Chapter 43 I'm Done Waiting
Author's Note:
Hey guys! I just wanted to give you a heads up that while I’m trying to post chapters quickly, I have two new projects in the works, so updates for SIR may have a bit of a delay as I continue to write my other things. I’m also having a pretty rough fucking time emotionally right now, which makes everything a million times more difficult. Any good vibes you can manifest are much appreciated.
Now, onward!
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Theo comes to check on me a few hours later. Marcus comes by 2 hours after that. Both of them bring me food but I just can't stomach it.
Apparently, David has been barking orders at all of them nonstop, and I know it isn’t because he is angry at them. He is angry at the whole situation.
He is out most of the day, trying to find out some more information on the whole shooting fiasco. How they knew where I was, that I was leaving at that exact time, who was in the car.
Both Marcus and Harlan try to tell David it is their fault that I ended up shooting at whoever it was, but he knows I made that choice myself.
I don’t say many words to Theo or Marcus, spending the time thinking about everything that is happening, trying to sort out my emotions. I know when he gets back that he will want to talk. So I try to ready myself.
But when I hear the front door close while I am still upstairs in bed, I feel incredibly unprepared.
It is close to 10pm now, when I hear the muffled conversation of David and Marcus from downstairs. It sounds short, blunt, harsh. Not like the conversations they usually have together. Then the door shuts again, and I figure it will be Marcus leaving. It is a few minutes before I hear the footsteps on the stairs, and my heart instantly starts beating faster.
The floorboards creak under his feet, and I hear him pause, the shadow of his figure visible from the gap underneath the door.
Then he walks away.
I let out a breath, realising in that moment how not ready I am for this conversation, relaxing back into the bed when I hear the door close down the hall. He’s gone into his own bedroom.
Turning over, I act as though I am going to sleep, but my eyes are wide open, staring at the wall. Thinking about whether I really need to talk to him tonight, or if it can wait until the morning. He’s been gone for hours, and perhaps he had an exhausting day, and doesn’t have the energy to do it tonight.
After a few minutes, I feel too restless to sleep.
Turning on my back, I stare at the ceiling, wondering if he is still awake or if he has fallen asleep already. Wondering if maybe I should just go to his room and get it over with.
Then I hear more footsteps.
Slower this time. As though trying not to make any noise. But the house is rather old, and the floorboards give him away.
For the second time, I see his shadow under my door. My chest feels tight as I wait. Wait to see whether he will open the door.
For the second time, he retreats back to his bedroom.
I can’t explain the wave of anger rushing through me, making me suddenly get up from the bed and storm to my door, wrenching it open and marching to his room.
Throwing open his door, I stomp towards him as he stands pacing in the middle of the room.
“I have had enough of this!” I yell, making him freeze on the spot and turn to me with wide eyes. “Of us TIPTOEING around each other and never actually SAYING anything!”
“Nora... what–”
“Are you EVER just going to talk to me?!” I ask, and he just looks at me dumbfounded. “I’m not some delicate ornament that needs protecting in bubble wrap. I can defend myself!”
“You shouldn’t have to!” He finally shouts back. “You shouldn’t have had to do any of it, they shouldn’t have known where you were, which car you were in, none of it!”
“Well they did, and Harlan and Marcus were the only reason we all got back in one piece! So you can stop being an asshole to them too.”
“You think I’m being an asshole?” He scoffs, walking up to me. “You haven’t seen how mean I can be yet, Nora. When I find out the son-of-a-bitch that sold us out–”
“You think someone told them?”
“How else could it have happened? Any of this? Finding where you lived? Knowing where you were?” He asks, running his hands over his face angrily as he turns away from me, resuming his pacing again. “I’ve been too lax, too distracted. I’m getting everyone in that building checked, IDs, fingerprints taken–”
“You sound ridiculous.” I laugh mirthlessly. “You’re fingerprinting every single person who lives in your building? You’re mad!”
“Someone got in.” He spits, storming across the room until he is almost toe to toe with me. “Someone who was working with them. I almost lost you.”
“But you didn’t.”
“Because you were careless enough to shoot out of a moving car!”
“It was either them or us! And if you didn’t want me shooting then why did you take me to the practice range, huh?!”
“Don’t remind me.” He snaps. “You can shoot a gun very well Nora, but that doesn’t mean you SHOULD at every opportunity!”
“Jesus Christ,” I groan. “I should have never agreed to any of this. I should have just said no when you came to the club, stayed at my house, I never should have–”
He shoves me back against the wall, his lips crashing to mine, the sudden change in atmosphere dizzying my brain.
Not giving me a chance to breathe, he is grabbing me, anywhere he can touch, pulling me closer and closer, licking his way into my mouth.
When he grabs the back of my thighs, lifting me off the ground, our mouths separate making me gasp as he shoves me back against the wall even harder.
“I’m never letting you out of my sight again.” He growls, before wrapping a hand around the side of my neck and pulling my lips back to his.
It is messy, all teeth and no elegance. But I kiss him back with the same level of eagerness, the same heightened emotions.
I groan when his tongue runs across my bottom lip, and I open my mouth to let him in, tangling our tongues together as I throw my arms around his neck, wanting more, but knowing that I can’t get too carried away.
He suddenly turns, gripping my thigh and my ass harshly as he moves across the room, bending down and starting to lay me back onto the bed. Putting his hands beside me, he starts crawling forwards. The movement is urging me back, onto the pillows, to lay down on them, and that’s when I suddenly blink back to reality.
“David…” I breathe, the word making him pull back. Almost forgetting what I was going to say as I look up into black, lust-filled eyes, his body towering over mine, and I swallow before continuing. “I don’t want to start something we can’t finish.”
“Fine.” He replies, acting as if he hasn’t really heard what I say, moving down to kiss my neck.
“I… mean it,” I try again. “I can’t do this if we’re just going to stop halfway.”
I can’t take another night of being let down, of getting so close and it being torn away, of having yet another orgasm from his hands or his mouth. It is amazing, but it’s not what I want right now. I want David. All of David.
“Well then, let’s not stop halfway.” He murmurs into my skin. His words sear through me, lighting a fire up my spine that makes me visibly shudder underneath him.
He moves back up to look me in the eyes, as I try to control the floods of emotions rippling through me.
“I’m done waiting.” He states. “Aren’t you?”
I blink up at him. Nothing in his face tells me that he means anything other than what he is saying. Which means that if I say yes, I’d finally get what I have been aching for for over a year.
“Yeah.” I reply quickly. “Yes, no more waiting, please.”
The wicked grin that takes over his lips is instant, and he leans back down, smashing his lips to mine.