His Responsibility

15

POV NICO

I take her out for breakfast, after stopping at her place for clothing. She changed in her bedroom as I scanned the living room. This woman is a reader, she has at least one hundred books lining the walls. Ranging from thriller to romance, little bit of everything. I am admiring her books when she walks out, she is wearing a pair of dark blue skinny jeans and a red tank top with a white cardigan over top. She has her bag slung over her shoulder, I go and take it from her.

"Ready to go?" I ask as I sling the bag over my own shoulder.

She gives a small nod and smiles.

"I guess so..." She looks around once and heads towards the door.

She stops with her hand on the door for a moment, I am afraid she will change her mind and insist on staying here. What will I do if she does?

She shakes her head and opens the door, locking it behind us. I put her bag in the trunk and drove us to a small café I found when I first moved to the area. I think she will like it. We go inside and I pull out her seat for her. She orders a tea and eggs Benedict, I get the same. We chit chat for a while, until our meals arrive. We eat in silence, a comfortable one.

"Can I ask you something?" She suddenly breaks our comfortable silence

"Anything" I take a sip of my coffee

"Why are you helping me? You didn't have to come and find me, and even if you did you could have dumped me off at the hospital. Why are you going through so much hassle for me?" She is looking at me directly in the eyes, usually she looks down at her hands when she asks a serious question.

"I told you, You are special and I want to protect you. I want you to be with me. I will protect you with my life if you let me" I answer her honestly, I see her eyes are trying to read mine. I don't hide it from her. I will protect her from here on out. She is my responsibility.

She stares at me for a while, not speaking. Taking it all in.

She seemed satisfied with this answer, for now. I could tell she had more questions but she held them back.

We spent the day at the beach, she changed into a bikini, not caring about the massive black bruise on her back.. and wandered along the sand. I get a lot of angry looks from people passing by us, mostly women, as they see her face and her back. They probably think I beat her, I don't pay them any attention. I just watch her smile... Letting the waves engulf her feet. She tried to get me to go into the water with her but I just hung back, sitting on the sand watching her. She was so excited to be near the water, her smile was contagious. Eventually I slipped off my shoes and went beside her, I took her hand and she smiled at me. There was a twinkle in her eyes when she smiled. She was breathtakingly beautiful.

I had to admit having the cool ocean waves crash down on my legs felt nice. When I noticed her starting to burn I suggested we head back.

"Can't we stay just a bit longer Nico? Please?" She gave me puppy dog eyes, if it were any other time I think I may have caved in, but seeing her pale skin flaring up with redness made my decision all the more clear.

"Hun, you're burning. I need to get you out of the sun" I tugged on her hand leading her towards our things on the sand. She slipped her shirt on and slid her feet into her shoes. I grabbed our bags and led us to the car. The ride home was peaceful, every time I looked over I couldn't help but see her bare legs angled towards me. She was still pouting a bit, but I knew she would thank me later tonight, once the burn sets in. I hadn't even thought about her skin being so fair, as I have a natural tan, I don't burn. Her fair complexion was opposite of mine, being a ginger made it worse for her. Next time I'll make sure I have some sunscreen on hand. I'll buy some next time I go to the store and keep it in the glove box for her.

We get home and I turn off the engine, she has fallen asleep. I gently woke her up. She goes upstairs to shower first, I tell her I'll start on dinner. I put some chicken in the oven and started sautéing some veggies. I go back to the car and grab her duffel bag from the trunk. I go upstairs and place the bag on the bed for her, making my way back downstairs to check on dinner, still going to bed a while. The veggies are done so I turn off the burner, the chicken was still frozen when I put it in the oven so at least an hour if not longer before it's cooked.

I hear the shower turn off, I start to make my way upstairs, I get to the bedroom, seeing the bathroom door cracked open, I go towards it. I see her sitting against the tub, in her panties and bra and she is rubbing lotion onto her skin. I leaned against the door watching her for a moment, she noticed I was standing there and smiled at me. After seeing her in her bikini earlier I hardly thought her underwear was much different. She didn't seem uncomfortable by me standing here. Her lotion smells like vanilla and coconut, it was mouth watering. She finished lathering her lotion on her body before coming over to me, handing me the bottle.

"Can you do my back?" She asks me

I swallow hard an nod, squeezing a small amount of lotion into my hands before I begin to rub it into her tender skin.

"Thank you for today, I had fun" She says softly, turning to look at me.

I had stopped massaging, my hands just held her hips, I slowly pulled her closer to me, her grip on my neck tightening it's hold. Finally I had her pressed right against me, I started to place soft kisses along her collarbones, up her neck. Her fingers reached into my hair gently tugging, making my grip on her hips slightly harder, not to the point I would hurt her. Suddenly her eyes met with mine and our mouths came crashing down on each other. She tasted so sweet. I begged for entrance with my tongue which she obliged immediately. I pulled her into my lap more, she hooked her legs around my waist, until she was sitting on my lap, her legs wrapped behind my back. She was straddling me and I loved it.