Lydia’s P.O.V
“Where are you going?” I paused halfway through getting my bag into the trunk of the car my dad had sent to take me back home as Lyric strode across the street to stand in front of me. “Are you leaving because of what happened today?”
“Don’t flatter yourself. I’m not leaving because of you,” I told him as I shut the trunk after getting my bag inside and asked the chauffeur to lock it. “My family’s throwing an engagement party for my brother and his to-be-wife and I have to attend the party at all costs.”
“Oh?” Lyric seemed taken aback for a second before he regained his composure. “You sound like you don’t want to attend.”
“I hate parties.” I shrugged.
“It’s your brother’s engagement party.” Lyric reminded me before adding…quit that, demanding something completely absurd. “I wanna come with you.”
“What? Why?” I almost snapped.
“Well, I love parties and I was feeling like getting outta town for a couple of days.” Lyric shrugged as he leaned his hips against the side of the car.
“Is Seth filing a lawsuit or something against you?” I asked suspiciously.
Lyric just barked out a harsh laugh as he answered me. “Kitty, if he did that then he’d have to explain to the cops and his father how he almost raped a minor and assaulted another woman while she was trying to save said minor.”
“I wasn’t assaulted…not exactly.” I shook my head but Lyric stepped forward at that instant, making my breath catch in my throat.
“Yeah?” He reached out and traced a finger lightly on the cut on my cheek. “Well, I see things differently.”
He didn’t remove his hand immediately but purposely dragged his fingers down my cheek, along the column of my neck before pushing back my hair from my shoulder. I bit my lip at how my stomach was suddenly filled with butterflies. He was doing it on purpose, I knew that for sure but I couldn’t help but feel affected by the little things that he kept doing.
A car went by at that moment, blaring its horns to warn pedestrians off the street and just like that, the spell was broken. Lyric took a step back from me, dropping his hand from my cheek and I instantly felt the loss of his warmth.
“How long do you need to get packing?” I asked, making a split second decision before my mind started weighing in the pros and cons of why I was even considering taking Lyric to a family occasion.
It wasn’t entirely a family only or private occasion however, since almost the entire town would probably be in attendance, but I hardly knew Lyric and bringing him with me would raise a lot of red flags and I was still going to bring him anyway. Why not live dangerously once in a while? And Lyric wasn’t the type of guy you could easily get rid of. He’d eventually find a way to follow me one way or another and then I’d have a hard time explaining to my family why a guy from college was chasing me around.
“My house is just a couple blocks away,” Lyric said then, breaking me out of my thoughts. “It’ll take me about twenty minutes to throw everything together and be back here on foot.”
“Fine,” I told him before going over to the chauffeur and telling him of the delay in plans. “Twenty minutes,” I warned him when I came back. “Any longer and I’d be gone. And we’ll be coming back the day after tomorrow so pack light. And don’t forget a tux.”
“Yes, ma’am!” Lyric gave me a mock salute and then he was jogging across the street and was gone the next second.
Lyric showed up exactly twenty minutes later with a medium sized bag slung over his shoulders and this time, he was no longer in the dark blue jeans and black T-shirt that he had worn when he had showed up earlier, but he’d switched his casual attire for something more formal. He now wore a dark green shirt with the sleeves rolled up to the elbows and black dress pants with formal black shoes instead of sneakers. I felt my breath catch in my throat when he neared, an almost shy smile on his face as he placed the bag near the trunk.
God, the man was handsome! I couldn’t just call him boy anymore because the person standing in front of me was a very hot, very breathtaking man. For the first time, I felt the impact of just how gorgeous he was. And I also couldn’t ignore the fact that he had changed clothing because he was coming with me, to my house.
“You didn’t have to change,” I told him, my voice coming out a little breathless before I cleared my throat. “No one would mind if you wore your T-shirts and jeans.”
“Says the girl who’s ditched her own jeans.” Lyric pointed to the black leggings I was wearing paired with a hand knitted sweater in peach that reached mid-thigh. “Plus, I want to impress your folks.”
“I’m pretty sure my folks would like you anyway,” I shook my head as I said so. Lyric could be very charming when he wanted to be and that was the reason why he had just as many admirers as he had haters. “You’re the first boy I’m bringing home after the accident, in fact, you are the first person I’m bringing home after the accident, so they’ll pretty much assume we’re romantically involved.”
Lyric didn’t speak until we were inside the car and well on our way towards my home and when he did speak, his voice was forlorn. “It must be nice to have a mother who fusses over you like that. Who’d be super excited to see her daughter bring a guy home or watch her go to prom with her date. I bet she’d even show your boyfriend embarrassing childhood pictures. Did she take pictures of you from prom night?”
I shook my head, not liking that unknown emotion in his voice. It was like he never got to experience such things. “No. I never went to prom. The only time I went out of the house after the accident was to give my final exams before graduation.”
“Sorry I did-“
“It’s alright,” I shrugged. “I didn’t want to go to prom anyway. What about your prom?”
“Nah, skipped it too.” Lyric gave a rueful smile. “We were all at the hospital at the time, worrying about my brother.”
“You did mention him once,” I remembered him telling me he had a crippled brother. “What happened?”
“He was a Navy SEAL agent,” there was unhidden pride in his voice as he described his brother. “His name’s Derek and he’s ten years older than me. I was more of a surprise baby for my parents. I always admired how awesome he looked in his uniform and he was always my hero even though I don’t really have that deep of a relationship with my brother like you do with yours. He was already away for college by the time I turned eight. But I do remember how everyone had been devastated when we heard the news that he had been in a bombing accident while on a mission and the only way to save him had been the amputation of his legs from the knees down. Which is why, all I want is to graduate from college with a perfect GPA and be fit enough so I can join SEAL and fulfill my brother’s dream”
As much as I was touched by his story, I understood one thing very clearly. Lyric had never and would never pity me for what I had gone through. If there was anything I understood about him it was the fact that he respected strength and that’s why he was being nice to me…because he respected me.
I felt a protective layer around my heart fall to pieces, leaving me vulnerable to Lyric in a way I had never been with a man. And it terrified me to my core to realize that Lyric was becoming important to me despite how we’d gotten off on the wrong foot.