He saw where my eyes were leading and quickly squeezed his hand into a fist rolling it around and examining it carefully. He was angry. I’d seen him this way before, the way his muscles all tensed up and his fist closed like he was looking to hit something. It was strange how I should be backing away from him wondering whether he was going to throw a punch or lose his shit, but instead, I stepped closer.
He wouldn’t hurt me.
I couldn’t explain how I knew that, but my gut told me it was true.
He blew out a long, deep breath rolling his shoulders and standing a little taller, a little prouder. His eyes? Those had softened, though. They didn’t match his strong posture, and neither did his voice when he finally spoke, “I wasn’t gonna let him get away with that bullshit, Meyah.”
I had to keep my head from floating off into the clouds when I heard him say my name with such intensity.
“And he didn’t get away with it! I made sure of that,” I argued loudly holding up my hand which the doctor had strapped with a simple bandage, and thankfully, was a lot less swollen than it was just a couple of hours ago. For once, I’d stood up and shown everyone I could look after myself, and that I wasn’t going to hide anymore. I wasn’t going to let him take that away from me by doing his macho man, ‘I’ll destroy him in your honor,’ act.
A few months ago, I would have been that damsel in distress and Ham offering his protection would have made me fall further and further in love with him.
Not anymore.
Spending time with Hadley and Skylar and the other women at the club made me realize it was the strong women who attracted the strong men. These guys wanted a woman who could stand her ground, who could be their partner in crime and hold their own.
That’s how I wanted Ham to see me.
“I made sure that he knew,” I protested, not surprised when he didn’t bother to argue, his eyes burning a hole through me. I patted my chest refusing to let his brooding nature make me pull back. “I did it.Me. I didn’t need someone to do it for me because if Nick comes at me again, I’ll kick him in the balls, or drench him in water, and watch him melt like theWicked Witch of the West.Whatever the hell I have to do, to show him that I’m done putting up with his bullshit.”
He was fighting the smile that was tugging at the corner of his lips. I was struggling really hard myself to keep a straight face, but I wanted to make a point, and I needed him to hear it.
“I can fight my own battles. I’m not that little girl on the side of the road you had to rescue,” my voice softened, but it was still strong and persistent. I knew Ham still saw me as that girl—the one he came to the rescue of when she couldn’t rescue herself. “That day… I needed you. But today, I didn’t need a knight in shining armor, Ham. You’re not my protector or my hero. I did that all by myself, so let me have my damn moment.”
Ham took a step forward, and in response, I took one back. I wasn’t sure what to expect. This was the most we’d ever talked before, and it was almost a little surreal. Was he really here, standing in the foyer of my house, telling me he’d beaten the shit out of my ex-boyfriend because he’d grabbed my ass?
How strong are these painkillers?
“You certainly fucking did it all by yourself, and I’m really fucking proud of you.” He chuckled softly, running his fingers through the long part of his hair. Ham had his hair short on the sides, but the top was long, and it curved over like a wave. Some days it was messy and unruly, but others I could tell he’d made some sort of effort to form it the way he wanted it. He brushed it back away from his eyes, the impressed smirk on his face made me feel like there was a rope around my waist and someone was pulling it, tightening it on my stomach, making it hard to breathe. I wanted to reach up and touch it myself. I wanted to see if it felt like silk in my fingers like how I’d imagined it would.
“You are?” I asked, standing a little taller, the corner of my mouth pulling up. I huffed out a laugh. “You have no idea how good it felt.”
“He’s been trying to screw with you for far too long. I should’ve done something about it a long time ago. Someone should have done something,” he corrected at the end.
I looked down at my hand. His eyes followed the movement and narrowed on the beige colored strapping. “I should have done something a long time ago,” I told him, a simper on my face as he turned my hand over and raised it closer to his face. “Me.Ishould have. Not anyone else.”
I could feel the moment that things changed. It was an important moment, one that was about to force us onto a different path, one we hadn’t experienced before, and one I wasn’t sure either of us would come out of without a few bruises and a handful of scars.
He reached forward, his hand cupping the side of my face, his fingers delving into the hair at the nape of my neck. It wasn’t like I’d never been kissed before. I also wasn’t a virgin. That was something I, unfortunately, gave to Nick thinking that I’d found my happily ever after, my high school sweetheart, just like Uncle Leo had with Aunt Kim.
I was naive. I was stupid. And now that I’d seen Uncle Leo and Hadley together, I was just so wrong. Yes, he and Aunt Kim were in love, they were meant to be, but so were he and Hadley. She was right when she told me that sometimes it’s worth the wait to find the person who was meant for you, and at some point, I’d be happy that I didn’t settle for dickwad, Nick.
Right now, it was that time.
Ham moved forward forcing me to move with him until my back hit my mom’s small entry table. The only reason it was there was for the bowl on top—not just any bowl, but one my little brother made her in preschool which she unhealthily adores—to put her keys in since she kept losing them. The bowl wobbled behind me, the table knocking against the wall. I reached out and grabbed his club cut in my hands when I thought I might fall, but his arm came around my waist steadying my body.
He was so close now, his breath fanned my bare shoulder where my spaghetti strap dress strained to hold up my less than average sized breasts, given that I wasn’t wearing a bra.
Ham dipped his head leaning forward and forcing the edge of the table even further into my lower back. It was uncomfortable, but it soon became a distant memory once the feeling of Ham’s lips brushing across my shoulder had me gasping in delight. I arched my neck, my eyes fluttering closed as electric currents shot every which way through my body, zipping and zapping, causing my heart to stutter.
“He never fucking deserved you,” he murmured in my ear. “Knowing he touched you makes me fucking pissed.” He moved to my ass, gripping it in both hands, lifting me up off the floor. I moved like a flash in fright hooking my arms around his neck and pressing my body tightly against his. He guided my legs around his hips, and I hooked my ankles at the small of his back as he set me on the edge of the small table.
Blinking, my eyes slowly opened, and I found myself eye to eye with the boy—no not boy, definitely man—that I’d been obsessed with for almost a year now. I’d imagined this in my head more times than I could count wondering whether he’d be soft and attentive, or if he would be demanding and controlling when he finally touched me.
His fingers laced through my hair tugging it back while his other hand now snaked up my arm. He reached my neck, his rough fingers tracing gentle patterns across the soft and sensitive skin just under my ear.
Just when I thought maybe he was going for the soft and attentive approach, his entire hand captured my throat, and he ducked his head swallowing my surprised gasp and pressing his lips to mine in a flurry of passion and excitement. I knew then that I was going to get the demanding and controlling Hamlet, and I was perfectly fine with that because it was that Hamlet I’d always dreamed of.