Chapter Two
Giving Riker directions to my office was easy. Trying not to feel awkward while ridding in his truck was not so easy. It was a nice truck. It sat a little higher than normal, so Riker had to help me climb into my seat. He had reached over to try and hold my hand at one point, but I didn’t let him.
Regret of letting him kiss me, and actually kissing him back was hitting me hard. I’m not that type of girl, I never have been. But after what I’ve been through I stopped looking at men all together.
As we pulled into the parking lot of my office building I let out a small sigh of relief. This will all be over soon. I’ll send Riker on his way and then try to forget about everything that has happened tonight.
Luckily when Missy and Steve kidnapped me tonight Missy had remembered to grab my wallet and phone which she happy threw at me once I was safely in the car. Only problem was my car keys were still in my bag up in my office.
Riker helps me down out of his truck but before I can step away from him be backs be up against the truck, placing his hands on my hips to keep me from running.
My heart rate speeds up and I know he can see the fear in my eyes. “I don’t want to scare you Darcy, but I do want to see you again.” He says softly.
“I don’t date.” I mutter. “I’m too busy. This company takes up most of my time. Tonight, was a fluke, it doesn’t happen often. If I’m not at my office working, I’m at home sleeping. I don’t go out with my friends or spend much time with my family. This business is my life.”
“That’s not healthy baby.” He mumbles. “Darcy, you have done an amazing job with this company. No one can take that from you. But if you let it take over your life, you’ll burn out real fast, and then all the hard work you did was for nothing. Working hard is a good thing but taking time to rest and relax is a must.”
“God, you sound like my friends.” I roll my eyes at him. “Look, I’m not going to stand here and fight with you. I need to run up to my office and get my bag before I can go home. I don’t need or want to hear about how I need to take time off from work or cut back on my hours. People need to let me do what I want and just deal with it.”
I’m getting angrier by the second. Who is he to tell me I need to take time to relax? It’s one thing to hear it from my friends who work with me, but I’ll be damned if Riker gets to say shit like that to me. He doesn’t even know me.
Riker sighs long and loud before letting go of my hips and turning away from me. Whatever, I think to myself. Hoping he is going to get back in his truck and drive away, I start walking swiftly toward my office building. Once I reach the main door I put in my code and reach to open the door only to have a hand reach around me and pull the door open for me. I let out a small squeal and jump back.
“What are you doing?” I snap at Riker as he stands there still holding the door open.
“It’s late Darcy. I’m going to walk you to your office, let you get what you need, then walk you to your car.” His tone is hard, and I know I’ve hurt him with what I said.
“I’m sorry I snapped Riker, I really am but right now in my life, my work comes first. You said you wanted to see me again and that just can’t happen. I’m sorry.” I don’t let him answer me. I walk straight into the building and head for the elevator. I’m only on the second floor but I’m too tired to walk the stairs tonight.
This building houses three businesses. A yoga studio on the first floor, my studio on the second, and a small law office on the third. The lady who owns the yoga studio hates me for reporting her to the landlord for her music being too loud. We asked her nicely, several times, to turn it down but she laughed in our faces. The landlord however told her to either sound proof her space, or he wouldn’t be renewing her lease. She’s made some nasty comments to a few of us since then, but we mostly try to ignore her.
The lawyer is pretty nice. He buys at least one piece of jewelry every month for his wife. He’s one of the few people we’ve let in our studio. With the online store there is no need for people to come to the studio to shop.
The elevator dings and I go to step on. I roll my eyes when I see Riker standing by the main door watching me. I give him a small wave before the doors shut.
Tonight sucked. Hanging out with the girls was fine, even fun part of the time but seeing Riker again…well that part just sucked. The kissing wasn’t bad, in fact it was good, too good. But it’s not what I need right now in my life. I have a bad feeling that Riker isn’t the type of guy to just be brushed off.
I groan when the elevator door opens on the second floor and I see Missy left the lights on after her and Steve kidnapped me. This usually wouldn’t bug me but right now everything is bugging me. I put in our private pass code to open the door, a feature I truly do love since only my staff and I have this code, not even the landlord has it. When I open the door, I’m surprised to see Heather sitting at her desk working.
“What are you doing here?” I ask her.
She lets out a scream as she spins around. “Oh my God Darcy you scared me!” She gasps as she tries to level her breathing.
“You didn’t answer me question. What are you doing here?” I ask again as I slam the door shut and march over to her. “Everyone of you just got through lecturing me about over working, spending too much time here, and all that other bullshit. Now here you are doing exactly what you don’t want me to do. Nice Heather, real nice.” Rolling my eyes at her I go over to my own desk in the back of the room to get my bag.
When we first got this office, we gutted all the walls to make it completely open. There’s a nice size bathroom with a small shower on the right side of the room and a small back room where I keep my laptop and filing cabinets. Each of us has a small part of the room to ourselves. We each decorated our spaces differently but we all wanted everything to be open. It does make it easier when you need something quick, all you gotta do is yell it out and someone will hand it to you. We made the front corner by the door our picture area. We have different stands, two mannequins, a tub filled with different colors of fabrics, and a tub filled with different shirts for the mannequins. We all take turns at taking photos of new projects but to be honest Missy is the best at it.
I hear Heather walk up behind me. “I had Peter drop me off here because I forget my laptop. My mom is going to pick me up after work. I wasn’t as drunk as the others, but I was buzzed enough to not want to take the chance at driving. Mom doesn’t get off work for another hour, so I decided to get ahead start on tomorrows order sheets.” Heather’s mom is a nurse at the local hospital. She works some crazy hours.
Flopping down in my chair I let out a long sigh. “I’m sorry I shouldn’t have snapped at you. It seems like I’m doing that a lot tonight.” I turn to look up at her. “I’ll stay until your mom gets here then we can both leave. I probably need to update the order sheets anyways.”
Standing, I start to head for my small office in the back, but Heather stops me. “You don’t need to stay. I already updated the order sheets, printed them out, and made sure each of us had the right paperwork for tomorrow. Why don’t you head home and try to get some sleep? Did you call a cab or did Peter drive you here?”
“Um, Riker actually gave me a lift. I told him to leave but I would almost bet he’s still downstairs waiting on me. The man is crazy.” I try to laugh but it’s a weak sad little laugh.
“Ok, there’s a story here. Sit,” She points to my chair. “I want to hear everything.”
I don’t sit but I start to tell her what happened tonight. Once I start talking I couldn’t stop. Not only do I tell her about Riker, I tell her about my fear of him. Of him wanting more and me not being able to give it to him. She knows what happened to me, all the girls do, so she understands why I’ve stopped dating, I just can’t do it.
“Oh Darcy,” Heather sighs after I’m done. “I know what happened to you was awful but the only one getting hurt by you stopping that part of your life is you. Everyone needs someone to love in their life. I’m not saying you have to choose Riker, or even pick right now as a time to try, but you need to stop letting the past control your future. It’s not healthy.”
“I don’t want to deal with this tonight. I’m tired and very confused. If you’re sure you’re ok with staying here alone I’m going to head on home and try to get some sleep.” I reach for my bag and sling it over my shoulder.
“I’ll be fine. This is one of the safest buildings in town. Go get some rest. We’ll talk tomorrow.” Heather gives me a hug then pushes me towards the door.
We both scream when we hear a pounding on the door. Within seconds we know who it is because the dumbass is screaming through the door.
“Darcy open up! I’m not letting you hide out in your office all night.” Riker’s voice is loud, annoying, and is pissing me off.
I stomped over to the door and throw it open. His fist came very close to hitting me as he was about to bang on the door again. Luckily, he was able to pull back before hitting me.
“Are you out of your mind?” I snarl at him. “I wasn’t hiding out I was talking to Heather!” I point towards Heather who is standing a few feet behind me. “Who do you think you are Riker Deeks? Even if I was hiding out in here that’s none of your business! I told you to go home and I meant it!”
“Who am I?” He growls at me as he pushes me back into the office. “I’m the man who has decided not to let you hide from me.” He grabs the back of my neck, jerking me up against him, smashing his lip down on mine.
Damn him! Why does he have to be a pro at kissing? Once again, my body over rules my mind and I stupidly melt into him. He wraps his free hand around my waist and anchors me to him. My fingers find his hair and hold on tight. But before it can go too far he pulls back. We are both panting, and I look up at him with a look of anger, confusion, and lust.
I’m so mad at myself. Once again, I let him kiss me and I kissed him back. This is not what I need or even want right now. I close my eyes and try to remind myself of why this man is not for me. He bullied me in school. Yes, he acts like he has changed but that doesn’t take away from what he did to me back then. Him and his friends did so many awful things to me.
Why can’t pep rallies be optional? Not everyone wants to cheer on the jocks and watch the cheerleaders strut around in next to nothing. They look like tramps. NFL cheerleaders wear more clothing than what these girls have on.
I try to tune everything out and just read my book, but the gym is so loud it’s almost impossible. My friends, unlike me, like the hype of pep rallies. Instead of sitting with them I choose to sit at top of the stands, I always try to get the corner seat against the wall. Only a few others sit up here, mostly the kids who hate these things as much as I do.
I had just lowered my head to try to focus on my book again when I felt a whoosh of air right by my face. I lifted my head just in time for a soccer ball to bounce off the wall behind me and smack me across the cheek. Letting out a scream at the pain I watch as the whole school turns to look at me. I cradle my cheek in both hands because the pain is pretty bad, and my ear has started ringing too.
I see Tonya and a couple teachers rushing up the steps to get to me. I let them help me get down the steps but before we could get out of the gym Luke and Riker walk over to us.
“Nice try of stopping the ball with your head Darcy girl.” Luke laughs. “However, next time maybe you should just toss the ball back to us.”
“Why did you do that Luke?” Tonya snaps at him.
“She wasn’t getting involved.” Riker shrugged. “It’s a pep rally. We need the whole school cheering for us if we are going to win states tomorrow.”
“So, you threw a damn ball at my head?” I tried to yell but the pain in my cheek wouldn’t let me. Damn, I bet I’ve fractured something.
“Luke, did that. I wanted to just holler your name to get you to look down.” Riker smiles at me, but I don’t smile back.
“Boys, go back over to your teammates. I’ll be talking to your coach about this. You say you wanted everyone cheering for you but how would you feel about not playing tomorrow? Darcy is clearly injured because of your little stunt.” One of the teachers said right before he ushered Tonya and me out of the gym. “I’m sorry Darcy. I’ll do my best to get them benched but with it being the state title game I’m not sure the coach will do it. I may be able to get them suspended for a few days though.”
“Don’t worry about it.” I whisper. “Can someone please call my mom?”
Mom came to get me and took me to the ER. Luckily nothing was broken or fractured but I had a nasty burse for over two weeks. Riker and Luke got two days suspension only after their team won the state title. It just proved that jocks and bullies can get away with anything as long as they are important enough to the school.
“Darcy? Baby are you ok?” Riker’s deep voice snaps back into the present.
“I’m fine.” I mutter and try to pull away from him.
“Are you sure? You look like you were somewhere else.” He tries to pull me in for a hug, but I finally break free.
“I said I was fine. Look Riker I told you once already, I can’t do this. I won’t do this.” I glance over at Heather and the soft, sad look on her face breaks my heart. I shake my head and push past Riker. “Make sure you turn off the lights when you leave.” I call over my shoulder to Heather.
Even though I’m still tired I skip waiting for the elevator and take the steps. Rushing down them two at a time I make it to the front door right as I hear Riker holler for me from the top of the stairs. Ignoring him I storm out the front door. I quickly unlock my car and jump in. I got the doors locked before Riker made it out the front door of the building. I slap on my seatbelt, start my car, and burn rubber as I speed out of the parking lot.
All I want is to go home, fall into bed, and forget this night ever happened. Two of those things are easy to do, the last one I know will be impossible.