Brock: A Bad Boy Romance (7 page)

“Yes. Are you going to yell at me?”

“What?” She shook her head as she tried to regain her composure. “No. I’m not going to yell at you. I just got the article. Literally. I tend to avoid everything these days. Lizzie brought it over.”

“Thanks for the exposure,” Lizzie called from inside the apartment.

His shoulders straightened, and he smiled. “Well, you don’t want to yell at me. So what do you want to do?” he murmured.

“Did you mean it? What you said? Or were you just trying to be nice?”

“I meant every word.”

Gemma took a deep breath. “I felt something that night, Charlie. And I’d like to see where it goes. But I don’t think it’s going to be easy. We both attract way too much attention.”

“I don’t need it to be easy, Gemma,” he said softly. “I just need you to be on board with me.”

“I’m on board,” she said as she smiled. She thought her heart would burst from excitement. He bent down to kiss her, and it felt right. As she wrapped her arms around him, she knew that this was only the beginning. They could forge something truly beautiful together.

She’d started the week broke, depressed, and in the arms of the most notorious rake in the city. And now she was about to give him her heart, and she knew that she’d never look back.

THE END

Desired by the biker

Derrick Jonas slowed down as the figure grew closer in the distance.  It was a nasty night out, hell if he wasn’t trying to get away so badly he wouldn’t even be out on a night like this.  The rain was coming down in folds, as if the skies had opened up and a bucket was being poured down to earth.  Why was this person out on the side of the road on a night like this?  Derrick wasn’t positive until he was almost stopped and about 20 feet from the figure that it was actually a person and not simply a figment of his imagination.

              “What are you doing out here?”  He said, looking at the soaked figure in front of him.  Her hair was long and brown; it was wet, hanging over her eyes.  Derrick looked closer at her, he barely could make out her dark brown eyes, but he saw fear in them.             

              “Hey, are you okay?”  He asked her, walking towards her now that he had parked his bike.

She looked up finally, realizing there was another person with her now.  Derrick saw a small spark of fear in her eyes, and she began to back up.

              “I’m not going to hurt you.  It’s okay.  Come on; let’s get out of this weather.”  He waited to move toward her though. 

It took a few minutes before she seemed to decide he was okay.  But she didn’t move towards him, instead her shoulders slumped in and she began to fall forward.  Derrick moved quickly to make sure she didn’t fall, grabbing her a second before she sunk into the wet floor of the waiting ground.   He picked her up and carried her to his bike. 

              “Look I’m going to need you to hang onto me so you don’t fall off.”  He looked into her eyes, waiting for some kind of response that she understood.  She shook her head, but he wasn’t sure, so instead of putting her behind him, he placed her in front of him.

Derrick started up the bike, hoping that there was some shelter coming up soon.  This girl looked soaked to death, and scared along with it.  There was a little part of his mind screaming out, don’t take her anywhere, leave her there, let whatever will happen, happen.

It was the good guy in him that won out in the end though, the one that had been hidden for many years now.  But there was no way he would be able to continue down the road, leaving this helpless young woman there, without help, or shelter.

As he drove his mind kicked into overdrive, and he began to wonder.  The questions came at him with a force so great; he almost had to yell out for them to stop.  Who is she?  Why is she out there near the forest, on the side of the road?  What is she so scared about?  Too many questions and no time to ask them, at least not right now, maybe later.

He saw the hotel come out of the tapestry of rain as he got a few miles up the road.  Derrick began to pull over and felt the girl tense up a bit.  “I have to stop; it is too dangerous to drive right now.”  The rain had begun to come down even harder in the past few seconds.  Derrick knew his bike well enough, and his skills to know that there was no way that what he was doing was safe.

The girl shook her head in response.  Derrick pulled in and got off the bike, then lifted her, setting her on the ground.  She stood on her own, though a bit precariously.  He wrapped his arm around her slight frame and felt her body tremble. 

              “Come on; let’s get out of the rain and cold.”  He pulled her towards the restaurant that was beside the hotel.  Even though he really wanted a bed and some much needed sleep, he knew this girl would think he was trying to do something bad to her.

The waitress placed them near the back of the restaurant, which was perfect for Derrick.  He loved being out of the way, away from where he could easily be spotted.  When the waitress came back for their order, Derrick got them both some coffee.  The girl looked like she needed something to help warm up her body, and Derrick knew that and the caffeine were something he would be able to handle as well.

              “So you want to tell me what you were doing out there?”  Derrick said looking into the dark brown eyes of his unknown guest.

As she sat there, he studied her more closely.  Her face was nice, but she wasn’t striking, however, there was a strange pull in his body.  Her mouth was small and pleasant; it was also a bit crooked.  There were many contradictions to her.  A mixture of beauty, and something else he couldn’t quite put his finger on.  At least that was the only thing Derrick could compare how she looked. 

Maybe she had been hit in the past, and those were old scars that had healed, leaving a permanent mark on her skin, and her soul.  But Derrick still waited for her to answer, until that point it was all just guesses.

Her voice was so low when she started talking Derrick almost missed it.  Thought it was the music playing from the juke box, or anything else, except her voice.

              “He left me there.  He said he was done with me once and for all, that I would never see him again.”  Tears began to stream down her face.  She stopped talking and just looked as the tears rolled; there was no sound with the tears though. 

Derrick knew that state, it was one where you had cried so much about an event that you had no emotion left, but the tears just wouldn’t stop.  He wished he could hug her, comfort her even, but knew it would be too forward.

Instead Derrick looked down at the table and allowed his mind to float back to the time in his life that had been normal.  It seemed like a lifetime ago, even though it had only been a few years.  Those years he had been happy, living a normal life, one that had him smiling each and every morning he woke up.  He would gladly go back to those days, but they were too far away now. 

It hit him like it did every time he would think back, the pain and anguish was always quick to replace the feeling of happiness he would first feel when he thought back.  Now it was a mixture of shame, anger, grief, depression, and a bit more anger in the mix.

Had he done it differently, would he be where he was right now?  It was part of the overall process of his grieving during this memory.  He thought he had considered every option there was in this situation, but maybe the right one hadn’t come to his mind yet.  So he would scour every recess of his mind to think of the other things that he might have done all those years ago. 

What would he do with that new plan though?  It wasn’t like he could turn back time and go to that one fatal night.  No so why did he do it each and every time?  Derrick often chastised himself about this type of thinking, but he would never change the pattern.  Each time he would do this to himself, each and every step was the same, however, that didn’t mean he ever stopped it.

If he sat long enough he could see her long brown hair flowing behind her as they rode in the car.  She was so beautiful, so much of his heart belonged to her, that after all this time just the memory of her would make it ache.  Tears threatened to escape from his eyes, but he would stop them.  It had been too long; he shouldn’t even waste his time on this.  But he had to do it.

She had turned to smile at him and say something; he had looked over at her too.  Taken his eyes off the road, only for a split second, but that had been long enough.  Derrick tried to turn the memory off, stop it; he didn’t want to see anymore. 

He cleared his mind, and looked up at the girl sitting across from him.  He wondered what her story was, why had this guy simply left her on the side of the road.

Derrick took a deep breath in, trying to stop the memory that was trying to push the way to the front of his mind.  He couldn’t do it right now, there was no way.  He wasn’t ready to live the rest of that night, not right here, not now.  It took him several minutes to compose himself enough that he could look up at her once again.

He looked up and saw her brown eyes, shinning, and staring right at him.  She was studying him, he felt raw and open, like she could see into his inner core.  He felt a blast of quick shame, and looked down to shake his head once again. 

There weren’t many people who would ever see that part of him, in fact he couldn’t think of one.  But he had not been paying attention.  Had wanted to give her the time she needed to think of her pain, relive her past.  Derrick had taken too long in his own past though, and she had finished hers.  After all it was much fresher for her, it had happened recently, today even. 

I know how this feels, Derrick thought to himself.  Maybe I can help her.  But he knew he shouldn’t do it.  Instead he should simply pay for her coffee, give her a few dollars and leave her there.  She would eventually find her way back to wherever she was from.  It really wasn’t his problem, and he should just stay out of it.

But he looked back up at her, and saw the flash of pain in her eyes.  Was it for him or for her?  He wasn’t sure.  But he saw the compassion that also came across her eyes.  It had been so long since he had seen that look.  It made him tingle inside.  The good guy in him won the battle at that very moment.  He wouldn’t be able to walk away and ever live with himself.  It would be too much on what already weighed deeply on his soul.

              “What is your name?”  He asked her.  Finally bringing his mind around enough that he could focus on the reality of what was in front of him.

              “Mackenzie, Mac for short.”  She said.

Derrick studied Mac a bit closer.  He still saw a little bit of fear in her eyes, but not near as much, now that they were inside.    “That’s an odd nickname for a girl.”

              “I grew up with three brothers and they treated me like a boy too.  So needless to say they gave me a boy’s name.  It stuck through the years, and I’m so used to it I never changed it.

              “Why were you out on the road?”  Derrick asked, trying to not push her too quickly. Hoping he could learn enough about her that he would know he was making the right choice.

She looked down for a second, he knew that look, it was the one where you were trying to consider what parts of a story to share, and what to hold back.  He watched her take a deep breath, and look up.  It had been his turn to study, he knew how to read people well, he had always known, but had gotten much better at it in these past years.

              “I wanted too much from him.  He wasn’t willing to give it, he’s a bad man.  He really is, but I thought I could change him.  I should have listened, should have stopped pushing.  But I didn’t learn.  It was too much, too far, and he had enough of me.”  Mac said her eyes glazed over; Derrick was sure she was reliving the event.

              “But why did he leave you on the road?”  Derrick asked. 

              “I told him I wanted to get married.  If he didn’t marry me I was done with him.  I couldn’t do it anymore.”  Mac sighed.

Derrick looked down, anger flooded his body.  “That’s not a reason to leave you in the rain.”

              “He’s not a good man.  I already said that.  I knew it for many months now.  But I thought I could change him.”  Mac stated.  “But I guess it’s true you can’t teach an old dog new tricks.”

              “I’m sorry.  I don’t know what to say.”  Derrick stated honestly.  He was never one who had lied much in the past.  So he found it difficult to know what to say to this young girl right now. 

              Mac began sobbing suddenly.  “I don’t know what I’m going to do.  Where will I go?  I have nothing left.”  She looked down at her hands, which she clinched, open and shut repeatedly.

Derrick took a deep breath in; he wasn’t sure what to do.  He could offer her pass with him on his bike?  But he didn’t need to invite another person into his life.  He did so much better alone.  His life wasn’t something that was normal.  He never stayed in one place for too long.

He looked up at Mac and she was still crying her tears flowing down her cheeks.  It broke his heart to see those tears, even though he didn’t know her.  But she really looked so helpless, so small, so scared at that second.

              “I guess you could go along with me for a bit.  Decide somewhere you want to go and stay there.  That’s really all I can offer.”  Derrick stated, trying to make it sound like a bad decision for her to make.  After all, if she was the one who refused, he wasn’t to blame from there.  He had offered, and she had declined.  That would soothe his soul a bit for the moment.

              “Really, but you don’t know me.”  Mac said, her eyes showing a glimmer of hope.

              “Yes.”  Derrick said slowly.  Wishing he could just take the offer back.  But the truth of the matter was deep inside he was too soft.  Always had been especially when it came to the fairer sex, he was easy to manipulate.

              “I have a little bit of money, so I can pay you some.  If I can go to the bank, I have some more.”  Mac said.  Her eyes seeming to get brighter as she thought about the offer that had come from him, and that she was going to now agree too.

              “That’s fine.”  He said.

              “Where are we going?”  She asked.

              “Honestly I hadn’t thought about yet.  I normally just go until I feel like stopping.”  Derrick answered.

              “Hmm, well that’s okay.”  She said her eyes began to get a wistful look.  One that said she had always dreamed of having this type of adventure.

              “Are you hungry?”  Derrick finally asked.  His stomach had growled to let him know that he hadn’t fed it today.