Just to be Left Alone (2 page)

Jason
grinned devilishly.

“I
guess he was surprised at the 30% tip. Let’s get out of here.”

Grabbing
my arm, he led me to the door and then outside to his S.U.V. As we got to my
side of the vehicle, he pinned me to the passenger window. I turned as far as I
could to look at him and he had that same look he had at the table when his
hand was on my leg. It was creepy.
 

Before
I could even breathe, his lips were on mine in a crushing kiss. The force of it
smacked my head against the window. I moaned at the sudden pain in my skull. Though
it wasn’t a noise of satisfaction on my part, the mere sound made him more
aggressive. He leaned into me, his chest pressed against me and his legs on
both sides of mine. My arms were pinned down by his. I gulped for air as he
kept kissing at my neck.

“Jason,
stop it.”

“Samantha,
don’t act like this. I can’t make the evening better if you keep fighting me.”

He
pushed me back against the window and tried to kiss me again, except I just
couldn’t take it, not anymore.

“Jason,
please stop. I just want to go home. We’ll talk about this some other time, okay?”
The tears began to fall.

He
looked liked he would hit me. I cringed.

“What
do you mean you want to go home? I’ve been waiting for tonight for a long time.
I think it’s about time we moved things to a more physical level. You can’t
keep me waiting forever.”

“I’m
sorry if you feel that this has all been a game, but it’s not. Just please let
me go and I’ll get out of your hair. You won’t even have to take me home.”

“Out
of my hair, you say? Samantha, you’re through my skin and in my blood. I wake
up thinking of your skin against mine and this is the way you want things?”

He
looked so hurt and betrayed but held me so tight that my breath hitched. I
didn’t know how to react. I back pedaled.

“Look,
I know you’ve had a rough week and needed to blow off some steam, but this
isn’t it. Why don’t I just go back into the restaurant and call for a ride. You
can go on home and get some rest.”

“No,
I brought you here and I’m taking you home. Quit giving me this crap talk, you
sound like Felicia. We’re going to finish this night, just like I planned, so
quit looking at me like that.”

He
tried kissing me again. I wrenched away.

“Stop
being a bitch.”

He
kissed me so hard that I tasted my own blood from his teeth grinding against my
tender lips. Instinct kicked in. I brought my knee up as hard as I could. He
cussed and bent over. I tried to back away from the door. He grabbed me in an
instant. I looked at his face. It was as if a split personality had surfaced.
This wasn’t the same sweet, patient Jason I’d been dating. This was a raging
bull and I was nothing but red. I saw his other hand come toward me and I
ducked, but I never felt anything. I looked out from behind my arm to see the
tall man in motorcycle gear holding Jason’s wrist. He was larger than Jason,
with black hair and gorgeous eyes.

“I
think the lady wants to be left alone,” the stranger said.

“Buddy,
you have no business here so I suggest you let go and buzz off on your
tricycle.”

Jason
tried to shake off the grip of the dark-haired man, but failed. The stranger
stepped closer to Jason, while he looked straight at me.

“Do
you want this guy to take this evening any further?”

All
I could do was stand there and shake my head at the man helping me out.

“Then
please grab your purse and come over by me.”

He
watched Jason as I followed instructions and then he spoke to Jason again.

“Now
I’m going to let you go and you’re going to get in your vehicle. I’ll make sure
that this lady gets home and if she wants to ever hear from you again, then
she’ll call
you
. If you try to make a
scene you’ll not be happy with the results, so let it go. Do you understand
me?”

He
waited for Jason to nod. When he didn’t get a response he bent Jason’s wrist
backward. Jason yelped

“I’ll
go though you’ll be sorry for this.” He finally sputtered out.

Jason
looked at me with that devil face. There was a fierce determination in his gaze
and a smile that was enough to make me want to take a step back.

“Samantha,
you’ll come back to me when you see things were great. I know you will.”

He
looked away and the dark stranger dropped Jason’s arm before grabbing mine to
lead me quickly away from the S.U.V. Jason jumped in, slammed the door, gunned
the motor and careened out of the parking lot. There was a trail of smoke from
the rubber he’d burnt up on the way out.

“Are
you okay?”

“I’m
fine. Thank you for coming to my rescue. He’s never been like that before, I
swear. It was like a whole new personality coming out, an evil twin. I just
wanted to go home, yet he took it as us going to bed. I don’t understand what I
said wrong.”

“Some
guys don’t need words, just actions. I couldn’t help but over hear some of your
conversation and didn’t think things were too safe, so I followed you out
here.”

“Thank
you. I’m glad you were here. I’d hate to think what he’d have done to me if you
hadn’t stopped him.” I shuddered.

“Is
there someone you should call? I’d give you a ride home, except I only have one
helmet.” He shrugged toward the bike with its waiting helmet.

“Yeah,
I’ll call one of my girlfriends.”

I
grabbed my phone and texted Raven. I briefly filled her in on my date going
sour, and she was on the way to come get me in just a few short minutes.

“My
friend’s on the way.”

“I’ll
stay with you until she gets here, just in case the not so gentle Jason decides
to come back.”

Alarms
went off in my head. Was I going from the pot and into the fire?

“Wait.
How did you know his name?”

“I
heard enough to know that your name is Samantha and not ‘bitch’,” he said.

That
comment made me feel better. He’d already made two comments about Jason’s bad
attitude. That and him coming to my rescue were points in his favor. It was
then that I had a moment to take a better look at him under the street light. The
ends of his ink black hair were under the jacket he wore, so I couldn’t see how
long it was. His eyes were dark forest green with lusciously long eyelashes. He
had great cheekbones and looked Native American.

“I
need to pick up my dinner. Walk with me while you wait for your ride? I had
them box my order when I came out here to check on you. The waiter was
concerned for you as well, after we both overheard your disagreement.”

The
waiter must have seen us coming through the window, because he brought the take-out
bag to us at the front door. The waiter thanked the biker for the nice tip and
then smiled at me.

“I
see you’re all right and have changed companions for the evening,” the waiter
said with a wink toward the biker.

How
embarrassing was it that two complete strangers were more concerned about my welfare
than my boyfriend? I forced myself to smile at them.

After
saying goodnight to our waiter, we sat at the bench outside the front door.

“By
the way, I’m Conrad Forsythe.”

He
offered his hand across the bench and smiled at me. I shook it and was surprised
at the jolt of electricity I felt at the mere touch.

“Samantha
Malone. I’m very pleased to meet you.”

Just
then, Raven pulled up at the curb.

Shockingly,
I realized I was still holding Conrad’s hand. I immediately let go and put my
hands in my lap. “Sammy, are you okay?” Her voice was laced with concern.

She
jumped out of the car and bent over me at the bench.

“I
haven’t been Sammy since we were kids, and yes, I’m fine thanks to Conrad over
here. He came along when things started getting rough and made Jason leave.”

Raven
put her own hand out to him.

“Anyone
who saves one of my friends is a friend of mine. Raven Kilmore.”

He
shook her hand and smiled back. “Nice to meet you Raven, I’m Conrad Forsythe.”

Raven
swept the hair away from my face like when we were young.

“I’ll
take you over to my place tonight and let you sleep in tomorrow. I won’t take
the chance of Jason waiting at your place tonight. If he’s gone that much off
his rocker then you need to be tucked away from him. We’ll deal with him over
the phone tomorrow.”

Conrad
stood up with his food then walked me to the passenger side of the car with
Raven. He shut the car door as Raven got into the driver’s side and started the
car. He put his hand on my cheek.

“Be
careful, Samantha. And goodnight.”

“Thank
you for protecting me.”

“Take
care of her Raven,” he said as he looked at her over my head

“I
will and thank you for being there when you didn’t have to be,” Raven replied
with a sincere smile.

“Goodnight
ladies.”

He
tapped the car door and waved before he backed away. Raven pulled away and
drove toward her penthouse.

“I
can’t believe this happened.”

“Thank
you for coming to get me. The girls are going to freak when they hear about
this. Felicia will start crying and Chaz will want to smack him.”

“As
if I don’t want to do both right now?” Raven asked.

“Yeah,
you probably do. You’re the coolest headed one out of all of us. You know it,
so be proud.”

“Well,
let’s get you to my place and I’ll fix us some drinks. You can either talk or
you can go to bed, whichever suits you better.”

I
knew she wanted the full version of the story.

“I’ll
let you know when we get there.”

We
rode in silence the rest of the way. Once we got to her place, Raven was true
to her word and had me in a chair with a soda in minutes. I told her as much of
the story as I could get out. She never interrupted. Both our drinks were empty
when I was done.

“You
already know how I feel about violence, Sammy. I personally would delete Jason
from my life. The decision is yours to make.”

“I
don’t believe I’ll be seeing Jason again. I’ll wait until he’s at work and
leave a message on his machine letting him know to stay away from me. If he
bothers you girls about me, you can say whatever you want.”

“Alright,
that’s settled then. Let’s get you in bed for some rest and we’ll call the
girls in the morning.”

I
got comfortable in the guest room and fell asleep within minutes. I dreamed of
a dark-haired rider saving me from a fate worse than death.

* * * *

While
making breakfast, we called the girls on conference call. As I expected,
Felicia was fighting tears and Chastity was fuming at her old friend, Jason,
for turning out this way.

 
“I never would’ve set you two up if he’d been
like that,” Chastity snapped.

“Samantha,
are you okay?” Felicia sniffed

“She’s
fine girls,” Raven shouted into the speaker from the stove.

“If
you had called last night, then we would have come over,” Felicia fussed

“No,
we would’ve fussed over Sam and pummeled Jason. Neither was what she needed to
happen, Felicia,” Chastity chimed in

“You’re
right. Thanks for getting her Raven,” Felicia said with a sigh.

Chastity
interrupted. “Oh, what about your tall stranger? Did you get his number?”

Surprised,
Raven said, “I didn’t think to ask you that last night.”

“No,
I didn’t get it. We only exchanged names, not numbers.”

“I
wonder if he recognized Raven?” Inquired Felicia

“Doesn’t
every red blooded male?” Replied Chastity

“Guys,
he only had eyes for Sammy.” Raven brushed off the idea as she ate.

“Bad
luck girl, maybe he’ll look you up.” Felicia was always hopeful.

“At
least he was there when we needed him and that’s what counts. I hate to cut
out, but I have to open up the store. Love Ya. Bye.”

Chastity
blew kisses and hung up. We all got off the phone to do our own separate
things. We ate and then got dressed. My cell phone rang.

“Hello?”

“Please
don’t hang up!” Jason said quickly

“You
have one minute and then I
will
hang
up.”

Raven
heard me and sat down beside me.

“I’m
sorry. I had too much to drink last night and pushed too far. I was a total
jerk. Say you’ll forgive me?”

“I
don’t know if I can forgive you. You went way too far. I don’t know why, but
it’s done now.
We’re
done.”

“Please
don’t sound so fatal, Samantha,” he whined.

“Jason,
I don’t want to see you anymore. You hurt me last night. You wouldn’t listen to
me and acted totally out of bonds. A complete stranger had to step in and help
me because you were out of control. It was inexcusable and I can’t be with
someone like that.”

“I
know what I did was wrong, but you can give me another chance.”

“I
gave you chances all night and look how it turned out.”

“I’m
sorry. I wish I could change what happened, except I can’t. Please give me a
chance?”

“Maybe
we can be friends later. Right now I need some space from last night. Please
don’t contact me. Goodbye.”

I
hung up.

“Are
you okay?” Raven questioned

“It
seems so, so we’ll see. He acted genuinely upset. Maybe later we can be friends
just not right now.”

“I
agree with you. Don’t worry about his feelings because you were the one he
hurt. Not the other way around. Let’s just move on and not worry about that
part anymore.”

She
patted me on the back and we agreed. I got my stuff and she drove me home since
it seemed safe now that I’d made my feelings clear to him on the phone.