Saving Della Ray

“Fuck you too,” I said rudely, and turned around to walk away, but he caught my hand and I was pulled roughly towards him.

“Let me go,” I said coldly. I felt so angry and hurt I refused to even look at him.

He shook me like a rag doll until he had forced my gaze to meet his. “Why would you come here?” he asked through gritted teeth. “Do you know how dangerous it is?”

I opened my mouth to speak but no words would come out, especially at the note of intense emotion I heard in his admonishment.

“Get on,” he said, steel in his voice.

I tried to pull away from his grip on me, but he wouldn’t budge.

“I’ll go on my own.”

“Get on,” he repeated more softly.

It instantly weakened me. I didn’t want to be away from him either, so I was at least going to enjoy whatever moments I still had with him until we arrived at my house. When we arrived, I would probably receive vicious instructions to never try to contact him again, but what the hell? I would cross that bridge when I came to it.

I got on, and instantly reveled in his familiar scent. I tightened my hands around his waist. Soon, we were blasting through the county roads. I allowed myself to rest my forehead against his back.

Oh, Bone. Why can’t you be mine?

Soon we arrived at my home and I instantly let him go. The immediate absence of his warmth felt so strangely final, I began to feel nauseous. It made me wonder when my heart had become so invested in him.

Well, constantly obsessing over a man would do that, my mind mocked.

I honestly expected him to zoom off.

Instead, he got off the bike and faced me. “Why did you come to the bar?”

The last thing I wanted to admit was I went because I was worried about him and wanted to see how he was doing, or that I wanted him to get out of that stupid club before, God forbid … it caused his death in the damn upcoming race. “I was curious,” I answered, my chin lifted.

He studied me grimly.

“Your club has been the talk of the town recently. I just wanted to see what it was all about.”

“Never come by again,” he said, and turned to take his leave.

I felt as if my heart was being ripped out of my body. I knew then I would never see him again. I wanted to grab him and tell him not to leave me. I watched in horror as he was about to mount his bike. Soon he would be gone. Forever. Maybe he would even end up getting killed at the big biker race.

“Alright, I will never go there again,” I shouted. “But you owe me.”

He stopped and slowly turned around. “Owe you? Do I owe you?”

“When you needed my help, you came here, and I went with you. Don’t I get anything in return for that?”

His gaze narrowed at me.

I didn’t care, my blood was already fizzing with anxiety. How would my request ever leave my mouth? What kind of emotion was giving me the courage to act this way?

“What do you want?” he asked softly.

I inhaled deeply and locked my gaze with his. Then I opened my mouth and the words I never thought I would ever say to anyone flowed out, “I want what you offered from the very beginning.”

“You want me to fuck you?”

My head jerked back to hear it put so directly. I was wincing inwardly, but folding my arms across my chest with a confidence I didn’t feel, I gave as good as I got. “Just once. After that, we’ll never have anything to do with each other again.”

He went quiet for way too long. I could even almost hear the tick of the watch on my wrist as the seconds went by. The distant sounds of cars zooming past on the major road, two blocks down floated over me, and in the house behind someone must have been cooking fish because I could smell it.

“Okay,” he said suddenly, and walked past me towards the house.

It took a short moment to process what was happening and when I did I ran after him. “Where are you going?” I asked in a panic.

“You have a room, don’t you?” he asked.

My heart wanted to burst out of my chest. “It can’t be here. Definitely not. Nichole and Jess will be back any moment.”

“We’ll be quick,” he said carelessly.

My mouth dropped open. Never had I felt so devalued. So cheap. I swore to myself then that I would hurt him back, somehow. “No thank you,” I said. “I take back my request. You can be on your way now and I hope we never have anything to do with each other again.” I walked away from him and blinking back the tears of rage, I pushed my door open. I was furious with myself and him. I felt like I would explode into pieces from the anger.