Magnetic (New Adult Contemporary Romance) (8 page)

He leaned back on the couch, stretching out his long legs
in front of him, crossing them at his ankles. He laced his fingers behind his head, and with a voice seeped with disdain he replied, “No, I think I’ll stay a little longer.”

Samantha looked around for anything she could use against him. The only thing n
ear her was the flowers. She reached for the pitcher full of flowers and water and poured it all over him.

“
You
BITCH!
” he shouted as he jumped up wiping the flowers to the floor and wringing out the front of his shirt.

“
Leave!” Samantha demanded, her arm pointing at the front door.

“
Like hell I will, I belong with you. I’m never leaving you again.”

“
We will N-E-V-E-R be together Mark, accept that.”

“
I’m not accepting that. You are mine, Samantha.” He walked over and reached for her, grabbing her arm and twisting it behind her.

Samantha still had a
hold of the pitcher that the flowers had been in, and with her free hand she swung it around and offered him a blow to his head. It did nothing but anger him.

He ripped the pitcher from her hand, threw it to the f
loor, and grabbed that hand too. “Oh, you want to play dirty. I love it when my girl’s struggle, it adds to the chase.”

“
Let go of me, this instant!” Samantha struggled against him, but he was too strong. He drug her over to the couch and threw her down on it.

“
That’s where you should be, sprawled out beneath me.” He raised a leg over and straddled her on the couch. His left hand pinned her arms above her head while his right groped and squeezed her breast.

Samantha kicked her legs, trying to knee Mark in
the back. She screamed, and thrashed every which way to get him off of her. It was no use, he was too strong.

She was yelling with all her might for help when he raised his hand to strike her.

She squeezed her eyes shut, tight; waiting for the strike, but it didn’t come. Instead, the weight of Mark was violently torn from her body. When she opened her eyes, Darren had Mark by the front of his shirt, and his balled fist was mid swing. A moment later, Darren’s fist found purchase on Mark’s face.

“
You son-of-a-bitch!” Mark yelled at Darren. “How in the hell did you get here?” Confusion was spread over his face.

“
Get out!” Darren yelled.

“
No way, I’m here with Samantha.”

Darren wasn
’t there for small talk; he balled his fist and punched Mark again, this time sending the bastard to the floor unconscious.

Having Mark show up had been a possibility. Hell, it was the whole reason Darren had come to stay at her place, but truth be told, she never, not in a thousand years, expected him to come.

Her knees were knocking as she tried to stand up from the couch. Wrapping her arms around herself she tried to rub the
goosebumps off her arms. Until today, she had never felt real fear.

She could hear talking
coming from somewhere in the room around her, but she couldn’t focus on the voice, instead she was swimming through a sea of mist and fog, unable to hold her bearings.

“
Samantha look at me. Come on beautiful, snap out of it.”

She moved her head from side
to side, but still she couldn’t pull out of her fog.

“
Samantha,” Darren yelled close to her face. Nothing.

He reached out and took both of her shoulders in his strong hands and shook her slightly. “
Samantha, you have to break out of this. Samantha!”

Fear
was welling up inside of Darren. When he stepped out of his jeep carrying the hot-chocolate, and climbed the steps to her apartment, he heard her screaming. Not knowing what was going on he rushed to her door and threw it open. When he saw her on the couch underneath that monster, he had dropped the drinks in his mad dash to save her. This was worse than at the planetarium. There, he had been in control, but now he was acting on fear and impulse.

Now he feared for Samantha too. He didn
’t know what else to do; he couldn’t get her to break out of her cloud of fear. Leaning in he wrapped her in his arm, and with all the affection he could muster, he kissed her trembling lips.

At first she
didn’t respond, he was tempted to pull away, but something told him to wait. He kissed her again, this time parting her lips and teasing her tongue with his own.

The sensation of his silken tongue against her
’s guided Samantha through the gray haze and dropped her on the doorstep of reality. This was real. Darren’s kisses were real.

Samantha was desperate for his kisses. Once his tongue sought out hers, and she tasted the sweetness of his mouth it was as if she was a dying woman, just offered a refreshing glass of water. She
couldn’t get enough. She drank him in, gasping under his kisses, unable to get her fill. His relief and desire matched her’s. He wasn’t just kissing her, he was consuming her. His touch was fire and ice against her skin as he slipped his hands under her shirt and let them rest on the bare skin of her lower back.

He kissed her long and hard, then he stopped and traced kisses along her jaw, eyes, nose, cheeks, and ears before returning to her lips for one last kiss before pulling away and looking into her eyes.

“Oh God, don’t you ever scare me like that again,” he said as he tightened his embrace and settled his forehead against her’s. Tears were streaming down her face, and he reached up to wipe them off with his thumb.

“
I was so scared. Darren, I could hear you, but I couldn’t get to you. I couldn’t speak. I couldn’t do anything. I was trapped.”

“
It’s alright now, I have you. You’re safe with me.”

“
Darren, what are we going to do with him?” Samantha pointed to Mark who was beginning to stir on the floor. Darren sat holding her while he thought. She could tell when he had an idea because a light, of sorts, came on in his eyes.

“
I’ve got it, put your shoes on, and come with me.”

Darren picked Mark up and placed him across the back of his shoulders. Samantha opened the door for him as he carried him out of the a
partment and down the stairs. Dr. Black came out as they were walking him down the driveway towards the road.

“
What’s all this about?” Dr. Black demanded to know when he saw Darren carrying Mark, still unconscious.

“
Good evening Derek, sir, Dr. Black,” she stuttered, unsure what to call him in this situation, “um, well …”

“
It’s like this,” Darren interrupted. “Samantha went on a date with this ass-hole. I happened upon them on campus and helped her out. I brought her home and then when I ran out to the cafe’ for some drinks, this douche shows up at her house and tries to take advantage of her, again. What happened is, I beat the living hell out of him, and now I’m going to dump him in the grass next to his car and let him pick up the pieces when he wakes up with a splitting headache. Do you have a problem with that?” Darren was upset, and his language wasn’t what he would have generally used in front of one of the campus professors, especially Samantha’s landlord, but he was angry, and Mark was heavy. Every minute they stood there talking was another moment he had to hold the loser.

“
Is he alive?”

“
Yes, he’s alive.”

“
Is he a student on campus?”

Samantha finally spoke up, “
Yes, he’s in one of my lectures.”

“
You, go get rid of him,” he pointed to Darren, “and you come with me. I need some information.” Samantha followed Dr. Black onto the porch of his home, looking over her shoulder as Darren walked past the edge of the property and out of sight, still carrying an unconscious Mark.

Samantha answered Dr. Black
’s questions, and was assured that Mark would be removed from school by Monday morning. He didn’t agree with her decision of not pressing charges, but it wasn’t his job to make her. They were just finishing up when Darren came walking back up the driveway without Mark.

“
Where is he?” Samantha asked as Dr. Black shut the door, and she joined him on the driveway walking back to her apartment.

“
About two blocks that way propped against a tree. He looks like an intoxicated student who lost his way.”

They entered he
r apartment, and for the first time she saw the mess. The pitcher of water and flowers was spilled all over the floor and sofa in the living room, and the two cups of caramel hot-chocolate were all over the kitchen floor.

“
Looks as if we need more hot-chocolate.” She tried to make light of the situation.

“
If we decide to go get it, you’re coming with me. No staying here to take a shower.”

“
Fair enough.”

Both of them worked to clean up the mess, and within a few minutes you
could hardly tell anything had taken place except for the wet ground and sofa.

Darren sat on the end of the couch that wasn’t wet while Samantha lay upon her stomach at the end of her bed. It was well past mid-night and the evening’s activities had made both of them tired. Samantha yawned and Darren matched it.

“
Don’t do that, don’t you know that yawning is contagious?”

“
No, I didn’t know that. Is there scientific evidence to back that up, or are you just reiterating some old wives tale your mother used to tell you?” Samantha chided.

“
Oh I think there’s scientific proof,” he quipped. She yawned again, and a moment later he followed. Both of them laughed at the absurdity of the situation and their conversation.

“
Go ahead and get some sleep. It’s been a long night. We can talk in the morning.”

“
What about you, is that couch still wet?”

“
It’s not too bad, I’ll just lay down a blanket underneath, it should be fine.”

“
Alright then, I think I’ll try to get some sleep. I am quite tired.”

“
Great! If it’s alright with you, I’d like to use your bathroom for a shower and stuff.”

“
Help yourself,” she said as she crawled towards the top of her bed, pulled back the pink comforter, and climbed between the crisp, cool, cotton sheets.

Darren picked up his bag and went into the bathroom, closing the flimsy curtain against her darkened apartment.

Samantha tried to go to sleep, but the silhouette of his naked body as he took a shower and then brushed his teeth was tantalizing. She desperately wanted to step into the bathroom and join him in the steamy shower. Lather soap across his back and chest. Just thinking about it made her temperature rise. She moved her feet around in bed trying to find a cool spot against the sheets.

Reaching under the covers she removed her yoga pants and threw them on the floor right by her bed; she would need them in the morning
. The reduced clothing did little to alleviate the fire in her blood.

The smell of his soap drifted through the room, Samantha inhaled deeply drinking it in. The smell did nothing to calm her throbbing body.

She heard the water shut off, and Darren pull a towel off the wooden dowel rack, the dowel moving within its encasement and making the distinctive rolling noise. She imagined him drying his body, the cotton caressing every inch of him as it absorbed the water droplets from his freshly cleaned skin. Samantha’s thoughts were doing nothing to reduce her temperature; rather they were igniting a fire of passion within her. She wanted Darren like she had never wanted a man before. She needed Darren; every ounce of her soul screamed it.

The bathroom light went
off, and a moment later Darren stepped beyond the curtain, his body bathed in the moonlight from the large windows. Samantha feigned sleep, but watched him move about the room through the crack of her eyes. His back was exposed, just a pair of basketball shorts hanging low on his hips. The muscles of his back rippled as he moved his bags and spread some blankets on the couch.

He looked over his shoulder at Samantha, his eyes intent on the shape of her body on the bed. She looked small amongst the blankets.
He looked to the floor and smiled noticing her yoga pants, a clear indication that she had stripped them off. Darren looked at her calm, serene face. She looked at ease, so beautiful. In one fluid, unexpected motion, he dropped his basketball shorts to the ground and climbed between the blankets on the couch. He leaned up on his arm and watched Samantha for a moment, then in a whisper he asked, “Samantha are you awake?”

She didn
’t answer, she couldn’t.

Seeing him remove his shorts and stand in front of her,
albeit across the room, in his boxer briefs had taken her breath away. She had been afraid that he had heard her sharp intake of breath when she finally convinced her body to breath. Darren asking if she was still awake confirmed it. She couldn’t answer, not right now, her emotions were too raw.

Samantha and Darren lay in their own beds, listening to the breathing of the other. Darren could tell when she finally fell asleep, her breathing becoming soft and steady. He lay awake another hour listening to her
. Just as his mind was giving up the fight to resist sleep, he was jarred awake by Samantha.

“
No, no, get away from me. Don’t touch me. Get out of my house.” She was thrashing on her bed, her speech slurred through her dreams, but clear enough for him to understand.

“
Samantha!” he called, but there was no answer except her continued distress.

“
I told you no. I asked you to leave. Get your hands off of me.” Her head rolled around on her pillow, her arms flailing as if she was pushing someone away. “You’re hurting me, get off. Help!” she screamed into the night.

Crawling out of his blankets he stood and rushed to her side, kneeling on the bed beside her he reached for her head with one hand, and her hand with the other. Her head was thrashing back and forth
across her pillow. Her skin was hot to the touch, and he could feel her pulse racing with fear.

“
Shh Samantha, I am here. Darren is here. Everything is alright.” She calmed as he whispered the words into her ear. He was devastated that she had been hurt that her fear was being manifested in the most intimate thoughts of her dreams.

He sat on the floor next to her bed for a full ten minutes until he was sure she had been calmed and returned to the depths of her dreams in peace. Returning to his makeshift bed
on the couch he fought the anguish of his own dream, and he relived the evening’s event with Mark in her apartment over and over again.

When he woke up the next time he was unsure if his own nightmare had been the culprit or her
’s, but soon he realized it was Samantha’s. Again she was thrashing in her bed, the covers strewn in a mess across the bed and floor. Her temperature had spiked again, yet her hands were cold and clammy.

“
Samantha, be still, you’re safe. Shh I am here. It’s me Darren, I am here to protect you.” He was again at her bedside holding her hand and trying to give her the comfort that she needed. No matter what he said, he could not calm her. She continued to yell out for help, continued to jerk. He was at a loss for ideas.

Climbing into b
ed beside her, he wrapped her in his arms and cocooned her in a loving embrace. He kissed her forehead and whispered words of love into her ear. He positioned her head so that it lay upon his chest, her ear able to hear the quiet steady beat of his heart. It took a few minutes, but soon her thrashing stopped, and she nestled deeper into his arms. Her breathing steadied to match his, her heart began to beat in sync with his own.