bit down on his finger hard enough for him to hiss and curse loudly. This distracted him enough for me to shove my legs back hard, into his groin that stood tall with sick arousal. He groaned in agony and I climbed the ladder and ran out of the side gate. The cries that were once stuck in my throat came choking out of me and breeze hit my bare skin, the water was causing me to shiver. I didn’t care that I had only the small bikini; I was being chased by a sick man. I wrapped my arms around my tummy, the raw marks burnt against my sensitive skin and my breathing turned faster as I heard the distant splashes as Henry got out of the pool. I heard him say my name in a way that made me sick to my stomach and I didn’t realise I was crying. I ran my vision blurry and black spots covered the path in front of me. I didn’t know where I was going but stopped in the middle of the street, backing away from the house as henry came out, looking for me. His eyes landed on mine in a sick manner and I was suddenly grabbed from behind, hands holding onto my waist while I was pulled onto the pavement as a sports car raced past me. That could have been me.

I looked up at Adrian, my body flush against him and his dark eyes looked into mine. “Are you okay?” His voice was deep and rough and I felt the tears rolling down my cheeks. “Please. Whatever you do don’t let him take me.” I begged him, gripping his shirt until my knuckles turned white. My voice was rough from my sore throat and something flickered across his features before looking up at Henry who approached us. His smile was full on pretence and looked at Adrian who was like a brick house underneath my shaking figure. I placed my head on his chest, squeezing my eyes shut to drown out the prick’s voice. “Hey there, you’re new right? Sorry about my girl, she hasn’t taken her medication today.” His lies rolled off his lips and I felt Adrian straighten. “Your girl seems a little bit frightened, don’t you think?” Adrian was entertaining him; I could hear it in his voice. “She gets anxious when-“ Adrian took a step back when I felt Henry’s hands reach for me. “Bullshit.” He cut the prick off. “What did you just say?” Henry asked. I could hear in the way his voice broke that he was getting impatient. “Want me to spell it out fucker? I said bull-shit.” He paused between the words bull and s**t, making a growl at the end.

“Leave the girl alone asshole.” Adrian said and at that, he pushed me gently behind him, his straight posture not moving an inch as he did so. I heard a door open and Bryce came out with more guys that I didn’t recognise. “What going on? Cute cheeks, are you alright?” he asked when he spotted me and Adrian nodded to Henry. “He did something to scare the poor girl shitless.” He crossed his big arms over that broad chest. “I just said that she forgot to take her medication.” Henry’s voice was shaking with fury and I didn’t want to look at him, scared of the look that will be in his eyes. “Take the girl Bryce.” He said and Bryce came closer to me and I hesitated before he opened his arms. “It is okay Savannah, I won’t hurt you.” He said and I a big part of me believed him and let him take me on to the porch of the house. “Watch it Savannah, these pieces of s**t can’t protect you forever. Don’t forget what I said.” I heard Henry shouted as he walked back to his own house next door to mine. Adrian waited till he was sure the prick was inside before walking to stand in front of me, all the men around us looked at me with curious eyes and I continued to stare up at the eyes of my saviour. “You’re looking a bit pale.” I heard him say before I felt a darkness consume me.

When I woke, I sat up and looked around a dark room. I couldn’t see anything and for a minute I thought I was having a dream. “You’re awake.” It was Adrian. He sat by his window, taking a long drag of his cigarette before puffing out the cancerous smoke. “I guess so.” I murmured and tried to shift but heavy pressure on my abdomen stopped me enough to look down. A bandage was placed around my waist and I looked down curiously. “The rawness on your stomach was serious, so we put some ointment on it and bandaged it up to stop any clothing from irritating it.” He said as he killed the butt of the cigarette and climbing down from the window. I rubbed my eyes and they felt puffy and raw. “Thank you for doing that for me, I am really grateful. I don’t know what would of happened if you weren’t there.” I said softly, looking down at the foreign shirt on my body. Did the guys undress me? He clearly saw the horrid look on my face and said, “Don’t worry, Bryce’s sister helped with the cleaning of the wound. We might look big and bad, but we are not assholes.” He said, sitting on a chair and stretching, throwing an arm lazily over his eyes.

“Thank you.” I murmured and he looked at me from under one of those huge arms as I stared out of the window at my house across the road. I felt his gaze and swallowed, was this his shirt or Bryce’s sister’s? “You don’t have to tell me what happened earlier, but I’m curious to know what he tried on you that sent you running the way you did.” His voice was gentle and I felt no threat speaking to him, besides I didn’t have anyone else. “I was swimming and it happened so fast, he got into the pool and almost got away with r**e. The mark on my stomach was from him pushing me against the side of the pool. If I hadn’t kicked him in the nuts, blood would have filled my pool.” His eyes widened slightly but covered it up quickly before frowning. “Wait why would there be blood...” He suddenly quietened as he realised what I had said and I blushed hard, cursing at the fact that I had just told him I was a virgin. I bit my lip, thankful for it being dark so he wouldn’t see the redness of my cheeks. He was a stranger and I had just blurted out one of the main reasons for my stress.

“You’re strong to be able to kick him in the nuts at such a traumatizing moment.” He said and got up from the chair, shuffling sounds filled the room and he opened the door. The light from the hallway sharpened his features and he turned to me. “You hungry?” I felt my stomach growl at the sound of hunger and nodded my head slightly, my cheeks still flaming from the tension in the room. “Come with me and I’ll give you something to eat.” He said; his voice never seemed to rise. It stayed low, as if nothing was exciting for him. I knew that feeling too well and he opened the door wider for me to pass before closing it and locking it with a key. There were males everywhere and I blushed in embarrassment because my legs were there for them to see. “Don’t." Was all Adrian said and they all looked away and went back to whatever they were busy with. Was he their boss? Leader? They all were s**t-scared of him just by him looking at them. He was bigger than all the men in the house which was probably why they didn’t question him and whatever authority he had. The kitchen was plain and simple, like my parent’s house. My eyes widened, “The house, it was unlocked when I ran. I need to lock it-" He placed a finger on my lips, shutting me up completely and a small smile tugged on his lips. “You talk too much for your own good. I had Bryce go lock it up, I have the keys if you want to go back and check?” it was a question and I shook my head. I didn’t want to go near that place now, not when everything was still raw. Literally.

He motioned me to sit on a stool by the island in middle of the big kitchen. What I didn’t tell him was that we had the same island and similar chairs that I couldn’t even get on because of my height. He looked at me standing awkwardly next to the chair and rolled his gorgeous eyes that I had painted yesterday. “You have got to be f*****g kidding me.” He mumbled and came toward me, he was tall and it made me just a little bit frightened of him, causing my heart beat unevenly. He lifted me as if I was weightless, causing a squeal to erupt from my lips and planted me on the stood when I made a ‘mph’ sound as my butt hit the cushioning. Adrian got to work, his long, masculine arms taking up its own space in the kitchen and I watched as he put together a sandwich which he then shoved toward me on a plate. It stood tall in front of me and I jumped slightly when Bryce walked in. “Hey cutie.” He said and my cheeks flared up all over again after it had just turned back to its normal colour. Adrian saw this and shot Bryce a look which had him raising his hands in surrender. “Whoa, he made you the unbeaten sandwich.” Bryce said, leaning his back against a cupboard. Yes, he was that tall.

“The unbeaten sandwich?” I asked and looked between the two males before Bryce decided to speak. “Adrian has a way of making this sandwich that no one, absolutely no one, is able to finish, hence the name.” I looked down at the food before me, it looked so good. I picked up the mean sandwich and dug in, chowing away at the bread and the filling inside. By the time I was done, what I assumed were all the men in the house, stood cramped in the kitchen watching me intensely. I chewed finished and swallowed, I felt my face grow warm at all the attention and someone said ‘oh s**t’ somewhere and I frowned. What did I do? I looked down at my empty plate, oh. I just finished Adrian’s unbeaten sandwich that no man or woman had ever done before. I felt extremely shy now and Adrian stood up from leaning on the door frame and shooed everyone out.

“You’ve got some balls.” He said and picked me up again, placing me on the ground. I smiled softly and felt the stickiness of my skin, frowning at the unpleasant feeling. He saw my face and I watched him raise a dark brow at me. “I can feel the chemicals of the pool on my skin, it’s making me itch. I’ve got extremely sensitive skin.” I murmured, trying not to sound like a little kid while standing next to this huge man and I realised I reached his chest. It made my pout at my shortness. He shrugged, “We can go over and get you all cleaned up but I would prefer if you stayed here for a bit. At least till that asshole has calmed down.” He sounded like he was actually concerned about my safety. “You don’t even know me.” I said in a low voice and he looked down me. I hated when people did that. “I know you well enough to say that you’re not an ungrateful snob and actually appreciate the fact that I saved your short ass.” I saw a smirk on his mouth as he turned to collect a bunch of keys and I realised he was teasing me, which made me redder with anger.

We walked over the silent street and I caught sight of Henry looking out of his window like a creep and Adrian picked up the pace to get to the house. I unlocked the door and we slipped in. I latched the door behind us and he did that thing where he raised his brow and I quickly mumbled about it being out of habit. He walked with me silently up the stairs and I got to my room. He walked in after me and shoved his hands deep into his jean pockets. It must have been after three in the morning and I was surprised that I had passed out for so long. I was blushing deeply; I wasn’t used to having a guy in my room because no one ever came to the house. I slipped into the bathroom, hoping he wouldn’t peek because there was not a door, just an arch leading to the bathroom. Then again, I didn’t find myself attractive to be peeked on anyways. Men like him liked women who were as dangerous as themselves and I could see a whole lot of danger lingering in those eyes. I peeled off the bandage and was careful when using my new coffee scented body products over the rawness.

I hissed slightly when the water would find a way to hit that spot and turned around to start washing my hair. I felt so much safer having Adrian around. I never needed the protection before the incident, but I trusted him when he said that he was just looking for me when he said he wanted to wait till things cooled down. I got out and wrapped a large towel around me and when I looked for my cute, silk pyjamas I remembered putting them on the side table next to my bed. I didn’t want to look dreadful when I slept, not that I cared, but I still wanted them. I peeped out of the bathroom and the shiny material caught my eyes. He wasn’t in the room and I bit my lip, knowing he would come back to check what was taking me so long. I took the chance and made the short print for it and once I reached for it, I did a silent victory dance for myself. “You’ve got one hell of a-“he stopped in the doorway of the library when he noticed my frame in a towel. It happened so fast and I realised that I wasn’t holding the towel anymore, but it was too late when the fabric shielding me from this man’s eyes slipped to the floor in a swift and smooth motion. Now his eyes widened and my breath caught in my throat. “Oh shit.” And I realised it was me that said those words. “Oh s**t indeed.” He said and a dark look crossed over his eyes before he pulled out the box of cigarettes and lit one.