Protected

Chapter 20 - Protected

Chapter 20

I felt big warm arms wrap around me. I rolled over in his arms to face him.

"Did you sleep good?" Rory asked.

"Yeah, I slept great." I had. I felt rejuvenated and less stressed than before. The lack of sleep mixed with the overly stressful events of earlier had wreaked havoc on me. I never wanted to sleep without Rory again.

"We have to go to Laurens now. We're going to go swimming. It'll be easier for Josie to practice in the water."

"Okay" I agreed. I snuggled into his chest as I asked "What did you do while I slept?"

"I talked over a few things with Shawn and Jolie."

"Oh. Why did you block me earlier?" I blurted.

He pulled away from me to look down into my eyes. "I didn't want you to know how scared I was. You don't understand how  it feels to know you won't be able to protect the person you love more than anything especially when it was the reason you were put on this earth in the first place." He sighed heavily.

I had made him upset and that wasn't my intention. I wrapped my arms around his neck. "I know you will always protect me no matter what. You make me feel so safe." I started to kiss across his chin. His body relaxed as I moved closer to him. I had so many people, strong people on my side. What was there to be scared of. I know that no one would intentionally let me be hurt, especially Rory.

"We have to go" he whispered into my hair.

I nodded my head letting him pull me up out of his bed.  Excitement started to take over. I wanted to see what the twins were able to do and also share what I could do with them.

We all climbed into Rory's truck. He didn't try to lose any followers this time. He had to park in front of Laurens house so they would know that's where we were. Rory parked behind Matt's car and I let everyone in through the front door.

We followed the sound of voices into the dining room. Matt, Josie, and Rob were sitting at the table while Lauren was grabbing drinks from the kitchen. I went in to help her.

"What's Rob doing here?" I whispered to her.

"I'm not sure. I think Matt was too chicken to come by himself."

"Oh" I laughed a bit before taking the stack of cups from her hands and a bag of pretzels over to the table where everyone was sitting.

Rory pulled me down onto his lap before turning to Rob. "Rob, can we trust you?" There seemed to be an edge of malice in his voice.

We all turned to look at Rob. He threw a quick grin in Josie's direction. What was that about? He then glanced at me quickly before settling his gaze on Rory. "Yeah, of course."