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"No?" I repeated, brows drawn together.
"Stairs," she demanded, nodding her head toward them.
I could feel it then, just a small vibration coming from her hand and moving up my arm. And when I looked down, I could visibly see her trembling.
"Stairs it is. Think you can keep up with me?" I added as we pushed out the door to the first landing.
"I think I could outrun a cheetah right now," she said, taking off down the stairs, nearly crushing my hand in hers as we made our way to the next spot she knew she could breathe in.
Mark watched us coming from where he was locked out of my car. I bleeped the locks and he turned to put the shit in the trunk. Except the cat who he left on the hood as he gave us a big smile. "Did he ever tell you about how he once tried to quit track?" he asked as we ran over and Dusty grabbed desperately for the door handle and went inside, shutting it with a slam and resting her head back on the headrest, taking deep breaths.
"Wow," Mark said, the smile falling as he watched her struggling to even out her breathing.
"Believe it or not, this isn't that bad," I said, taking Rocky and opening the back door, putting him inside, and closing it.
"How do you think she's gonna take the new place?" he asked, following me toward the other side of the car.
"You know, I think she's alright once she's behind a closed door. She might need to take a bath or something, but then she should settle down and be alright. I think it's in her power somehow to make any closed room her own kind of comfort zone once she gets over the shock of it."
"Alright, well let's get it over with for her," he agreed, cupping my shoulder and then moving off toward his own car.
I let myself inside my own, reaching out to give her thigh a squeeze. "Okay?"
She exhaled hard and opened her eyes. "No," she admitted. "But I will be."
"That's all we can hope for, right?" I asked, giving her another squeeze before throwing the car into reverse and getting a move on already.
"Where are we going anyway?"TWELVEDustyA hotel?
He was taking me to a hotel?
I mean, I didn't know much about security or anything, but I was pretty sure just about anyone could walk in and out of a hotel at anytime. Right?
We didn't drive right there, though. Ryan took a long, winding path that led us two towns out and then circled back, Mark a few cars behind at all times.
I guess it would be the real-life equivalent of making sure you didn't have a tail. Which, in a weird way, was kind of cool.
But then we pulled into a somewhat packed parking lot to a six-floor hotel in a gorgeous gray stucco, everything about it screaming 'expensive'. I bet I couldn't even afford the cheapest room in the building for a one night stay.
So when Ryan jumped out and the door attendant rushed over in his immaculate suit and took the key from Ryan and addressed him by name, well, I pretty much had to force my gaping mouth closed.
"Mr. Mallick, long time no see," he said, as he went to open the door for me.
"I got her, thanks," Ryan said, stopping him and letting me take a somewhat deep breath.
The ride had done wonders to soothe over the frazzled nerves, to help me breathe again.
Quite frankly, the absolute last thing I had expected when he came back into his apartment was him saying we had to leave. As in... both of us.
I guess a part of me had sort of been expecting I could turn Ryan's apartment into my own new little prison, but this time with a hot guy who was sweet as all hell and happy to give me one-sided orgasms to share it with me.
Which was, well, silly.
I knew that.
Trading one prison for another wasn't going to work indefinitely. We had even talked about it the night before- about how he wouldn't expect miracles, but that we could work for progress.
And, being forced from his apartment and staying in a place I had never been to before, while mildly (okay, moderately if not acutely) terrifying for me was not the best way to go about it, it was still progress.
My heart was still a hummingbird's wings in my chest and I was queasy and sweaty and miserable, but I wasn't dizzy and I wasn't gasping for breath and I wasn't sure I needed to make a mad dash to the nearest exit and run back to my safety zone. Because, well, my safety zone was a decidedly unsafe place right then. In a very literal, not imaginary way I made up in my mind.
