I woke up the next morning feeling more rested than I had felt in a long time. Smiling, I reached my hand out for Rory, but she wasn’t there. I sat up and rubbed the sleep out of my eyes. I looked around my room and didn’t see her anywhere. When I sat up, I looked over at the pillow where she had been sleeping and there was a note, scribbled in her handwriting. It read, “Come to the kitchen when you’re hungry. Love you.” I grinned and got out of bed, pulling on a pair of boxers as I went. Rubbing my messy head, I walked out of my bedroom and was immediately hit with the smell of delicious food. Rory was standing in the kitchen, wearing nothing but the old tee shirt I’d given her, and was putting the finishing touches on a pretty huge breakfast. I wondered where she found all this food, because I never gave myself time to go to the grocery store. “Hey, baby,” I said, walking to her and kissing her on the top of her head.
“Good morning, handsome,” she said, and turned her face up to me and kissed me quickly. “I hope you’re hungry.”
“I am. I worked up quite an appetite last night,” I said, playfully swatting her bottom. “Where did you get all this food?”
Blushing, she said, “I called Marissa. I wanted to make a nice breakfast for you, but you didn’t have shit in your fridge,” she said, and I laughed. “I gave her your address and she brought some things by for me.”
I smiled and pulled her into a kiss. “Well, tell her thank you for me. What is all this?”
“Well, I didn’t know what you might be hungry for, so I made scrambled eggs with cheddar jack cheese, sausage, bacon, hash browns, and toast. I also have blueberry muffins and cinnamon rolls. But, if you aren’t in the mood for any of that, I can make pancakes too.”
I picked her up into a hug and twirled her around in the air before setting her back down. “I love you Rory, thank you. Everything you made is more than amazing,” I said, and she smiled. “It smells delicious.”
“Thanks, love. Now, you go sit your sexy ass down in that chair and let me feed you,” she said, swatting me back on the bottom. I smiled and walked over to the table, taking a seat. She brought everything to the table and finally sat down next to me. She piled food onto my plate and then added some to hers. As we sat together eating breakfast and talking, I was even more sure about my revelation last night. I for sure wanted to marry Rory, sooner rather than later. I also didn’t want to freak her out. She’d gone through something traumatic in her past, and it took her a full four years to start to live again. She also told me before we officially starting dating that there was more to the story than she’d told me. As much as I loved her and didn’t want to push her, I really did want to know what else happened after her ex was killed. She told me that it was a cold case, who knows? I was a cop, so maybe I could help if I had all the facts. It was something that was bothering her so badly and I wanted nothing more than to help her and make all her bad memories go away. But, I promised not to push her, and I was a man of my word. I just hoped she would decide on her own to completely let me in.
Once we were finished eating, Rory stood up and began to clear the dishes when I grabbed her wrist and stopped her. “What is it?” she asked me.
“That can wait. Come here,” I said, taking the dishes from her and setting them on the table. I guided her over to my chair and she surprised me my hiking up a long leg and straddling my lap. Our lips instantly met and my hands glided along her back and down to her bottom. I slid my hands into the back of her panties and rested them on her ass. Feeling myself getting harder and harder as she grinded her heat against me, I growled, “My bed. Now.” I stood up while still holding onto her and she wrapped her legs around my waist. I captured her mouth once again, where it stayed while we raced down the hall toward my bedroom.
“Okay, next question,” Rory giggled. “What’s your favorite color?” We were laying in my bed, still naked, and wrapped up in my sheets, and Rory was firing about a zillion questions at me. Lying with her wrapped in my arms, I felt at peace. Feeling her beautiful decorated skin against mine was about as close to heaven as I will ever get. I was lying on my back with one arm pillowed behind my head, and the other was wrapped around her, holding her and keeping her as close to me as possible.
Smiling, I said, “My favorite color? I don’t know. I don’t really have one. What about you?”
She snuggled against me. “Pink.”
I laughed. “Pink? Really?”
“I may look all tough and bitchy, but I am still a girl and I am a sucker for anything pink,” she said.
“That’s so cute,” I said, and she shoved against my bare chest.
“Shut up,” she laughed. She leaned up and kissed me. “Love you,” she said.
I took a deep breath and sighed from somewhere deep in within me. Warmth spread through my chest hearing her tell me she loved me. I will never get tired of hearing it. “I love you too, angel.”
She cocked an eyebrow at me and smiled. “Angel, huh?”
“What? You don’t like it?”
“I like it. I definitely wouldn’t call myself an angel, but I like it when you say it.”
I furrowed my brows. “Why wouldn’t you? Can’t you see how amazing you are?”
She bit her bottom lip and frowned. “No, Liam, I can’t.” Before I could say anything else, she shook her head slightly and smiled at me. “Okay, enough questions from me. Now it’s your turn to ask me something.”
I knew the time for serious talking was over before it began. There was so much I wanted to know about Rory, so much I was curious about. But, I also promised not to push her and to let her talk when she was ready. I put on my best smile and decided to stick to something simple. “Okay, I have a question.”
“Okay, shoot,” she said, leaning against me even more.
“I absolutely love your name, but I was curious. Is Rory short for something?”
The carefree happiness in her eyes was suddenly replaced with what irritation and anger. “Yes,” she said, matter-of-factly.
“Okay, so what is it?”
She inhaled and let out a long sigh. “Aurora.”
I smiled at her. “Aurora? Really?”
“Yes.”
“That’s such a beautiful name. Why don’t you go by it?”
“Because I hate it,” she said through gritted teeth. Her beautiful chestnut colored eyes were dancing with flecks of gold. I had noticed that when she was angry or upset her eyes almost looked like liquid gold.
“Why?”
“Because of what it represents.”
“Okay,” I said, not really knowing what else to say. I could see that she was contemplating whether or not she wanted to elaborate. Finally, she looked down at my chest and began to trace the outline of the praying hands tattoo with her finger and she exhaled the breath I hadn’t realized she’d been holding.
“When I was born, my parents chose to name me Aurora after ‘Sleeping Beauty’ because they thought of me as most parents to a baby girl do…I was their princess. They had their perfect, strapping, all-American son in Brody, and I was going to be their perfect little princess. It was pretty apparent by the time I was four that I wasn’t what they were hoping I’d be. They put me in all kinds of stupid baby beauty pageants, and dressed me in the frilliest shit they could find. I would have gladly spent my days with Brody playing in the mud outside rather than wear a dress and learn a tap routine, but they still forced me into that life until they finally relented when I was eight,” she said. She paused for a quick moment, and continued.
“Do you know that Brody was the first one to nickname me Rory? He couldn’t say my name when I was born because he was only three years old at the time, and ‘Aurora’ came out sounding like ‘Rory’, and the name just stuck. Well, at least it did with him. He is the only one in my entire family that calls me that. My parents hated it, especially my mother. She had always wanted a perfect daughter that she could shop with, get pedicures with, and look down their noses at lesser people with, and instead she got
me. A loud mouthed, crass, bitchy little girl that was in an eternal bad mood unless Brody was around. They tried everything to get me to act like the way they thought a lady should, but it just wasn’t me. That’s why we moved to Indiana from Chicago. They thought that if they took me from my comfort zone of blending into the background and thrust me into a tiny little farm town like Selma that I would be forced to either change myself or be ridiculed for it. As you can guess, that didn’t go well.”
“Wow, your parent’s sound like dicks,” I said, and she softly laughed, a bitterness in her voice.
“The biggest. I rebelled more there than ever before. I swear I was in the principal’s office for something stupid at least once a week.”
“Troublemaker from the start, huh?” I asked, and she smiled at me.
“You know it.”
I trailed my fingers along the curve of her spine and she shivered. “So, that’s why you don’t like being called Aurora? Because of your parents?”
She nodded. “I hate it because every time I hear it, I am reminded of everything my parents tried to make me do and force me to be.”
I cleared my throat. “Yeah, I know how that feels.”
She leaned her head in and kissed me. “Well, you are lucky. You and your dad seem to be forging ahead. I am essentially an orphan,” she laughed, trying to make light of it all.
I frowned at her. “So, is that why you don’t talk to your parents anymore?” I asked.
She stiffened against my body, and her eyes narrowed. “No,” she said quietly.
“What is it, angel? What are you thinking about?”
She shook her head and blinked her eyes a few times. “Nothing. I don’t want to talk about my asshole parents anymore when there are so many other fun things we can be doing,” she said, her tone turning from angry to seductive in the blink of an eye. She trailed her hand from my chest down my taut abs and then under the sheet, grabbing hold of my semi-hard dick.
I sucked in a breath and groaned. “God, baby,” I moaned.
I felt her sliding her hand up and down my shaft, but instead of me getting hard, I felt like I was getting softer. The look in her eyes when I asked my last question…something was off. I gently moved her hand and stopped her. My dick would be killing me for that later.
“What’s wrong, babe?” she asked me. “Are you not in the mood?”
I smiled a crooked smile at her. “I’m always in the mood for you, angel. It’s just that…why did you shut off like that when I asked about your parents?”
She sighed. “Because I don’t want to talk about them anymore, Liam. Just let it go,” she said, reaching her hand back down under the sheet again toward my dick. She pressed her lips to my throat and began kissing me lightly.
I stopped her by sitting up. “Rory…” I could practically hear my cock screaming, “Shut the fuck up and let her do what she wants!”
She sat up and looked me pointedly in the eye. “Don’t, Liam. Just don’t.”
“Don’t what? Ask you a question?”
She threw the sheet off of her and she stood up quickly. She spun around, her fiery auburn hair whipping around her like flames. “Why are you pushing this Liam? Why are you asking me questions I don’t want to answer right now?”
I stood up and looked into her eyes, which were liquid gold again. We both stood face to face, completely naked. “I am just trying to get to know you, Rory. I love you! Why are you freaking out over this?”
“I thought you weren’t going to push me to talk about things I wasn’t ready talk about, Liam. What happened to taking any part of me you could get?”
“I am willing to take what you want to give! It’s just…”
“Just what, Liam?” she snapped.
“What if I want more? What if I want to know everything? What if I want all of you?”
Her eyes narrowed at me, but confusion clouded them. “All of me? What does that mean?”
“It means that I want to marry you, Rory!” I shouted before I could stop myself.
She gasped loudly and her narrowed eyes went wide. The gold in her eyes turned dark, and there was an onyx-colored ring around them. This wasn’t anger anymore…it was fear. “W-what?” she whispered, a horrified look on her face.
“Rory,” I said softly, “I want to marry you.”
She began to back away from me. “No,” she said, “no, I have to get out of here.”
I took a step toward her, my hand reaching for her. “Wait, angel, don’t go. I’m sorry.”
When I touched her arm, she flinched away from me like I’d electrocuted her. “Please, don’t call me that. I have to go,” she said, looking around for her clothes. She bent down and picked up my tee shirt, but then threw it back down on the floor when she realized it was mine. I tried to pretend it didn’t hurt, but it did.
“Rory, don’t leave like this! We can talk this through, don’t run away from me!”
She after she picked up her jeans, she glared at me, her eyes gold again. “Just stop! Let me go!” she shouted. All I could do was stare in shock as she grabbed her clothes and barricaded herself in the bathroom. Once I got over my shock, I pulled out a pair of pajama bottoms from my dresser and quickly slid them on as I walked to the bathroom.
I banged on the door. “Rory, come out here and talk to me. Look, I’m sorry I pushed you. I won’t do it again, baby, I promise. Just please don’t go. Stay with me,” I pleaded. I was crazy in love with this girl and I didn’t care if begging made me look like a pussy. I couldn’t let her leave when I just broke one of the first promises I made to her.
She ignored me as I heard clanging and banging in the bathroom. “Leave me alone!” she screamed, sounding half crazed.
I felt a mixture of anger and fear, and it was making me crazy. I wasn’t going to let her leave here like this. “Rory…”
“Just STOP!” she shouted, and I punched the wall in frustration.
“FUCK!” I yelled, throwing my hands in the air and walking out into the living room. I placed my hands behind my head and tried to calm my fears by taking deep breaths. She’s just upset, I thought. You put too much out there too soon. Just don’t let her leave.
At that moment, she came charging out of the bathroom and was headed toward the front door. I took my hands down and turned around to walk toward her. “Baby, please, don’t do this,” I said, in a softer tone of voice. The expression on her face was heartbreaking. “Please.”
Her eyes were filled with tears and they were pouring down her cheeks. “I have to. I can’t do this to you. You shouldn’t want to marry someone like me. I…” she stopped for a moment, “I’m too broken.”
“Rory, don’t do this,” I begged again, walking closer to her. “I love you.”
More tears poured from her eyes. She looked at me and said, “And that’s why I have to let you go.” She turned quickly and ran out the door, slamming it behind her. I could hear her crying as she ran down the hallway…and away from me. I stood rooted in place as I replayed the last few minutes in my head. What the fuck just happened? What had I done?
Chapter 11
Rory
As soon as I got off the elevator, I took off in a run. I didn’t stop to think about anything, especially how bad my legs and feet were burning from running three blocks in heels. I just had to get out of Liam’s apartment and away from him as fast as I could so I didn’t even think of slowing down until I reached the front of my apartment building. I hadn’t realized I’d been running that fast…seemed like I got here in no time at all. I pulled my keys out of my clutch and unlocked the door with shaking hands. As soon as I got inside, I continued to run as I got into the elevators, which earned me some pretty strange and offended looks from some of the other tenants. I didn’t care at that point. I just needed to be safe inside my apartment and away from the rest of the world.
As soon as I stepped off the elevator, I ran down the hall to our front door and unlocked it. As soon as I was inside, I shut
the door and leaned against it. In that moment, everything came crushing down on me. He wants to marry me. Liam actually said he wants to marry me…but I can’t let him. I can’t hurt him because I love him too much. I can’t let him fall even more in love with me when he will just leave me in the end. At that moment, every emotion and fear I had about our relationship came crashing down on me like a tidal wave, and I broke down. I slid down the door and fell into a heap on the floor and sobbed loudly.
“Hey, Rory, is that you?” I heard Brody call out as he was walking into the living room. “Listen, Marissa and I were about to head out for lunch and we thought you and Liam might want to-shit!” he said once he saw me. I looked up at him and he was running toward me. “Rory? What the hell happened? Marissa, come quick!” he yelled.
Sniffing, I tried to speak but I couldn’t. I felt Brody kneel down at my side and pull me up into his arms. He held me around my shoulders and I buried my face into his chest. I felt Marissa’s hand on my leg, rubbing it comfortably. “Oh God, Rory. What’s wrong?”
Again, I tried to form a sentence, but I couldn’t. I just cried into Brody’s shirt, which felt wet against my cheek. “Rory, we are starting to freak here. Sweetie, what happened? Is it Liam?” Brody asked. I nodded, still crying. I felt Brody stiffen under me. “Did he hurt you?” he asked, angrily.
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