Dirk: A Stepbrother Romance(67)

“Here,” the stranger said, holding her hair back, “Lower your head and take deep breaths.”

She had never had a panic attack before, but she imagined she must be having one now. Her vision was blurred and even though she was aware of him speaking she couldn’t hear what he was saying. There was a ringing in her ears that was getting louder and stars swam in front of her eyes. She lowered her head between her knees and sucked in some air, filling her lungs until they felt like they were going to burst. Only then did she exhale, feeling a little of her tension ease with the escaping breath.

“Are you alright? What happened? Did they hurt you?” he was asking her. Her head slowly started to stop spinning with each deep breath and she managed to lift her eyes to meet his.

Those eyes. They were incredible.

“I’m okay,” she whispered.

He smiled at her and brushed some hair off her face before realizing he still had blood on his hands.

“Sorry,” he said pulling them back and casually wiping them off with what appeared to be a silken handkerchief he pulled from a back pocket. “I’m pretty sure I broke that guy’s nose,” he looked back over his shoulder at the guy lying unconscious in the middle of the road and shrugged. He then shifted his attention to the guy who had been holding her down. He was clearly breathing, but was going to have one hell of a headache based on the size of the egg forming on his forehead. The blood had mostly dried. “And what happened to that other guy?”


There was something about the way that he asked it that seemed odd to her. Or maybe it was the look in his eyes. She couldn’t be sure. But she quickly lost whatever she thought she had detected as the emotion of the night started to finally coming to the surface.

“Thank you,” she said, “You saved me.”

As she said the words she felt the tears welling up in her eyes and knew that she wouldn’t be able to keep them from bursting forth. It had been a very emotional and traumatic day, to say the least. She covered her face with her hands and her body immediately succumbed to the tidal wave of emotion she had been holding back, not just tonight but for months. Unable to hold it back any longer, and triggered by this latest trauma, her body shook as she finally allowed all that had built up to burst forth. There was something about this guy that was somehow just different, but it was also undeniable that his presence just made it feel safe for her to let the tears fall.

“Hey,” the stranger said with sincere concern as her tears began to ebb. “It’s ok, you’re safe now.” He delicately put a hand on her shoulder.

“I’m sorry,” she whispered.

“You don’t have to apologize,” he laughed, softly stroking her hair.

“Thank you so much,” she panted, looking up into his eyes again, “I can’t believe I was so stupid.” She tried to speak though renewed sobs.

“They could have killed me ... they were going to ...I had just stopped and was trying to … ,”she said, a fresh wave of tears washing over her face again, “I’ve never been so careless before, I can’t believe I put myself in that situation.”

She got to her feet and rushed to her car door, yanking the handle up as she turned back to the stranger.

“Hey, don’t be so hard on yourself. No sense beating yourself up about it. So just let that go right now,” he said gently, looking into her eyes earnestly.

“Thank you,” she said. “I’ve just been through a lot today. I can’t thank you enough, but I need to just go. I can’t deal with this right now.”

“Where are you going?” he shook his head, looking up and down the street. “Are you lost? You’re obviously not from around here, are you?”

Laurie bit her lip and looked down at the ground. She was confused and embarrassed and totally blown away by how gorgeous this heroic stranger was, she didn’t know whether she was coming or going. The whole evening, or morning rather, she thought, was taking on a surreal quality. First dealing with Brad, and then this … and then that weird animal or whatever it was. And let’s just throw the most incredible looking man in the world into the mix for good measure.

“I don’t have a clue,” she held her hands out, “I, I don’t have a clue what I’m doing, ok?”

There was stirring behind her and she knew it was the man who had run coming round. The stranger walked past her to stand above him. Without hesitation he punched him square in the face, knocking him out cold. Well, at least he was still alive. Not that she was that concerned for his welfare. Still, she wondered exactly what had happened while she was out. She definitely felt the guy deserved it, but how did the stranger know that? He didn’t seem like the type to just throw punches around without good reason. She guessed it must have happened like he said. They had some kind of fight while she was out. She let it go. She was dealing with enough already.

“Let’s get out of here,” he said. “Don’t want the cops to find us with these two.”

“Well, shouldn’t we tell the police?” Laurie asked, uncertainly, even though she was ready to get out of there herself.

“No,” he said, wrapping his arm around her shoulder, “Don’t worry, I’ll deal with those guys later. Do you want me to drive?”

“I think that might be a good idea,” she responded gratefully. She didn’t have any energy left to argue, even if she had wanted to. He waited for her to climb into the car and then got in after her. She scooted over to the passenger side and let him take the wheel. He started the car and closed the door.