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That protectiveness surges through me once more.
Actually, “protective” doesn’t feel like the right word. It’s more like this raw, feral need to defend her and look after her.
I’m protective over everyone I care about. I’ve always been that way. My parents, my siblings, my friends. Maybe because I’m the oldest of my siblings. I don’t really know and it honestly doesn’t matter.
But with Tori it’s different. It always has been. When she’s happy, I’m happy. When she’s sad, I’m sad. When she’s hurt, my brain goes nuts trying to think of ways to make her okay again.
And when her safety is in jeopardy, I turn fucking feral. The urge to destroy whatever is making her unsafe takes over. So does the urge to hold her in my arms.
I realize now that urge has always been there, even when we were just friends.
But now that we’re a couple, it feels a hundred times more intense.
Fake couple, remember?
Oh, right. It takes an extra few seconds for my brain to process that reminder.
Fake.
Nothing about my reaction to seeing Tori in danger and hurt felt fake. Every emotion I felt for her felt one thousand percent real.
A wave of emotion swells through me. It’s intense and unfamiliar and I’m not quite sure what it means.
I glance over at her, still sleeping. That feeling burrows deep in my chest. It’s hard even for me to swallow as I look at her.
I force myself to take another breath. I move to get out of the car, but then I see her stirring.
She opens her eyes. Her sleepy gazes focuses when she sees me. And then she starts to smile.
Something bursts inside my chest. It feels a lot like my heart.
“Hi,” she says through that sleepy smile.
I smile back. “Hi. We’re home.”
She moves to open her door, but I stop her.
“No, wait.”
I jump out of the driver’s seat and round the car to her side. When I open the door and move to help her out, she looks at me for a long moment before she starts to chuckle.
“I can get out myself,” she says.
“I need to be by your side.” The words come out sounding a lot more intense than I mean them too.
For a long moment, Tori just looks at me. But then she blinks and nods, like she understands completely.
As we walk to the entrance of her building, I scoop her hand in mine. She glances down at our joined hands, and I can tell by the look of surprise on her face what she’s thinking.
There’s no one around. We don’t have to sell our relationship to anyone.
But I don’t care. I need to feel her hand in mine. I need her close to me. I need to make sure she’s okay.
She digs her key fob out of her purse and unlocks the front entrance of her apartment building. I open the door for her, she walks inside, and we walk the three flights up to her place. I hold her hand the entire time.
When she unlocks her front door, I start to let go of her hand, but she tightens her hold on me.
“I know it’s late, but can you come in for a minute? I, um, don’t want to be alone just yet.” Her eyes are shy when she looks at me.
