“Do you see what you’ve done?” Megan screeched, now abandoning her phone. “Just go, Derek, honestly! You’re making everything worse.”
“I didn’t do anything.” Derek wrapped his arms around me that much tighter. It only made me cry more. “See, she needs me.”
I didn’t need him. I needed Ronan. I needed my mother. I needed my marriage to be real, for a man who didn’t know the meaning of love to love me back. I needed the impossible.
Instead, I had my cheating ex-boyfriend’s floppy hair and utterly inadequate arms.
The sobs began to hurt.
“Derek, come on. Can’t you see that you’re hurting her?” Megan was hovering now. “Just let her go.”
“I’m comforting her. Aren’t I, baby?” Derek released me just long enough to rub tears from underneath my face. His touch was too rough, pulling at my skin. “I miss you, Laney. I’m here because I still love you. You know that, don’t you?”
I wanted to say no. I wanted to shake him off, tell him to get the hell out of my life, leave me to pick up the pieces that he had broken first, and others had shattered after.
But nothing could come out. Even my breath wouldn’t come.
He leaned down, his lips hovering over mine.
“No.” I leaned away just as another set of heavy footsteps sounded at the door.
Megan crossed her arms. “Well, it’s about freaking time.”
Ronan stood in the doorway, fists clenched by his side as he took in the scene. His dark gaze landed on Derek and sparked dangerously. “Take your hands off my wife. Now.”
Derek just clutched me that much tighter and sneered. “Am I supposed to be scared by that?”
Ronan’s eyes turned coal-black. “If you were smart, you would be.”
Two steps, and he yanked Derek off me by the collar, then spun me out to Megan’s waiting hands. One more step, and the crack of my husband’s knuckles on Derek’s jaw echoed through the apartment.
“Ronan, stop!” My voice finally returned.
“He had his hands on you, Laney.” Ronan’s voice was low and deadly as he circled Derek, who had stumbled backward, hand to his face. “He was trying to kiss you, and you didn’t want him to. I heard you.”
“Laney, who does this guy think he is?” Derek cried. “This is who you want to be with? A two-bit thug who goes around assaulting people for giving hugs?”
“Better than a limp-dick sociopath who can’t keep his junk in his pants.” Ronan was circling him now, like a fighter fresh in the ring. “Seems to me you deserve a lesson in respecting women, Derek.”
He jabbed Derek’s shoulder on the name, and while my ex was able to shuffle back enough to parry the blow, it was enough to wake me up too.
“Ronan, stop.” I twisted out of Megan’s grasp and darted between the two men.
“Laney, get out of the way,” Ronan ordered.
I drew myself up as tall as my five feet and change would allow. “No.”
Ronan stared, eyes dilated. “Laney, I swear to God. No one touches you like that and gets away with it?—”
“Please.” I put my hand on his chest, feeling his heart give strong, hard beats under my palm. “I know you want to protect me. I know you want to do what’s right. So please listen to me when I tell you that taking your anger out on him isn’t worth it. Ronan, he isn’t worth it. Please be better than that. For me.”
Derek used the opportunity to scramble around us for the door. “I’m with her, man. You don’t need to?—”
“Oh my God, get out!” Megan shoved him out the front door and shut it after him before running to the other side of the apartment to shout out the window. “And don’t think you are officially dis-invited from game night, you ass!”
She turned to find Ronan and me watching her and offered a sheepish smile.
I slumped on the arm of the couch. My heart was still racing. The medication should have started to work by now.
