3. Ivy
3
IVY
Standing in a plush robe in front of the bathroom mirror, I felt like nothing more than a fool.
The cuts and swelling on my face, the aches in my muscles, and the fear in my bones were all the consequences of my stupid choices. That didn’t include the skin I’d rubbed raw in the shower as I attempted to wash the filth from my body.
What had I been thinking?
As bad as it had been tonight, it could have been so much worse. Then where would I be?
Dead and naked on the side of the road?
And all for the thrill of finding a man, of wanting to be loved.
I shook my head with disgust, thinking it was a pity just how desperate I was. It would be far better to be alone than to risk my safety the way I did tonight, the way I hadn’t realized I’d been doing for a year now.
I was merely lucky it had been Marco who’d walked into this hotel suite tonight. At least I could breathe a little easier knowing he was here. And perhaps I’d made my first intelligent decision in this whole mess when I begged him to stay with me.
Safety.
That’s all that mattered now.
For tonight, I knew Marco could give me that, would be eager to do it.
I tore my attention away from my reflection and reached for the door. Much to my surprise, the moment I pulled it open, Marco was right there. Just like he said he’d be, just like he’d promised.
His eyes roamed over my face, something softening in his features. “Do you feel better?”
My hands gripped the sash on the robe and pulled it tighter. “A little bit.” A touch of unease remained, even though I trusted Marco as completely as I would one of my brothers or my father.
“Good.” He jerked his chin toward the bathroom behind me. “Are your clothes still in there?”
Curiosity washed over me. “Yes.”
“If you want, I can toss them in the washing machine for you. We can get those clean as well.”
“But the dryer isn’t working,” I reminded him.
“I fixed it.”
My head jerked back in surprise. “You did? That was fast.”
His lips twitched. “Yeah, I don’t know about that. I think you were in the shower for a while, so I had the time.”
“Sorry.”
Marco waved a hand in the air dismissively. “I don’t need an apology. As long as you’re feeling better, that’s all that matters to me.”
The more I was in this with him, the more I realized it might have been better it was Marco who was here with me and not one of my brothers. Because while I didn’t doubt that I’d feel safe with any one of them, that they’d all do whatever was necessary to protect me and make me feel safe, Marco brought a level of tranquility I wasn’t quite sure I would have gotten with Wyatt, Cooper, Tate, or even Liam.
Then again, that was just who Marco had always been. For all the years I’d known him, I wasn’t sure I’d ever met anyone else like him. He might have worked closely with Cooper, and they might have been best friends, but they couldn’t have been more different from one another.
Where my brother was generally irritable when it came to work, Marco seemed to never let anything bother him. It was like Cooper did the work because it was necessary; Marco appeared to do it for the challenge and the joy it brought him.
“Considering I don’t plan to leave here in this robe tomorrow morning, I should probably toss my things in the wash,” I reasoned, belatedly realizing he was no longer shirtless. “Wait. Where did you get that shirt?”
“I told you I had a couple of shirts in my truck.”
Hurt slashed through me. He’d left me alone when he promised he wasn’t going to leave. “So, you did leave?”
Marco shook his head and placed a hand on my elbow. “Not at all. I called down to the front desk to ask about the first-aid kit, and when Toby brought it up, I asked him if he’d mind running to my truck to grab the shirts for me. I have another one for you, so we can toss the one I gave you earlier in the wash with your clothes.”
If there was one thing that could be said about Marco, it was that as laidback as he typically was, he still knew how to get things done. “Let me grab the clothes.”
“I can do it for you,” he offered.
As kind as it was, my undergarments were in the pile. I wasn’t going to subject Marco to doing that on top of everything else he was already doing for me. “I appreciate that, but I can do it.”
Once I had the clothes in the washing machine, Marco approached with his spare T-shirt. “Did you want to put this on before I put some ointment on your cuts?”
If the shirt he was offering me now was anything like the one he’d given me when he had been cleaning my face in the bathroom, I could be confident he wasn’t going to get a free show. Marco was a big guy—both in height and bulk.
I took the shirt from him. “That’s probably a good idea.”
When I emerged from the bathroom a second time, this time wearing only Marco’s T-shirt, I made my way to where he was waiting on the edge of the bed with the first-aid kit. I sat down beside him, wondering if perhaps he felt any of the same nerves as I did. It was such an odd feeling, too, because I never felt nervous around Marco. Like my best friend, Ava, Marco had been an honorary member of my family from practically the first time he came around us.
If Marco did feel any sort of tension or anxiety now, he did an excellent job of concealing it, because he turned toward me and kept his eyes focused on the abrasions on my face. And as he applied the ointment to each of the cuts, all I could do was stare up and focus on him, on the things I’d always known were there but never took the time to appreciate. It was far better to focus on that than what could have happened if I hadn’t managed to save myself earlier.
Marco might have been like a member of my family, but if someone had been judging him based on his eyes alone, they might have believed we were blood relatives.
The Westwood family had bright blue eyes, my own shade sapphire. Marco’s were a deeper hue, a stunning midnight blue.
I had thick, dark hair. Marco’s was just as lush, but it was brown, the barest hints of blond peeking out if the light hit it at just the right angle. And he wore it just a bit longer everywhere, the top long enough to comb fingers through, and the back curling around his neck. Marco completed his look with a full beard. It wasn’t long or straggly; he maintained it well. It accentuated his features and made him that much more handsome.
“You’ve got to breathe, Ivy.”
I hadn’t realized I’d stopped. As the flush of embarrassment crept over my skin, I focused on breathing again.
Eventually, Marco lowered his hands from my face and eyed his handiwork. “I think that should do it for now. Does it hurt?”
“It was stinging a bit before, but the ointment seems to be helping with that.”
“And the rest of you? Is there anything else that’s hurting?”
My pride, I thought.
“My muscles feel a bit fatigued, but I guess that’s to be expected. And there are the spots that have significant bruising already from where he grabbed me.”
I’d never known Marco to be an angry guy. He just never took things too seriously. But hearing the account of my injuries made his expression turn stony. His jaw clenched with the fury that swirled in his eyes. I braced myself for that rage to power forth, but Marco held it back. Whatever he was thinking, he didn’t say.
Instead, he asked, “Are you sure you don’t want to go to the hospital?”
I nodded. “I’m sure.”
“How about some ice?”
“Ice?”
He lifted an ice pack out of the first-aid kit and held it between us. “For the bruising. It might help.”
I couldn’t say it would make things better, but Marco was so concerned. I figured it wouldn’t hurt, and if it gave him some peace of mind, there was no harm in it. “Okay. Yeah, maybe that would help.”
Just as he was about to activate the ice pack, a knock came at the door. My body tensed, my eyes going wide. Marco noticed my reaction, placed his hand on my forearm, and offered a reassuring squeeze. “That’s just the food I ordered. You’re okay.”
“Right. Right, I forgot you ordered dinner.”
He stood from the bed. “I’ll be right back.”
After I gave him a nod, Marco took off out of the bedroom and out to the door. I stayed where I was, feeling uneasy about being alone and anxiously waiting for him to return.
I was surprised by just how unsettled I felt knowing that the door was open, and Marco didn’t feel even the least bit concerned about it. Fortunately, he returned quickly, and when he held up the bag of food, the tension eased in my body. “Where would you like to eat? The bed, the table, or the couch?”
“I’m not sure I’ll have the strength to get myself off the couch if we eat there. Do you mind eating in the bed?”
He smiled and crossed the room. “Not at all. Whatever you want is fine by me.”
I scooted back on the king-sized bed, and Marco kicked off his shoes before sitting down on the opposite side. Then he pulled out the food.
“I got a couple of burgers, a chicken sandwich, some fries, onion rings, Caesar salads, and some drinks. You can have whatever you want.”
“Oh, wow. I don’t know what I want. Would you be upset if I cut one of the burgers and a chicken sandwich in half and had half of each?”
“No.”
“Are you sure?”
“Ivy, eat whatever you want. And if you want to have some fries and some onion rings, that’s fine, too,” he insisted.
I smiled at him, beyond grateful to have someone like him in my life. “Thanks. And I’ll pay you back for this, but I need to sort all of that out with my bank tomorrow, since my purse got stolen.”
Marco’s eyes narrowed on me, a clear indication he wasn’t happy about something.
When he didn’t share what had caused the change in him, I asked, “Is something wrong?”
“Don’t insult me, Ivy.”
“I didn’t realize I had. What do you mean?”
“I don’t need you to pay me back for this,” he said, his tone bordering on irritated. “I told you I was going to take care of you tonight. I think I can swing a meal for the both of us.”
I shrank back, feeling embarrassed. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to insinuate anything like that. I just… I don’t want you to have to put out the money for me to eat just because I was so stupid.”
“You’re not stupid. You were attacked. And I think it’s okay for someone to look after you, given what you’ve been through tonight. I’m happy to be that person for you.”
Having stuck my foot in my mouth enough for the evening, I decided not to say anything else. Instead, I reached for the food and accepted it as the nice gesture from Marco that he wanted it to be.
After we both had gotten in a few bites of our meals, I looked up at Marco and said, “This is nice. Thank you for this.”
He smiled at me. “You’re welcome. Make sure you save some room, though.”
I cocked a brow, the move making me wince with pain. “Save room? For what?”
Marco’s smile turned into a full-blown grin as he reached inside the food bag. He lifted out a container and declared, “Dessert. I got you some cheesecake, because I know it’s your favorite.”
My lips parted in shock. I hadn’t hidden the fact I loved cheesecake, but that Marco had remembered and thought enough to get me some warmed my heart. “Boy, you sure do know how to turn a girl’s day around, don’t you?”
He laughed. “I wish it was that easy.”
I couldn’t begin to understand why he thought it wasn’t, and I was too much of a chicken to ask. “Did you get yourself a dessert?”
Marco set the cheesecake down and pulled out one more container. “A brownie. And I don’t mind sharing this with you, either, but you’ll have to make me one promise.”
“What’s that?”
He sent a knowing look my way. “Don’t tell Jules I dared to buy a dessert from someone other than her.”
I burst into a fit of laughter, the sheepish, guilty look on Marco’s face an indication he was terrified of what my sister’s reaction would be.
My only sister, and the youngest of the Westwood siblings, Jules, had always loved baking. She’d graduated from high school the same year I finished college, and she immediately enrolled into an accelerated pastry program. Now, she had her own bakery that Cooper, Marco, and a few of the other guys who worked on their team had built for her on the Westwood’s campus.
Cookies, cakes, breads, and brownies were just a few of her talents, and if she had learned that Marco and I ate a dessert that she could have made for us, she probably would have given us a hard time.
Despite the horror of what I’d gone through not even two full hours ago, I was now laughing. It was all thanks to Marco. He’d taken my mind off what had happened, doing it while making me feel comfortable, safe, and most of all, not alone.
“Your secret is safe with me,” I promised, figuring it was the least I could do for him.
Marco and I spent the next little while eating dinner. Before I dove into the dessert, I got up and switched my clothes over to the dryer.
And once we finished our delicious dessert—though we both agreed it was still not nearly as good as Jules would have made—Marco said, “Okay. Time for your ice and some television. What do you think?”
“That sounds good.”
He grabbed the ice pack, activated it, and held it out to me. I took it from him and peeled the blankets back to crawl beneath them. And when I held the ice pack up to my breasts, my nipples reacting to the cold almost instantly, Marco was enough of a gentleman to not stare. “Got anything special you’d like to watch?”
I shook my head. “You choose?”
Marco moved to the chair a few feet away from the bed and sat down, his attention focused on the television. As he flipped through the channels to find something to put on, I stared at him, wondering what was happening inside his head.
He must have found something interesting, because he looked over and asked, “What about this?”
I didn’t look away to see what show he’d put on. “What are you doing?”
“What do you mean? You told me you wanted me to choose.”
“Yes, but why are you sitting over there?”
He hesitated, his throat bobbing as he took a deep swallow. “I thought you’d want me to stay in the room with you tonight. If you want me to go out and stay on the couch, I can do that.”
“I thought you would stay in the bed with me.”
His expression was filled with a touch of disbelief and a lot of reluctance. “If that’s what you want, I’m happy to do that. I just didn’t want to do anything to traumatize you further.”
“We’re watching television, Marco. I know you’d never hurt me, and if I’m honest, I’d feel better having you close by.”
Marco leaned forward, his arms resting on his thighs, as his eyes roamed over my face. I didn’t know how much time had passed, but it felt like an eternity before he stood and came over to sit beside me in the bed.
I smiled appreciatively at him.
He returned that smile.
Then the two of us settled in and watched some television.
And it wasn’t long before the exhaustion I felt from the evening’s events took over and pulled me under.
MARCO
When I walked into this hotel room tonight and saw Ivy in the state that I had, the thought didn’t cross my mind that I’d be back to feeling content so soon.
But I was mistaken.
It was difficult to feel anything but relaxed when I had this sweet woman asleep beside me with her head resting on my shoulder. Looking down at Ivy, I still couldn’t quite wrap my head around the fact I was here like this with her. I hadn’t expected she’d want me to join her in the bed while we watched television, that she’d be okay with me sleeping next to her tonight.
But just because I hadn’t expected it didn’t mean I wasn’t glad to be precisely where I was, doing exactly what I was doing.
I’d been watching her for the last ten minutes as she slept, trying to come to grips with what happened to her. It became difficult to breathe when I recalled everything she’d recounted about her attack and the terror she still felt.
If I was glad about anything, it was not only that I was here for her, but it was also that she seemed to be coming back to herself the longer I’d been here with her. The tightness eased in my chest when I recalled the way she’d teased and laughed with me during dinner.
I’d seen her laugh hundreds of times over the years, but never once had it impacted me the way it did tonight. That dark, terrified look in her eyes had faded and been replaced by brilliant, shining blue irises. It brightened her whole face—even her long, dark hair had an unmistakable sheen to it.
My eyes roved over her, along the sleek strands of her hair resting on the side of her face, and over her flawless skin, cute nose, and gorgeous lips. She looked so peaceful, and I could only hope whatever dreams she might have been having now were the same.
Though I would have been content to keep her where she was all night, I didn’t want her waking with a kink in her neck. So, I gave myself another minute to savor the moment before I eased her off my shoulder and gently lowered her head to her pillow. I grabbed the ice pack that had since melted and tossed that onto the nightstand on the opposite side and covered her completely with the blanket.
Finally, keeping my body on top of the blankets to give her that respect, I turned off the television, then the light, rested my head on the pillow opposite hers, and closed my eyes.
And while it might have appeared that I was sleeping, my mind was wide awake. I replayed this night with Ivy in my head several times, and there was only one question that I couldn’t seem to find any answers to. Why had it taken something so horrible for me to see Ivy the way I was seeing her now?