Stalking the Dancer || 18+

Part Ten - Pinky Promise

"So he's high out of his mind, convinced that the nurse is his little sister, and he wouldn't stop yelling at her about stealing his applesauce. Applesauce, of all the things to be angry over!" Rome's laughter fills the living room as he recounts the last time I went to the emergency room. "The bastard had a kitchen knife in his shoulder and he was worried about missing his snack time!" The others do a shit job at holding straight faces, my idiot friends love to joke. The only laughter that isn't grating my brain is the sweet sound emanating from the little Doe beside me.

"Alright, that's enough." 

My Doe blesses me with her humored eyes, they sparkle with something I haven't seen in her before. I can't place it, but I damn sure like it. "C'mon, I need to know how you got stabbed in the first place!" She pleads before biting her hamburger like this is the most normal weekend activity. Well, it is for me and the guys. We usually spend our Saturdays watching football and cooking food. Every other Saturday of the year I'm more than fuckin' peachy to work on the weekends, but football season is my exception. I haven't been able to focus on the games today because a feisty little woman has drawn me in like a moth to a flame. "Smoked the wrong joint at a party I wasn't invited to." I shrug a shoulder at her, hoping to end it there. She wouldn't be my Dorothy if she let it go that easily, "Why did that warrant a stabbing?"

I grab her sweet little face in my hand, squeezing just enough to see her cheeks dimple around my fingers, "All I'm gonna tell ya is it was the first and last time I tried angel dust. I wasn't a very good guest after that." Her eyes go wide, but the fear I dread doesn't flood them like before. Like when I had her against the wall on my thigh.

She looks amused and for some reason, it irritates me, so I let go of her face and turn back to my food. "Oh," she drawls, ", you deserved the stabbing."

"Depends on who you ask," her eyes flit around the room to the nodding heads of the men who witnessed my shitfaced antics that night, ", hurt like a bitch either way." She can't stop herself from giggling, though it doesn't last nearly long enough to satisfy my need for her. 

"So, Dorothy, do you think you're ready to tell us why the hell you're so chill about all this?" Lee hasn't said a word since the food came out, he's been stuffing his face for thirty minutes straight. I should wring his neck for even bringing it up and ruining her good mood, but as she sits her hamburger back on her plate and wipes her hands on her napkin I can't help but wonder what she's going to say. She's avoided, she's lashed out, but she's never answered me when I've asked her the same thing. Which is why it's surprising when she looks up from her lap and shrugs her shoulders, "I dunno."

It's simple and honest but it's not enough. "Are you in shock?" Lee puts his empty plate on the side table and leans forward to rest his elbows on his knees as he waits for her response, he's putting on the big brother act pretty thick for my taste but I keep it to myself. 

"Would I know if I was?" She bites out. I feel her take a deep breath beside me before she tries again, "I'm sorry, okay? I don't know what's going on. My entire life has ended and now I'm stuck here with a bunch of enormous men questioning my every move!" She's yelling by the end and I grab her plate from her thighs a split second before she stands from the couch, directing her fury toward Lee.

She's beautiful, fucking divine. Her hair hangs around her shoulders, and her new side shave is on display. She's losing her ever-loving mind, coming thoroughly unglued as she shouts across the room, releasing some of the pent-up anger building inside her tiny body. Good, she needs this release. Her skin is flushed and her volume builds alongside her anger. I wish I could bottle this moment to look back on later, but my memory will have to do. I've seen her get this look before and if I'm right, she's about to start throwing shit. While that would be helpful for her, I think we've given Ray enough stress this week without breaking his television.

"Little Doe," 

Well, that may have been the wrong thing to say. She directs her anger toward me, "Don't call me that, you brick wall with eyes!" The laughs scattered around the room were a hum in the back of my mind, my girl is all I can focus on as I stand from my seat. I'm not a small man, she's right about that. I tower over her and that doesn't deter her verbal assault a single bit. She's still yelling when I bend down and ram a shoulder into her gut. "Wait- hey- put me down!" 

Her legs kick out frantically in an inept attempt to get free but I remedy that with a sharp palm to her ass. I'm headed up the stairs before she can start to shout again but about halfway up her protests start up again. I don't stop until we're in my room with the door closed behind us. 

"Billy, put me down!" Careful what you ask for, doll. 

I toss her onto the mattress and watch her bounce before falling on top of her so she won't have the chance to scramble away. I can see her so much better from this angle. Freckles are smattered across her cheeks in perfect constellations and the blush that reddens her face makes my cock twitch. I can't help but wonder what those pouty lips will look like stretched around me. I push my way between her thighs and her long legs wrap around me like it's instinctual. 

I can hardly keep my eyes from rolling back in my head as she writhes against me in a half-assed attempt to get free. If she wanted me off of her she'd be giving me a lot more hell than the cute little fit she's having underneath me right now. Thoughts of claiming her mouth cloud my mind and I think I've lost control to the other side for a second. I have to distract myself before I take her for myself, for good. 

"You okay?" Her quiet voice almost doesn't penetrate my growing intrusive thoughts, but somehow it does. She's asking if I'm okay; she cares if I'm not. That's a step forward that I hadn't expected us to take for a while longer. "Yeah, I'm okay." She stills and stares up at me with her deep, defiant eyes. I can't believe how perfect this woman is for me, but now I need to get her to see it, too. 

"I should be askin' you that, fighter. What happened down there?"

"What the hell kind of question is that? You and your buddies kidnapped me, remember that?" I try to hide my instinctive cringe at her words. We've all been wondering why she wasn't breaking down or freaking out when she's been doing it internally the entire time. 

"Yeah, I remember." I can't help the sigh that escapes my lungs, but I don't move an inch. "I'd do it all over again if I had to," her green eyes go wide before they flash with rage, "because you need me."

"I do not need you." Her words were laced with poison but I ate them up anyway. I feel the corners of my lips tug up, her determination is such a goddamn turn on and I can't hide it for shit. "Sure you do, baby. We're the same, you and me. Both lost in a life we never imagined for ourselves," Her face scrunches in confusion, I'd do anything to see into her head right now. I don't know if she'll ever tell me what she's truly thinking, but I'll take whatever I can get for as long as she'll give it. 

"We are not the same," I don't let her get far before I interject. "Why not? We live in different worlds, I know that, but you can't deny the connection between us. Our lives fell apart and we dealt with it like survivors, hell, you're still surviving it as we speak."

"Surviving what, you?" I can't help but laugh at her fiery comeback. She's a very strong woman for standing up to me and I need her to know it. "Something like that, yeah." 

We stare at each other for a moment longer before I feel her body go rigid under mine, so I move off of her, laying beside her before asking, "What're you thinking, Doe?" 

Her cheeks flush pink as her eyes roam my face, I can see the gears working in her head and I wish she would hand over her worries so that I could snuff them out. 

"Will you ever let me go?" Her breaths come shaky and quick, she doesn't try to hide it. I know the truth will scare her away, she's nowhere near prepared to know the reality of her situation. She needs more time, so I lie my ass off, "Maybe when you're healed up." I tuck a stray piece of hair behind her ear in a weak attempt to distract myself. One thing at a time and first things first, I need her to be on her feet again. We'll figure out the rest as we go.

But then she does something so innocent and sweet that my breath hitches in my throat. Between us, she holds her pinky finger out to me, patiently waiting. I find her eyes and they're staring back at me, eyebrows raised. I will my hand not to shake as I lift it from the mattress to meet hers.

A pinky promise.