something or someone. His other arm was still holding me, and I knew if I were not near he’d be doing what he could to tame the wild himself.
So without thinking, I attempted to back away, and as I spun outward, I immediately regretted my movements. Something unforgiven collided with the right side of my face and things went dark for a few seconds. Lifting my hand to cover the now throbbing spot on my cheek, I heard the muffled sounds of my name.
“Ruby.” His voice was angry. “Back the fuck off!” I knew he wasn’t talking to me.
“Oh my God!” A shrilling squeal made me squint and my head throb. “What the hell happened to her?” It was all happening so fast.
I was lifted and carried off. I knew who held me just by smelling the intoxicating cologne. I curled in tighter and allowed him to rescue me as a sick feeling began to pool in my stomach.
Bile rose in my throat, and even though I tried like crazy to fight it, it was unstoppable.
Covering my mouth, I looked around for a place to hide, but I was in the middle of a bedroom with no escape. Darcy and Jay, as well as a guy I didn’t recognize, hovered over me. It was coming and fast.
“She’s gonna throw up.”
No, I’m not. I refuse to have this be the memory of the night I met him.
***
I felt horrible, and I’d barely drank a thing. My head honestly pounded, as did my face. “Oh.” My face hurt so bad. I tried to open my eyes, but the right one wouldn’t budge.
Lifting my hand upward, the second it touched my cheek I cried out in pain.
“Wait!” Darcy hurried in closer and I noticed the ice pack she was holding. “Here.”
“You say this was an accident.” Once again I tried to open my right eye and when I still had no success, I swiveled around and found I was face to face with Vera. “Oh sweetheart,” she offered me a sympathetic look. I knew then that I wasn’t going to like what I saw.
I remembered the night, feeling bored and needing some fresh air. I remembered sitting on the front porch listening to the party going on inside as I remained in the quiet of the darkened front porch. Then I remember hearing someone approaching and looking up to find a very attractive guy sitting down on a bench only a few feet away from me.
His smile was one I knew I will never forget.
“Jay,” I whispered before I could stop myself.
“Yeah.” I heard the humor in Darcy’s voice and understood that the good memory that I’d just had was about to be darkened by something I’d only wish to forget. “Jay Grady, and you ralphed on his bed.”
Hanging my head, I wished with everything inside of me that this was nothing but a horrible nightmare.
“This Jay person hit her?” Vera’s voice was fierce.
“No way!” The two of them carried on next to me while I fought the mortifying rage of embarrassment battling inside of me. “He was so sweet with her, no way did he hurt her. However he did punch the guy that hit her. Granted it was an accident, but he didn’t care. He looked furious.”
“What?” Just speaking made my head throb. “He what?” Pushing past the pain, I needed her to repeat herself.
“I said Jay Grady punched some guy for you. It was very heroic.” She wagged her brows. Had my face not hurt unbelievably bad, I would have smiled. “Even when you puked on his bed he didn’t flinch. Who’d have guessed he had it in him? He’s normally so quiet and standoffish. But not last night. He was ready to kill someone after you got yourself in between the two guys that were fighting.”
“Why would you do that?” Vera truly needed to bring her high-pitched mother tone down a few notches. She was killing me slowly.
“It was an accident.” Believe me, I would have never inflicted this pain on myself intentionally.
“You look like you’ve been in a cage fight with a gorilla. What is your father going to think?” And there it was, the worst part of it all. This pain, it was nothing compared to the mess I’d endure the second I had to face my father. What would I say?
Chapter Seventeen
Jay
“How’s the hand?” Isaac chuckled as he sat down on the couch next to me.
I flexed my fingers and stared down at my cracked knuckles.