Chapter Four
Malice held her, this small woman who was trembling and sobbing against him. He had never been the cuddling, comforting type. Even when he had been with Molly he had never done this shit, but then again Molly had always been a strong, independent woman, and kept a lot of things buried inside of her. This girl was built like a woman, all lush curves that were for a man to hold onto, but right now she seemed so frail and small pressed against him. He shifted on the bed and pulled her even closer to him. She clutched at him, pulled at his cut as she gripped him like her life depended on it. “Hey now.” He tried to speak in a soothing voice, but it came out all gruff and shit. He gripped her shoulders and pulled her back so he could look in her face. His heart fucking broke at the sight of the tears that streamed down her cheeks. Something in him shifted, and he found himself brushing away the beads of her sadness with his thumbs. “No one that hurts you is worth your tears.” Malice would have probably felt like a fucking pussy on any other occasion for saying these things, but for some reason he didn’t feel like that saying them to her.
“I really am sorry about all of this.” She sniffled and wiped the rest of her tears away. “I don’t just break down like a freak in front of strangers.” She smiled, but it was one of those sad smiles that broken his heart even more. “I don’t break down at all, so this is totally not me right now." She went to pull away, but Malice wasn’t ready to let her go. Not yet at least. When he curled his fingers into her a little more and stopped her retreat she glanced up at him with a bit of confusion, but also relief.
“You’re not used to comfort.” He didn’t state it like a question
She shook her head, but at least she went back to letting him hold her. “No, I’m not.”
He wrapped his arms full around her shoulders and just held her. The scent of her surrounded him, and he actually found himself leaning down so that the tip of his nose brushed the top of her head. Malice actually inhaled deeply, smelled her fucking hair like some kind of pervert, but he didn’t give a shit. It felt good, and she smelled incredible, like the fresh rain and something sweet and floral. Yeah, sniffing her like some kind of damn animal probably was the creepiest thing he had ever done, but it was what it was, and it felt really damn right. “Truthfully, I’m not used to giving out comfort, so I suppose you and me are one and the same.”
She leaned back enough that she could look into his face. “Really?”
He nodded. Malice reached out and pushed her long bangs away from her forehead and tucked them behind her ear. “Yeah, which is probably why I am not in a relationship now.” Shit, he hadn’t meant to say that out loud, but the words had just come from him on their own. He found it really easy to say things to her, things he normally wouldn’t say to anyone, even though he hadn’t even spent an hour in her presence. But then again from the moment he held her in that parking lot with the rain pouring down he had felt off balanced with this woman. There was something different about her, and that drew Malice in.
“Looks like we are both pretty screwed up them.”
If anyone else would have said that to him he would have taken offense and then beaten their ass, but with Adrianna all he could do was nod and pull her close again. “Yeah, I suppose we are.” They stayed in that position for several seconds, but he liked just holding her. It felt good to have someone close for comfort alone, and not because he needed to get off.
“How does someone get a nickname like Malice anyway?” Her voice was soft, and he could feel her warm, humid breath through the cotton of his shirt.
“I got the name Malice from my brothers.”
That was all he was going to say about that, because even though he felt comfortable and different around this woman even after this short time, he also didn’t know her.
“You have a lot of siblings?”
At least she didn’t probe him. It wasn’t like his nickname was some kind of secret, but until he knew more about this woman he did need to remember that she was an outsider.
“I don’t mean those kinds of brothers.”
“Oh.”
She didn’t say anything else after that, but he had seen the way she looked at his cut and his Sergeant at Arms patch. Even if someone didn’t know much about the MC lifestyle he didn’t doubt they would have seen something on TV with all those reality and cable shows on. “Adrianna, how about we get back to what happened?” He felt her tense under his hold, but this needed to be brought to light and the sooner the better.