Page 19 of Carter

He stood up and walked to me. I looked back at the street and hoped to see a bus come bounding down it ASAP. I felt his front against my back, and I swallowed hard. It wasn’t fair hecould make me feel like this. I’d turn it off if I could. I wished I could look at him like I looked at all the other guys.

“What is it?” he asked, worriedly. “Tell me, Leah. Please.”

I moved away from him, trying to gain distance so I could think straight. “It’s nothing.”

“It’s not nothing,” he pressed. “Just tell me what the hell is wrong! You haven’t said a word to me since I fucking tore that dick to pieces for you—”

“I never asked you to do that!” I cut in angrily, facing him.

His face fell. “What the hell? Are you angry I helped you?”

“You didn’t help me!”

“Like hell I didn’t! He was threatening your life—”

“I’ve been threatened with a lot worse than my life, Carter, and I’ve managed just fine!”

His nose flared, and his mouth twisted as he retorted, “Stop dealing with these pricks on your own! You’re a fuckinggirl, and these are guys trying to bring you down!”

“Then let them try. I’m tough. I can handle it on my own, and I had without you bursting into the scene and getting suspended for it! Now I look even weaker! Like I need help, or for someone to rescue me—”

“There’s nothing wrong with needing help,” he cut in, stepping closer to me. I could feel the anger rolling off him. “You stood up for yourself, I get it. You brought him to his knees after you grabbed at his balls, and I admire that. Really, I do, Leah, but fuck, you can’t expect that to have scared them away. They would have come at you harder later on! I’ve seen it happen. It fuckingkillsme when they treat you like that.” His voice broke at the end, and he looked at me with his walls down, letting me see his pain.

I blinked hard, feeling moisture in my eyes. What the hell was wrong with me? Was I seriously on the verge of tears? No, no, that couldn’t be right. Yet the lump in my throat, hard andround and impossible to swallow away, told me that I really was fighting back tears.

“I just don’t want to burden you with my crap,” I whispered, because talking louder would have given away my emotion.

“You expect me to just watch?” he whispered back in shock. “Fuck no, Leah. I’m not going to be like fucking Rome, sitting there because I was told to shut up. No way. I’m not going to watch someone I care about get bullied like that. You’ll never convince me otherwise, so you’re just going to have to deal with it.”

I stared at him for a long moment, taking in that look of conviction.

“You don’thaveto do that,” I said, feeling a tear fall. “You really don’t, Carter.”

He moved closer to me then and wiped the tear with his thumb. His blue eyes shined with emotion as he quietly replied, “Yeah, I do.”

I took the hand he used to wipe my tear and held it tight. Whatever connection we had at that point only grew stronger. He pulled me in for a hug and I shut my eyes, face against his chest, breathing all of him in. It felt so right to be held by him. We just…clicked.

“It’ll be alright,” he reassured me. “I won’t let anything happen to you. They’ll all die before they set a finger on you again.”

When he pulled away, we both sat down on the bench and watched the cars go. I felt lighter than I’d felt in days. He kept me by his side, his arm around me, comforting me.

“What happened to your cheek?” he suddenly asked.

“Nothing,” I answered, turning my face away from him so he couldn’t see the light bruise there. Under the sun, it was inescapable, I knew. I hadn’t even thought of a good enough lie for how I got it if someone had asked.

His finger wrapped around my chin, and he forced me to him. I couldn’t meet his eye, but I knew he was staring at it hard.

“Did Russell do this to you?” he demanded.

“I back-chatted him,” I grumbled.

He clenched his jaw and let go of my face. He fisted his hands together and looked away from me. “He tell you not to see me?”

“Yeah.”

“Are you going to listen to him?”

“No. I’ll just need to be more careful.”

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