Total pages in book: 47
Estimated words: 46858 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 234(@200wpm)___ 187(@250wpm)___ 156(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 46858 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 234(@200wpm)___ 187(@250wpm)___ 156(@300wpm)
Ryan laughs. “It might be but I won’t go as easily as I did yesterday.”
“You’re pathetic,” I snap.
Ryan’s sneer deepens as he looks at me. “Look at this little firecracker. Or maybe little isn’t the right word. Get lost, bitch, before you make me….”
“Make you do what?”
Everybody turns at the sound of Eli’s calm voice.
It’s loud enough to cut through the music, but he’s not shouting. He gives me a look, his eyes blazing, silently telling me he’d never let anybody hurt me.
“Well?”
Eli rolls his shoulder as though getting ready for a fight. He strides past Mary and me and stares at the man. Ryan is about the same height, just as wide, and at least half Eli’s age.
But Eli doesn’t even look remotely worried.
“Relax, old man.”
“I’ll relax,” Eli says, “when you apologize to my woman, pack up your shit and leave.”
“Your woman…,” Ryan looks at Mary.
“No,” Eli snaps.
I open my mouth, meaning to tell him to stop. He can’t say this, not in front of Mary and especially not with the head of the college, Jocelyn, striding across the lawn with security in tow.
“My. Fucking. Woman.” Eli looks at me, his muscles throbbing in his pale green shirt, his sleeves rolled up to show the pulsing of his forearms, his intense eyes afire. He turns back to Ryan. “You don’t get to speak to her that way. Nobody does. Apologize, pack your shit, and leave.”
Ryan looks at me. For a second, hesitation moves across his features, making me wonder if he’s going to do the right thing.
I can feel Izzy looking at me. Out of the corner of my eye, I’m pretty sure I can see her mouth wide open, her eyes just as wide, shock taking hold of her.
Then Ryan laughs. “Nah.”
“No?” Eli walks forward, standing a foot from Ryan, looking him directly in the eye. “Then I’ll make you leave.”
“Relax, old man. Don’t make me hurt you.”
Eli laughs darkly. “Go on, then. Hurt me.”
“Fuck this,” Ryan snaps and then throws himself into a vicious right hook.
I gasp, my hands covering my mouth, as Ryan’s fist arches toward my man’s face. Time seems to slow as the fist makes a terrifying path.
I know the difference between a trained punch and an untrained one from so many years of watching Hudson compete. This guy knows what he’s doing.
Eli waits until the last moment and then ducks to the side, spinning around with an elbow that catches Ryan across the jaw.
The other men spring into action, all rushing Eli.
People are yelling. Izzy for it to stop. Jocelyn is trying to get control. The security rushes in, but they’re too slow to stop Eli’s devastating whirlwind of violence on Ryan.
He’s like a tornado but graceful too.
He slips another punch and hooks his arm around the attacker, throwing him against another man. Ryan springs up, as if to hit him, and Eli spins and kicks him in the belly, moving with perfect form, moving like a predator finally let out of the cage.
Ryan gasps, keeling over.
The security guards are wrangling the other men, but Eli grabs Ryan and drags him over to me. Ryan is gasping and shuddering, his hands over his stomach.
“Apologize,” Eli roars, kicking Ryan to his knees. “Now.”
Ryan stares up at me, his lips trembling. His words come out past gasping breaths. “I’m… ah… I’m sorry.”
Eli throws him to the ground, and then walks over to me. I’m aware half the college is out here now, dozens of eyes aimed at us.
But when Eli reaches down and takes my hands, everybody else drifts away. Everything else ceases to matter.
“Are you okay?” he asks.
I nod, staring up at him, my whole body pulsing with the force of my heartbeat, with the proof he meant everything he said.
He’s risked his job, risked injury against terrible odds, risked so much to defend me.
“Yeah,” I whisper.
“You’re mine, Della,” he says intensely. “You’ll always be mine. And I’ll always protect you.”
Suddenly, Jocelyn is at our side. She normally has a strict schoolmistress manner, but it’s amped up now.
“My office, Elias,” she says sternly. “Now.”
Eli frowns, nodding. “I’ll see you soon, Della.”
“Soon,” I say firmly, giving his hand a squeeze.
The security guards lead the men off the campus. I wonder if anybody’s going to call the cops, but nobody mentions it.
A couple of the men have bloody noses and Ryan’s still gasping, but everybody saw that Ryan threw the first punch, and everybody saw the other men leaped in and joined the would-be assault.
Mary looks at me for a moment.
“It’s not what you think,” I murmur.
“What do I think?” she replies.
“I don’t know, that he’s like that other teacher. The one who was fired. But it’s not like that. We’re the real deal, Mary. We want to be together forever. We’re going to be.”
She says nothing, just turns, and hurries after Jocelyn and Eli.