Darcy
My head throbbedto the beat of my heart as we entered the function room twenty minutes later. Which was, unfortunately, thrumming at double time for two reasons. Firstly, I recognized a number of the faces in the room from watching Olympic trials both before and after my dad passed. If there was sports happening in the world, he wanted to watch it. I remembered a day, toward the end when the cancer had exhausted him and left him with insomnia in equal turns, I found him watching a sumo wrestling match on a satellite station I didn’t know our television could even access. He loved sports with a passion that he had passed on to his daughter with pride. He would have loved to be in this room.
The second reason was far less altruistic. Kane hadn’t let go of me since we left the cafe thirty minutes before. His hand was in mine, then on my back, my shoulder, my waist. He crowded me in a way I didn’t want to like but found comforting as we wound our way through the growing crowd.
“Bryson,” called a deep voice from over by the bar. Kane steered me toward an olive-skinned man who waved in greeting, a mischievous smile plastered on his face. Beside him was a scowling man that stood head and shoulders taller than anyone in the room. I knew both men’s faces and it was almost a blessing to feel unwell, it meant I didn’t have the energy for nerves.
“Mateo,” Kane greeted, clapping hands with one of the greatest short course swimmers of our time. Rumor had it he was a handful, always playing pranks on his teammates, but his speed in the pool meant he was worth the PR trouble. He seemed nice enough whenever I saw him in interviews. Kane didn’t offer his hand to the other man but nodded at him in acknowledgment. Luca Maddren was a monster of a swimmer, whose butterfly stroke was legendary. He was also well known for his dislike of people. No one touched him, and it was rare to get any kind of press statements directly from the man himself. From what I had read, his PR team usually spoke on his behalf.
“This your new piece, Bryson?” I heard Mateo tease, taking my hand in gentle fingers and pressing a kiss to my knuckles. I tried to smile, but couldn’t quite get there as Kane cut between us, breaking the connection with a scowl.
“This is my girlfriend, Darcy. Darcy, this pain in the ass is Mateo Re’foy. You won’t have heard of him because no one cares about backstroke swimmers.”
Mateo chuckled, completely ignoring the jibe as he offered us a drink. Kane accepted a root beer, asking for water for me. I looked at him gratefully as I tried to sip slowly, giving up quickly as the water threatened to make a reappearance.
I concentrated on breathing as Kane bantered with Mateo for a little longer before excusing us.
Next stop was a group of swimming officials who Kane knew from around the pool, followed by some executives and board members who looked at me with approval when Kane announced my position as official girlfriend, then became focused on Kane’s plans and preparations for the trials.
The crowd seemed to close in on me as my breath left me in shallow pants. Was it hot in here? Kane glanced at me, brow furrowed in concern as I stumbled backward and almost collided with Luca Maddren, who had taken up a post in the corner of the room. He flinched away from me as though burned before reaching out a half-hearted hand as my vision went checkerboard. Through the buzzing in my ears, Kane’s name reached me just as the world shifted on its axis, everything tilting before going on a spin. For the second time in a week, I was pulled out of a free-fall by gentle hands that guided me down to a miraculously clear stretch of carpet. I curled onto my side, taking deep breaths in an attempt to reorient myself when full body contact with the floor didn’t stop the boat-on-an-ocean routine the room seemed to have taken up. Pink unicorn socks. From my viewpoint, the bizarre choice of hosiery was like a lifeline, grounding me as I focused on the pattern of white horses with glittered horns interspersed between tightly arched rainbows, all dancing across the garish salmon pink backdrop. As the unicorn’s hooves stilled and the world settled once more, Kane’s face cut between me and my new friends, his mouth moving, brows furrowed in the almost permanent scowl he had worn all evening. Looking past his handsome features, I followed those lifesaving socks up pant-legs, up a gigantic body, and made eye contact with Luca. He cocked his head before breaking eye contact and taking a deliberate step back.
“Darcy.”
As my hearing came back online, I glanced back at Kane, who seemed oblivious to the crowd we were pulling.
“I’m fine. Help me up,” I said, struggling to sit up and hold my hand out to him.
“I’m taking you home,” he said, lifting me with careful hands.
“You can’t. You need to be here. I’ll just grab an Uber.” Stepping out of his grasp didn’t go as planned. My legs refused to take my weight, and Kane caught me on a lunge as my body threatened to do a repeat performance on the horizontal thing.
Kane gathered me into his warm body and steered me toward the exit, nodding at the bystanders as we moved, but refusing to be drawn into conversation.
“Come on, Supergirl, I’m getting you home. No arguing or I’ll let you fall on your ass next time.”
I couldn’t really argue with that. Within moments, we were outside, and I took a deep breath as the cool bite of fresh air cleared my head. Kane’s arm was still around my waist. Locking my knees to make sure they would keep me upright, I took a step away from him, covering the move by fishing my cell out of my bag.
“I’m better now. You should probably go back inside,” I said, focusing hard on bringing up the Uber app to avoid eye contact. The device disappeared from my palm in the next moment and I was forced to jump to try and retrieve it. As he held my cell up beside his scowling face, I finally had to admit defeat as a bout of dizziness threatened to revoke the progress I had made toward normalcy.
“I said I’d make sure you get home and I meant it. I’m tucking you into bed, Darcy. You aren’t getting rid of me any sooner than that.”
“You know that sounds dirty, right?”
“No, it doesn’t and it wasn’t meant to. Stop deflecting and just let me take care of you. Okay?”
I refused to dignify it with a response. Instead, I turned toward the road, praying for a car to take me away. This side of Kane was more dangerous than any other I’d dealt with since our paths had crossed again. This side of him reminded me how much I didn’t deserve him.
Even if he didn’t know why.
* * *
Thirty minutes later,I unlocked my apartment door and cursed as the overprotective bastard with me slid inside before I could close him out.
“I’m home now. You can go. I promise.”
After refusing to acknowledge me as I repeatedly made the very reasonable suggestion that he be dropped off first the entire way here, he continued the deaf routine now, heading into my kitchen and pouring a glass of water.
He does not look good in my space, I reminded myself as he crossed the room and guided me to my own sofa, placing the glass in my hand and dropping to his knees to slip the shoes from my feet.
