Unbroken SHIFTER'S HEART: EDITING IN PROGRESS

*23. Realization and Fear...

Light flittered through the suddenly dark room. Or maybe it just seemed dark because of what just happened. Realization hit me then, it wasn’t some robbery or other, both the attack and the attackers were real. It was as if I was registering it for the first time. And as strange as it may seem I knew why I hadn’t thought about it as much.

It was because I was focused on other things, like the sexy shifters that were supposedly my mates. As well as the restaurant, but who was I kidding, it was also because I didn’t want to remember it. Because acknowledging it in its own way, brought back the fear and fact that it happened and that it happened to me.

I shivered in revulsion as I thought about it. Memories of hands and claws grasping and scratching flashed through my mind. Was it only a mere few weeks ago that it happened? I asked myself. That I got attacked and was almost raped? I guess that’s why I was so caught up in the Derek/ Garret situation now. Maybe it was because I felt I owed them. I didn’t know and I sat there wondering if they thought the same, maybe that’s why they were pursuing me now.

The sound of my name being repeated brought me back to the present and I looked up, startled. One of the waiters stood in the doorway, startled and looking concerned. Poor kid looked no older than seventeen but he also resembled a familiar face. With his broad shoulders and tall frame he looked to be a grown man, but right then he seemed small.

“Are you ok Ms. Watson?” the boy asked.  I nodded after composing myself and attempting to get up then decided against it since nausea overwhelmed me. He didn’t look assured but he slowly back away after much urging of me being fine.

I got up on shaking legs and made my way to my desk. Revulsion and fear rolled around in my belly and threatened to squeeze the air from my lungs. But I couldn’t fall apart, not yet. When I was alone and in my bed tonight then I could cry. Cry about what happened to me, what I hadn’t given myself time to cry about and everything else that seemed to be happening all at once. And in the morning when I wake up, before I started packing, I could with a clear head on my shoulders and a hot cup of tea, decipher what the hell it was I was doing with Derek and Garret, because if I wasn’t careful I would end up where I was last time. Alone with a broken heart, only this time, it would be different because I had, had a taste of the forbidden.

.......

Derek's POV

I decided to get up when the first rays of sunshine shone through the splits in the drawn curtain and I turned for the up tenth time.

No matter what I did last night, nothing seemed to work. And it was torture, knowing she was home and in bed. He soft limp body  sprawled across the bed, because although Gracie was one of the smallest woman I had ever had the pleasure of touching, she slept like a three hundred pound football player. Sprawling and taking up as much space as possible. Maybe it was because she was used to sleeping alone. The selfish bastard in me rejoiced at the idea even when I knew it wasn’t true. She had, had other lovers, it only seemed fitting considering how thing ended between us and the fact that her ex was here in town.

Besides who could look at her and not want her. She probably had men lining down the block for her. And the funny thing was, she didn’t even know it. She was completely oblivious to the idea of her being a sexy siren. Sure she didn’t broadcast it like some women did. But it seemed she had no knowledge of how she affected those around her.

Whether it be the way she moved when she was waitressing or the sexy swing of her hips while on the dance floor. She managed to coax an erection out of me regardless of time or place. But it wasn’t only me she effected this way and I hated the knowledge that other men were looking at what was mine.