Touch Me (You & Me 2)

“What are you doing here? These people know me,” she lied.

“I don’t give a fuck about these people, Katherine. If you want to shout out, I’ll slap you in front of every single one of them,” he threatened, his voice too loud for comfort.

She could see heads turning to find the source of the outburst, and she grew still more embarrassed as time went on. There was nothing she could do to get out of there fast enough. Glancing over her shoulder, she peeked at the doors once again, praying Ben wouldn’t come looking for her.

“What do you want, Tim?” Katherine asked, looking up into his eyes, which appeared to soften for a second as he looked down at her.

“We need to talk, Katherine,” he said, taking one slow step towards her. She matched his move with a step of her own in the opposite direction, maintaining the distance between them as she turned her back to the door.

“Talk about what?” She tried to stall, knowing there was nothing the two had to discuss.

Tim wasn’t interested in talking, and he definitely wasn’t going to listen to anything Katherine had to say. He wanted her to obey him, and he had come to collect on what he felt she had taken from him. She knew he wasn’t making empty threats about hitting her, or humiliating her in front of everyone. Tim had always got a big kick out of shaming her.

Feeling trapped, Katherine didn’t move the next time Tim took a step closer. Satisfied with her submission, he wrapped his fingers tightly around her bicep, squeezing the small muscle with ease. Katherine took a deep breath, unsure of what the future held, but certain she would find a way to survive.

Chapter Two

Ben

“WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT?” Will asked, turning towards the exit of the gala. His charity event was going perfectly until that man had barged into the party screaming from across the room.

Thankfully, Will’s awesome staff had quickly diverted the guests from the outburst by kicking up the bass from the band. The party had moved so swiftly, hardly anyone in the conference room was thinking about the brief chaotic moment by now.

“I don’t know—” Ben answered, his words fading as he watched the front doors, waiting for some sort of explanation.

“She knew who he was,” Rachel noted, her face twisted quizzically, like she was trying to figure out a puzzle. Ben paused, watching the wheels turn in the minds of his two oldest friend, as they tried to help him make sense of the night.

Rachel had been as excited as he was when he’d decided to bring Katherine to the charity event. And after Ben had played the matchmaker, getting Rachel and Will together after years of harmless flirting, Rachel was happy to have Katherine there to add balance to the group.

“She look frightened,” Ben mentioned, recalling the look of fear in Katherine’s eyes when he had followed her from the bathroom.

He had watched her spot the man who had caught his attention. Ben could just sense there was something wrong about the large man storming through the party, well before Katherine had seen him. He didn’t fit in with the rest of the party, his overly muscular frame more reminiscent of jocks, while the gala featured some of the most intelligent minds in the tech industry, typically known more as nerds. Momentary distracted by memories of high school and college, where people tended to be lumped into categories like jocks and nerds, he shook his head.

“I’m going to check on her,” Ben dec

lared.

“I don’t know if that’s a good idea,” Will said with a frown, while thinking of his friend’s temper and the way he used to get riled up in college. Will and Ben had been friends since they shared a dorm room their freshman year of college, and he knew how aggressive Ben could be when he felt challenged.

Most people only knew Ben’s easy going and laid-back side, because with his career taking up the bulk of his life, he rarely had time for anything else. In business, there was never a reason to get emotional, or at least that was the way that Ben saw it. He was always a fun boss because he never let his business become personal.

Now, with Katherine all but being dragged out of the party, he felt his heart strings being tugged as he struggled with the urge to rush to her defense. Able to see the superhero coming to life in the eyes of his friend, Will was trying to talk him off the ledge, though he already knew it was a lost cause.

“If she’s in trouble, I want to be there for her,” Ben reasoned, but his mind was already made up.

“Just be careful,” Will added, as Ben made his way around the table and headed for the door.

With each step, he questioned if he was making the right decision. Katherine had been a sorely needed bright spot in his life since he’d met her, but it was always obvious that she was hiding something. From their first encounter, Ben had noticed her timid behavior and now he wondered if he was seeing the explanation.

She had a lot going on, that much he had to admit. But never in his life had he seen a date of his pulled from their evening together, and he wasn’t going to stand for someone treating her that way. Especially not when things were going as great as they were with Katherine. She was the highlight of his night, making his friends laugh and ogle at her stunning beauty.

Wearing his favorite shade of purple, Katherine looked absolutely regal parading through the event with elegance that couldn’t be bought. Ben knew there was more to her story, and he decided that she was worth going the extra mile to get to the bottom of things.

Pushing through the heavy glass doors, he stormed outside the convention center and saw Katherine, the woman who had captivated him over the past week. Gone were the bright eyes he was used to, replaced by fearful pools brimming with the tears that threatened to roll down her reddened cheeks.

Katherine’s shoulders were rounded as she ducked her head with shame, the big figure in front of her yelling as he jabbed his finger so close to Katherine’s face, she flinched.

Before he could stop himself, Ben was jogging down the steps as fast as he could move, placing himself between Katherine and the strange man intent on humiliating her. Ben was eye to eye with the man, though not nearly as bulky as the stranger.