The Right Kind of Love (10 page)

“Really? You are such a player, Damien. Do you always have to have a woman in your bed?” I rolled my eyes at him.

“Yeah, sometimes two, as a matter of fact.” He winked at me, and I felt a little bile rise in my mouth.

“Honestly, I don’t care what you do. To each his own. If that’s what is going to make you happy, then so be it. I honestly don’t even know why you would ask for my opinion. Please just don’t screw up Mags and my friendship. You know I have to work with her every day.” I would step off my soap box for now. I had said my piece.

“You could always join us?”

“You disgust me, Damien. Hell no.” I was done with this conversation. But with the way he set my body ablaze, I could have stayed out there all night and talked to him.

“Well, you can’t blame a guy for trying.” He flipped his cigarette to the ground and then stomped on it.

“Yes, I can. All I ask is that you don’t make too much noise. I have to be at work at nine tomorrow. We have a busy day scheduled.” I started walking toward the door.

“No problem.” He gave me a devilish grin.

Mags was a moaner. Needless to say, I hardly slept a wink that night, and I wish I could say it was just because of the noise.

Damien

“N
o, please stop! Please stop! Wes, you will regret this. No!”

Fuck, Sydney’s cries woke me. I ran my callused hand down my face and rubbed my days’ worth of scruff. Checking the time, I noticed it was the ass crack of dawn. I slid my legs over the side of the bed, grabbed my boxers and pulled them up, and headed to her room. She needed me even if she thought otherwise and I planned to be her rock. I didn’t knock. I just charged in.

Sitting on the bed next to Sydney was unreal. She thrashed around and continued to cry out. I wish that I could take this pain away from her. There was clearly something troubling her, and eventually, I would get behind it. My instinct told me it had to be about this Wes guy. I don’t think it was a simple breakup, either. Perhaps he got violent with her. Something. It was really disturbing, and I wanted to know more.

Nudging Sydney with my hand, I tried to wake her. “Sydney.”

When that didn’t get a response, I tried nudging her again.

Still no response, so I pulled her hair back away from her ear and said soothing things to her
“No don’t touch me, you bastard.”

This time I shook her. “Sydney, wake up, you’re having another nightmare.”

Her eyes slightly fluttered. “Sydney, it’s just a dream. Wake up. Come back to me, baby. Let me make this all right for you.” What the fuck was I saying? I couldn’t make this okay. She obviously had big demons to slay, but the hell if I couldn’t try.

She quickly sat up ramrod straight. Zeus was now on his feet and nuzzling her with his nose.

“Sydney, you’re all right. You’re in our apartment. I won’t hurt you.”

“Wes?”

“No. I’m Damien. Your roommate, remember?” She shook her head and then blinked several times. What the fuck was going on. Why the hell did she not recognize me? This was getting crazier by the second.

“Damien, it was so real this time.” She had a thin layer of sweat all over her body and tears were leaking out slowly from the sides of her eyes.

“It’s all right, baby, there is no one here but me and you. Let me be there for you. I want to help you and make it better. It can just stay between us.” Reaching out to her, I took her into my arms where she laid her head on my chest and silently wept.

I began to rock her back and forth, whispering warm words in her ear to let her know she was safe and that I had her.

She didn’t even try to pull away. She just let me hold her. It felt amazing. Completely and utterly amazing. I actually wanted to be with this woman, not to get myself off, but to be with her. To comfort her when she was upset, take care of her when she was a mess and to take joy in her when her beautiful smile would light up my world.

We sat like that for twenty minutes, and then she pushed herself back from me and looked into my eyes. Her jade eyes penetrated mine. “Thank you so much, Damien. I truly don’t know what I would have done if you weren’t here.”

“Baby, I got you.” I grasped her again and held on to her while she held on for dear life. I could hear her breathing as it became less labored and only assumed she had stopped crying. I placed a gentle kiss on the top of her head and pulled away slightly.

“Do you want me to take Zeus out?” He was now standing by the door pleading for one of us to take him out.

She pulled away and ran her hands through her hair trying to tame the mess that was on her head. “I’ll go with you?”

She said it more as a question and less as a statement.

“Sure, let me go put on some shorts, and I’ll be right back.” I ran across the hall and put on the first pair of shorts I could find. Then I went back to her room where she was standing up and grabbing Zeus’ leash.

“Thanks for coming with me to take him out. I just don’t really want to be alone right now.” She sniffled. I hoped like hell she wasn’t going to start crying again. I couldn’t stand the thought of that beautiful face shedding tears of pain again.

“No problem, I get it.” We walked toward the front door, and I grabbed my smokes off the kitchen counter.

Making our way outside, Zeus quickly went and did his business. He then came back over to me, and he starting jumping up on my legs for me to pick him up. He did this often, and I had to admit the little rat was cute.

“So, Sydney, you want to talk about that nightmare you were having?” I asked with confidence because I knew I could handle anything that she would tell me. She was looking down so I wasn’t able to see her eyes. There was no doubt in my mind that she was contemplating how to answer me.

“Really, it’s no big deal, Damien. It’s just something that happened not too long ago, and I still have nightmares.”

I wondered what happened. If I knew the fuckers full name, I could have my brother, Justice, do a background check on him. Justice was a police officer, but he was up for detective. I couldn’t think of a guy who worked harder or deserved it more. If he lived with Sydney, there would be no doubt in my mind he would know what happened to her. He had such a way of talking to victims. I didn’t know for sure if she was a victim, but there was something deep down that told me she was. Call it a gut feeling or whatever, but I knew it to the depth of my bones.

“I want you to know you can tell me anything. I’m here for you.” She looked at me this time, and I let my eyes hold hers. I wanted her to know that I was serious.

“Thanks, but I’m fine.”

I took a drag off my cigarette and blew it out.

“So you want to stay up or go to bed?” I threw my smoke out into the parking lot not even bothering to put it out. “I got some good sleep, so I’m actually pretty awake.”

“What? No skanks entertaining you in your bed last night?” She took Zeus from my arms and started walking up the stairs, but I could see a slight smile peeking out from behind her hair.

“As a matter of fact, no. I actually took the night off.” I knew this would piss her off, but I had to go there. It was too much fun to piss her off even if some of the stuff were lies. I had pretty much grown to love the banter between us. It kept me on my toes. “Your friend Mags gave me enough to satisfy me for a few nights.”

“Well, I would hope so. You two were up all night going at. Never mind the roommate who was trying to get some shut-eye.” She rolled her wicked eyes at me.

“Oh, come on, now. We weren’t that loud.” I honestly didn’t think we were loud.

“You were loud and she moaned like every fifteen seconds. It was flat out ridiculous. I love her to death but seriously. She needed to put a lid on it.” We walked back into our apartment and she set Zeus down. The way she bent over and her ass curved into the air made my dick grow a little hard. I don’t know how I’ve gone from just wanting a piece of ass to wanting more, but I couldn’t take the chance of ruining our friendship.

It was time for a serious topic change. “Breakfast or bed?”

She looked at me in contemplation. “Bed. But I have a favor to ask.”

A favor? This was getting fucking good. “Yeah?”

She pulled her bottom lip between her teeth and chewed on it for a second. That bottom lip looked delicious and my dick did a little happy dance in my pants. Thank fuck she didn’t look down and notice I had a semi.

“Well, would you mind just sitting with me until I fall asleep again?” She had a pitiful look on her face.

“Sure, but no funny business.”

“Ha ha. Funny Damien.”

I woke up with a start to find myself completely wrapped around Sydney. Her tight little ass was spooned to my front, and I had one arm draped across her. If she found us like this, she would go fucking ape shit crazy. I quickly untangled myself from her and moved to the other side of the bed. It amazed me that we had a huge ass king sized bed, but still had gravitated to one another and entangled together. She was so small and was curled up tightly in her corner. Fuck. It must have been me needing to be closer to her. Even in my sleep, I wanted to be near her. I won’t lie—I liked it. It felt good to feel her tight little body next to mine. I was surprised I wasn’t rock hard. Usually, when I woke up with a chick in my bed, my cock was solid. But there was something about her that was different. I don’t know… I guess
special
.

Special.

Did I actually just admit that?

This little diva drove me fucking crazy with her uptight ways, but there was just something about her and I guess it was
special.

Damn, really? I sound like a pussy. I need to get my shit together.

Sydney started to stir next to me, and I rolled over to face her. She had rolled over too, so we were facing one another.

She opened her eyes and they widened a little. I’m sure she was shocked as hell to see me in her bed. “What the hell, Damien, did you stay in my bed and sleep with me? I told you I just wanted you to stay with me until I fell asleep.”

I could see the stick was firmly in place. “Chill the hell out. Nothing happened. We just slept. I couldn’t help it I feel asleep in here.”

She sat up and then swung her legs off the bed. Zeus hopped down off the bed. “Well, I guess it’s all right. I mean, I did sleep well with you in here so—thank you. I appreciate it.”

Maybe the stick wasn’t wedged as far up there as I thought. “No problem.”

She grabbed her phone and looked at the time. “Geez. It’s noon already. We slept away half of the day.”

Just then, I heard a knock at the door. Sydney looked to me. “I wonder who the fuck that could be.”

“Don’t know, but I’ll go find out.” She hopped off the bed with Zeus in tow and I followed.

She swung open the door, and there stood Justice on the other side. He had a goofy grin on his face no doubt thinking he walked in on one of my sexual trysts. “Hey, little brother. I didn’t mean to interrupt anything. I’ll just see you later at Mom and Dad’s.” He turned on his heel and started for the steps.

“Hey, Justice. Don’t go. We were just getting up. This is my roommate, Sydney Summers.”

Realization seemed to come over him, but Sydney was going to put her two cents in regardless. “Uh, you think me and your brother were you know—? That is so not what is going on in here. I don’t roll that way.”

She opened the door wider and Justice stepped through. He was a big dude at 6’3” and he was fucking ripped. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to assume, Sydney. It’s all good.”

She put her hands on her hips. “It better be all good. I’m not one of his skanky one night stands.”

Time for me to chime in and do some damage control before she really got carried away. “Chill, Sydney. He gets it, okay? We’re not sleeping together. Discussion closed.”

“Fine.” She picked up Zeus and his leash and walked out the front door.

“Damn, bro, you got a firecracker on your hands.” Justice was the type to call ‘em like he saw ‘em.

He had no idea. “You’re telling me. We are constantly fighting. Our relationship is so hot and cold. One minute, were best friends, and then the next, it was war.”

“Better be careful with that one.”

“Yeah, I hear you on that count. So what’s up with you, dude? What brings you by?” I walked over to the coffee maker and started getting it going. I needed my caffeine fix to get control of this day.

“Oh, I was just in the area. I’m headed to get Camden in about an hour.” He had a smile on his face. No doubt, he was a proud father.

“Cool, how is my little nephew?” I walked around him and then opened up the fridge to grab an energy drink. I couldn’t help it—I needed caffeine and stat.

“Same as he was last week when you saw him. He’s finally out of school for the summer. I still can’t believe he’s going to be in second grade next year.”

I motioned to my drink. “You want one, dude?”

“Yeah, sure.” I think he was just as addicted as I was.

I heard the front door creaking open and then Zeus’ little yips. Sydney entered behind him. She walked into the kitchen and looked between Justice and me. “What is this? An energy drink convention? I want one.”

“Sure, babe. Help yourself.”

“Thank you, I appreciate it.” She gave me the first genuine smile I had seen in a few days.

Zeus took that moment to go jump up on Justice. He sure was a friendly little guy and loved attention from people. Justice bent down and picked him up. “Who do we have here?”