“What just happened, Christopher?” Rush repeated, his voice a hell of a lot sterner this time around.
My response was the usual one.
Escape.
Just escape.
“Let go,” I ordered because anger and escape worked better together.
“Not until you tell me what the fuck happened in the last two minutes. I’m going to need a little bit more explanation as to why I went from having the best orgasm of my entire life followed by a level of intimacy I’ve never known with anyone to you wanting to get as far away from me as you can,” Rush bit out.
I stilled at his words. He’d come too? I automatically looked down at his lap.
“Need proof?” Rush asked angrily.
He grabbed my uninjured hand and settled it on his jeans. His damp jeans.
Lies. Just lies, the insidious voice in my head whispered. Like Peter’s.
Desperation had me shoving both hands hard against Rush’s chest. He finally released his hold on my hips but only so he could grab my wrists instead. I climbed off him and prepared to fight to make him release me.
“Just wait, Christopher. Make sure you’re steady on your feet first,” Rush said. It was then that I realized he wasn’t holding on to my wrists with much force. If anything, he was acting as a physical support to keep me from losing my balance.
Which I nearly did because my legs felt like noodles.
“I’m good,” I said after a minute because I really needed to put some distance between him and me.
A strange stand-off began as we stared at one another. But while I was wary and waiting for him to try and grab me again, Rush just looked… disappointed. After several beats, Rush dropped his eyes and ran his palms over his thighs.
Like he needed to get something off his hands.
Something like me.
“Your medications are on the nightstand. The prescription for the pain meds is the one in the blue bottle. Dr. Kleinman said to take one every four to six hours as needed for pain.”
With that, Rush got up and began leaving the room.
Exactly like I wanted.
So then why did it hurt so fucking much?
“Don’t worry, I’m not going to tell anyone. Your friend won’t find out,” I called just as he reached the bedroom door.
Rush stopped, but he didn’t answer me, nor did he turn around. A strange sense of panic came over me, but it had nothing to do with my next statement.
“I’d appreciate it if you didn’t tell anyone in my family about any of this,” I managed to get out.
I instantly knew I’d gone too far when I saw Rush’s muscles go tight. When he slowly turned around and stalked toward me, I was scared.
Not that he’d physically hurt me because I knew in my heart he wasn’t capable of something like that. I was scared that I’d fucked up.
Really fucked up.
The mere fact that he hadn’t just continued out of the room was proof that I’d pushed him too far.
I managed to stand my ground, but that was mostly because with the nightstand just a couple of feet behind me, there wasn’t really anywhere to go.
Rush stopped several feet from me. His eyes weren’t cold and emotionless like I expected. They burned with anger.
Anger and something else.
Something I didn’t have the guts to give a name to.
“First off,” Rush began. “What and when you decide to tell your family is your business and yours alone. If you’d given me even half a chance, I would have proven to you that I was a man of my word. That goes for everything I said and did this morning too. If you wanted a pity fuck, that wasn’t it,” Rush snapped as he pointed at the bed. “I’m not saying I’m a saint, but I don’t fuck around with people’s heads to get what I want. And I sure as shit don’t expose my throat to them like that.” He again pointed at the bed.
Rush fell silent and half turned around like he was going to leave. He took his time turning around. This time, the anger was gone, and in its place was the emotion I hadn’t recognized before.
Hurt.
A whole hell of a lot of hurt.
“I can only assume by your comment about not telling my ‘friend’ that you’re under the misconception that I’m in a relationship with someone. Something else you would have eventually learned about me is that I don’t fuck around when I’m seeing someone.”
Rush turned and headed back toward the bedroom door. I pounced on the obvious lie he’d just uttered and said, “So I guess I just imagined what you said to me yesterday in the car about not having fallen in love yet but that all of that was about to change. Did I miss the part where you fell out of love and dumped your partner in the handful of hours that I was asleep? I’m not stupid, Rush.”