Pain shapes a woman into a warrior.
-R.H. Sin

Butch

“What were you doing all alone in that bar? Shouldn’t your friends have been with you?” I ask, walking Bellamy in our hotel room. I was very adamant with her. There was no way in hell we were staying on that tour bus with the rest of those rockers. Elena was very explicit in her instructions, we were to stick to Bellamy like glue and you can damn well bet that’s happening. Truthfully, I’d be sticking to her like glue whether Elena gave us orders to or not.

She told me that most of the time they ended up getting hotel rooms if they were staying in cities for a couple of days, but how she preferred to stay on the bus because it had a homier feeling to her. I told her we wouldn’t be staying on the bus, especially after she told me how the guys come back to write in the middle of the night and all of that. I love to do two things in the middle of the night, sleep and fuck, and not exactly in that order.

“I got into a spiff with Miles and decided it would be best if I went out on my own for a bit,” she tells me. I instantly know that she’s leaving a few things out by the way she won’t maintain eye contact with me and the mere tone of her voice.

“Which one is Miles?”

“He’s the dick,” she murmurs. I belt out a laugh and her face flushes red. “Oh crap. Sorry. Uh, you haven’t seen him yet I don’t think.”

I yank out my phone, showing her a screenshot of The Stones. “Which one is he?”

She points to the bearded guy with the ink. Interesting that he’s the dick.

“Miles is the guitarist, Syd plays bass, Rocky is the drummer, and Jase sings,” she tells me, pointing at each man as she speaks. I briefly saw Rocky and Syd at Bubba’s a few days ago. They both seemed nice. I won’t know if I like them until we come face to face, though.

“What did the dick do?” I ask, eying her down.

“He was just being a dick,” she shoots out, walking over to her bed, sitting in front of the head board. “I’m not going to tell you everything, you know, you’re a stranger.”

“A stranger that you’re sharing a hotel room with,” I add.

We both know that we’re acquaintances at best. I would no longer say that we’re strangers, and at any rate, we won’t be for long. I have a feeling that Bellamy Mason and I are about to know each other very well.

“Well, yeah.”

“A stranger that you let leave you shaking in the woods.”

“Well, yeah.”

I walk over to her, planting my arms on both sides of her legs. “A stranger, with whom you want to do a lot more with, and we both know it. So, let’s get this straight right now, Sugar. You and I are not strangers, and we’re damn well not going to be.”

“I don’t want to be in a relationship with you,” she nervously blurts out, causing me to belly laugh in front of her.

“Sugar, when in the hell did I say I wanted to date you? I want to fuck you until you can’t see straight, not court you.”

“Oh,” she murmurs, the same red travelling down to her neck. Oh, how I’ve made this one nervous.

“Did you want to date me?” I laugh, staring into her glossy eyes.

“No! I don’t know you! I…I don’t know what I want with you, okay?” She may not know what she wants, but I sure as hell do.

“I do.”

“What do you think I came there for? A quick fuck and a drink? No. I came for my sister, to finally have someone in this awful world! I am so tired of being alone,” she admits, staring at me with such a fierceness in her eyes – there was never any denying that Bellamy and Elena were sisters, but now…now I’m even surer.

“No. I think you came to Gainesville to meet your sister, and then you left, not expecting anything else. Elena takes pride in her family, so of course, when she found out that you were blood she wanted to protect you. Now you and I are where we are. I won’t hold back how much I want to rip that shirt and those sweats off you right now, or how I want to beg me to fuck you. Dammit, Sugar, you have no idea just how sweet you truly are, do you?”

Bellamy opens her mouth and then snaps it shut.

“I’m not fucking you right now, not when you look like you either want to cry or scream. What happened today? You shouldn’t have been alone in that bar, especially now,” I grumble, keeping my hands firmly planted on both sides of her.

“Why do you even care if I’m upset or not? It’s not your job to care about how I’m feeling, or about how my day went. You’re just here to make sure I don’t get killed.”

“You’re so very wrong about that. I’m here because I want to be, and there is no other reason. Sure, Elena was going to send two of us out to watch you anyway, but I volunteered to be here because I can’t get you out of my damn head. You know that? And no, it’s not my job to care about how you’re feeling, but I do. That’s just because I like you, Bellamy.” I find myself caring a little more about her than I should if I’m being honest.

For some reason, I just can’t seem to get this woman out of my damn head.

“Thank you, for caring, I mean. It’s sweet of you.”

I lean towards the left and plop next to her on the mattress, extending my left arm and tug her down next to me. She fights for a moment, ultimately giving in. “It’s not wrong for me to care. I’m human, I’d be a dick if I didn’t.”

“No. You’d be smart if you didn’t. Some people have a lot of baggage, and I’m one of those people,” she admits, with a small giggle at the end. I know it’s anything but funny.

“Try me,” I tell her. “I was left at the altar, and no one fucking knows about it except me and my ex. How’s that for baggage?” It was the worst day of my life, waiting there for the woman I wanted to spend the rest of my life with. Funny how time passes by and things that once mattered don’t anymore. I could give two shits about whatever it is that she’s now doing with her life. She made her choice, and now my life is better for it.

“What is this? A game on who’s life sucks more than the others?”

“We can make a game of it,” I admit, I’m a bit interested to see which one of us is worse off. “But we won’t. This is simply two friends talking. I suggest something else though. We each share something, every night and every morning – we tell each other something about ourselves. You said we’re strangers, and I don’t want us to be.”

“You want us to share secrets?” Bellamy asks, turning her head up on my shoulder to look at me.

I glance down at her and shrug. “I guess so.”

“My ex is trying to ruin my music career.” One sentence from her, and I immediately want to pummel the asshole who’s giving her grief. “And Miles thinks I’m just like his crazy ex-girlfriend who used him to get to the top of the industry. He basically thinks that I’m the she-devil and like I haven’t worked hard a day in my entire life and it really pisses me off!”

“You aren’t the she-devil. Miles seems like he has trust issues, but don’t we all? There’s always that one person who fucks us up. Sounds like his ex was that for him.”

“Yeah, but that doesn’t give him an excuse to treat me the way he does.”

“I’m not disagreeing with you, Sugar. Just don’t let his negative attitude dull your light, got me?”

Bellamy leans up and scoots on my chest, her elbows digging into me in a very uncomfortable way. “I don’t get why you’re so nice to me. You know nothing about me, Butch, and yet your laying down on a bed with me telling me not to let Miles dull my light as if we’ve been friends for years.”

She’s not wrong. It’s pretty fucking weird. I’ve never been this nice to any woman I’ve been with. Maybe I’m being overly nice because she’s Elena’s sister, but we both know that’s a lie. I’m being nice to Bellamy because the girl caught my eye from the very first second I saw her. She has this pure, innocent aura to her. I know that I shouldn’t want anything to do with her, that I’ll ultimately corrupt her in some way, shape, or form. Is it wrong that I don’t give a damn?

Is it wrong that I want to be a selfish bastard and see what happens? Or is it even more wrong that I lied to her earlier?

I don’t just want to fuck her.

Something about this girl drives me insane, and this dark, primal part of me doesn’t want to let go.