Page 76 of B-ry
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Laurel
I woke to Bryan’s sweet voice and a gentle shaking of my body. I felt so groggy as I tried to pull myself out of slumber. My head was screaming at me that I needed to go back to sleep.
“Laurel,” Bryan said softly. “I need you to wake up.”
I let out a long groan and tried to pry my eyes apart.
He said my name softly again and I tried my hardest to fight against the blissful darkness that was calling me back.
“Alright,” I said as I blinked my eyes a few times. “I’m awake. Now can I go back to sleep?” I sounded like a spoiled child but I didn’t care in the least right now. I just wanted to sleep.
When I was asleep, I didn’t feel how my body ached. Or remember what I had been through. I didn’t smell the dirty state that I was still in.
And I didn’t have to deal with the fact that Bryan was there. Which was something I really didn’t have the head space to think about since I wasn’t sure how I felt about him at the moment. I was torn in two. I was angry, sure, but I was also so happy to see him. And maybe above all else, I felt safe with him here.
I rolled over and sat up. My muscles were stiff and sore and my face was throbbing. Without thinking, I brought my hand up and touched my swollen, puffy cheek.
“Don’t touch it. Are you in pain? I can get you something.”
“No,” I said shaking my head which made it feel like my brain was rattling around in my skull. “I don’t want anything.”
We fell silent for a long time.
I think neither of us knew what to say.
That was fine with me because I didn’t think that I wanted to hear anything that he had to say anyway.
My eyes were still blurry but I tried my best to look around the room. My room, I guessed. It was strange to think of it that way.
Out of the cracked open blinds, I could see the front building to the club’s… compound, I guess. I wasn’t sure what to call it and I thought I had heard Cami say that a time or two. At least I knew where I was. I felt some sort of safety in that. For some reason, there was something that wrapped my heart in warmth. Then it hit me, what being here did to me. How being surrounded by the members of this club made me feel.
I think a strange, sharp laugh slipped through my lips.
“What?” Bryan asked and I could feel his eyes on me.
It was then that I realized how close to me he was. He was sitting on the bed, propped up against the headboard and I wondered if he had been right there in that spot while I slept. I shook that thought off because it was silly. But there was something in the back of my mind that told me he had been.
“It’s just that I’m here,” I said and took in a deep breath because it was hard to get the words out. “At your motorcycle club’s place.”
“Yeah. And?” There was that tone. I knew that tone. It let me know that I had somehow offended him and he was on edge and ready for a fight.
But I wasn’t trying to fight. I wasn’t even trying to be nasty about it.
“Wait,” I whispered, my throat feeling so dry. “I just mean that right now I feel so safe. It’s funny.” I let out a dry laugh. “I’ve never felt like that. You know, completely comfortable and like nothing bad will ever happen to me. Not growing up in a mini-mansion. Not on my own trying to prove to the world that I could do it all by myself.”
He didn’t say anything and I felt like I wasn’t explaining it very well.
“I know it makes no sense. Especially since… well, you know. But I do. I feel safe here.”
“Laurel,” his tone was so soft that it almost sounded like a broken whisper.
“Please don’t,” I said and wiped away the tears that were streaming down my cheeks. “I was kind of a bitch to you. I want to be sorry, and maybe I was, but right now… I’m so hurt and confused that I can’t decide how I feel.”
I turned to him then. I shouldn’t have because the look on his face made it impossible to hold any kind of ill will towards him. But I did sort of blame this whole thing on him. I wasn’t sure what that guy’s deal was but he obviously had taken me because of Bryan. Or at least because of his connection to the club.
And the words that he had said still rattled around in my head. That one word, in particular, seemed to ring out louder than everything else.
