Hooked [Complete]

13. Not Slow Enough

Author's Note: 

This chapter contains a sexy, sweet interlude! Pretty vivid, but not explicit. Skip it...or share it, whichever your preference for love scenes may be!  You are probably going to want to do one or the other, ha-ha!

Song for the Chapter: Bella Donna by the Avett Brothers. 

This one's perfect for Sean and Dru. Belladonna can be either a medicine...or a poison. And like the couple in the song...Sean and Dru seem to struggle with both timing and miscommunication issues! This is pretty much their anthem for the first half of the book!

One more thing: This is the LONGEST chapter of the book so far...they are so good together, I just couldn't stop!

Sean wouldn't stop, and Dru couldn't catch him. He had sped up the trail, ignoring or not hearing her calling after him, while Dru stumbled behind him, cursing her shoes. He was making his way between the South Dorms before Dru hit sodded lawn behind the dorms that allowed her to take her Toms off and sprint to catch up with him. She grabbed him by the arm, and felt the sting of energy between them. She heard his breath catch. He felt it, too, but he didn't acknowledge it as he turned around. She hoped he just thought it was a strong static shock.

"What do you want, Dru?" he asked, somewhat coldly.

Dru opened her mouth, but had no words. What did she want? Did she want him? Did she just want to be his friend, his comfort?

"I...I thought you might need your hand looked at." Beneath the fluorescent light, she could see his knuckles were bruised and swollen.

Sean bowed his head, like he was mustering control. When he looked at her, his jaw was still tense, but his hazel eyes were softening. "I could use some ice, I guess." He shook his hand loosely, an attempt to relieve the pain she knew he must be feeling. "Hitting Hearne was like punching a wall."

"Have you ever done that before—punched a wall?" Dru whispered, dreading to hear the answer.

"No," Sean admitted. "And I've never punched anybody in the face either, so what the hell do I know? Maybe it always hurts this much." He grinned sheepishly, his anger bleeding away a little.

Dru nodded. That was the answer she suspected and it made all this so much worse. At least the others were volatile to start with. She didn't want Sean to feel this way. She was wanted to soothe the hand, and the anger, and yet she knew she should walk away. She was no good at soothing anger, only stoking it.

Still, she could give him some ice, right? How dangerous could that be?

"Come on, Bruiser," she joked lightly, "let's see about that hand."

Dru swiped her key card at the back entrance to her dorm, and led Sean silently up the stairs. Entering her room, she flipped a switch and a strings of white lights lining the ceiling cast her room in a soft glow. Dru didn't turn on more lights as they entered, hoping the low light would help ease Sean's state of mind. He sat on Lana's bed, and Dru busied herself collecting ice from their mini-fridge into a plastic bag.

"They look good at night," he said quietly, gesturing to the lights.

She stopped, the ice bag half-filled. Had Sean never been in her room at night—to see the lights he had helped her and Lana string the first week of school? She guessed he hadn't.

"Yeah, I really like them. Did I ever tell you thank you for helping put them up?"

He nodded, as he slid his phone from his pocket with his good hand. "Of course you did. More than once."