Perfection (Neighbor from Hell 2)

"You're banned," the man informed him as if he really gave a damn.

With a curt nod he continued out the door, dragging Zoe with him. He wanted to go back in there and beat the shit out of the man until he passed out and then do it again when the son of a bitch came to.

"Trevor? Please slow down," Zoe said, sounding out of breath.

Instead of slowing down he scooped her up in his arms and headed towards his truck at the same clipped pace. There was no way he could slow down right now because if he did he really wasn't sure what he would do at the moment and actually scared him.

**********

"Give me the keys, Zoe," Trevor said in a deceptively calm voice, but she wasn't buying it.

She'd honestly never seen anyone look so livid before in her life and with her big mouth she'd pissed off a lot of people. If she hadn't seen him in action not five minutes ago she would think she was overreacting, but she had seen him and there was no way she was letting him get behind the wheel of a truck while he was acting like this.

"No," she said, shaking her head firmly as she backed up tightly against the passenger door in the truck's cab. "I'll drive," she offered, hoping that he'd take her up on her offer so that they could go home and calm down.

"I'm fine, Zoe. Give me my keys," he bit out as he reached over to snag the keys away from her, but before he could grab them she moved her hand behind her back to get them out of his reach.

"Let me drive so that you can calm down," she said, looking around the almost pitch black parking lot and wishing there was someone around to talk some sense into him.

"I don't need to calm down, Zoe, I just need my goddamn keys so I can bring you home," he said, moving closer to her and she was half thinking about opening her door and making a run for it so she could call Jason or Jared and have them come deal with him, because honestly she was not in the mood to deal with this tonight.

"I-" she opened her mouth to let him know that once they got home he was either going to give her the key to her apartment or she was going to break the door down when he cut her off.

"And when we get home, Zoe, I swear I'm going to spank your ass for all the bullshit you put me through tonight," he said, startling her.

"What the hell did I do? If anyone here has any right to be mad here it's me," she snapped.

"No, sweetheart, I believe that would be me," he said, moving until he was close enough to reach behind her and gently yank the keys away from her without hurting her.

Knowing it was useless to argue anymore, especially since he did seem more in control right now, except for that little muscle throbbing just above his jaw and the tight grip that he had on the steering wheel, she pulled her seatbelt on.

"Why exactly do you think you're entitled to be pissed at me?" she asked, twisting in her seat to glare at him and silently daring him to say something that would get his shin kicked, hard.

Had he been ignored all night? Had he had a two-hundred and fifty pound man almost sit on top of him? Was he forced to sit there while man after man came and hit on her? Had he-

"Because I told you that I'm in love with you, Zoe, and you gave me the brush off," he said, shocking her more than she would have ever thought possible. "Do you have any idea how many women I've said that to?" he asked, not bothering to look at her as he navigated the back roads home.

"I don't know," she answered quietly.

"Only you, Zoe. I've never said it to another woman, never had to and do you know how it made me feel when you dismissed me the way you did?" he demanded. "Or how it felt to be rejected after I told you that I wanted to spend the rest of my life with you?"

He didn't give her a chance to speak and that was probably for the best since he'd left her speechless.

"I love you, Zoe, and I want to spend the rest of my life with you and I swear if you tell me some bullshit like it's only because of the baby I will pull this truck over and give you the spanking you have coming," he said, making her eyes tear up, not because she actually thought he'd hurt her, he wouldn't, but because he made her feel loved.

No one ever took care of her before the way he did, or looked after her or just made her smile. The few times she'd had a boyfriend none of them ever defended her the way he did. Most of them simply ignored it or dumped her.

As difficult as it had been the first time she trusted Trevor, she realized she was going to have to do it again and risk her heart, because she knew there would never be another man that made her feel the way he did or loved her as much as she hoped he loved her.

"At this point I don't know what the hell to say or do to show you how much you mean to me. I tell you I love you and you play it off. I tell you I want to buy you a house where we can raise our family and you ignore it. I know tonight was not the best first date, but you know what?" he asked, pulling onto their street. "I don't care if no one knew we were together for the last couple of months and I could care even less if they have a problem with it."

He pulled into their driveway and threw the truck in park and killed the engine, but he didn't make a move to leave. "I don't care what I have to do, Zoe. I'm not letting you go. I've f**ked up big time and I'm sorry, but there's nothing I can do to change the past. I won't sit here and lie to you and tell you that I'll never screw up again because we both know that I will, but I will never hurt you on purpose, Zoe. You have to know that."

Trevor sighed heavily as he rubbed his hands down his face. "I'm not going to push you tonight, Zoe, but you need to understand that I'm not letting you go. Not now, not ever. I'll let you return to your apartment if that's really what you want, but you should know that if you move out I'll just buy the building or the one next to it and if you quit your job and go somewhere else I'll just follow you there, too," he said calmly, which was a little freaky, she had to admit.

"Oh my god, are you talking about stalking me?" she asked, trying not to smile. It was really sweet in a Bradford kind of way.

"Yes, but if it comes before a judge we'll just call it a little misunderstanding," he said with a shrug.

"And you really think the judge will buy that?" she asked, reaching for her door because she was exhausted and even though she was trusting him not to break her heart, she still needed a little more time to adjust to this and figure a few things out.

"Probably, they bought it the last few times so I have no doubt they'll buy it this time."

She was about to ask what he was talking about, but then decided it that it was probably for the best that she didn't know.