…Please just let it go boys. Ogling me would be bad enough.
Taylor instantly stiffened. I knew from his tense-ness that he wasn't happy about these men talking to me like that. Against my hopes, they all turned and stated cat calling me. "Oh sexy, you can come teach me anytime." "Baby I've been bad, will you spank me?"
As we walked by Taylor said "Back off guys." They took that as an exciting invitation. "Sexy you should leave this asshole and come with us we'd have fun." Taylor looked down at me and I shook my head. Neither of us needed the publicity of a public fight. But then, as we were looking at each other, one of the men came over and grabbed my ass! Taylor saw him out of the corner of his eye just as I jumped forward and yelled, "What the hell!" That man, who looked to be about 23ish, had the smuggest look when we both swung around.
Taylor was instantly pissed. He shoved the guy back with both hands. The man stumble stepped a step or two but then came back with his chest puffed up. Taylor's hands were fisted at his sides. He was seething but was trying to contain it. I was just about to step between them when the guy puffed his chest out and started pushing back at Taylor, yelling "What? You think you're fucking big?"
Taylor didn't say a word and just shoved the guy away from him again. This time when the guy, who seemed to be anticipating the shove, rebounded Taylor caught him with a stiff right hook to his jaw. I heard the thud of Taylor's powerful fist impacting on the man's face. To my surprise, he stayed standing. He swayed a little but came up, spitting out a little blood and saying "Is that all you got? I bet your bitch could hit better than that."
I reached out for Taylor's arm to stop him. I caught just the wrist but he shook out of it quickly, pushing me back a little. The crowd of the guy's friends had surrounded us then. This whole situation was getting dangerous. I knew Taylor had skills but he was significantly outnumbered. He quickly spun, round house kicking the guy in the side of his head knocking him out cold. As he landed, he turned the opposite way and hit his friend (who was advancing) square in the nose. The man's nose was visibly broken and spewed blood now, making the man stumble and carry on about his nose.
The whirlwind of single handed violence brought by Taylor caused the crowd to step back. One member said "We don't want any trouble" They gathered their friends, the one with the broken nose needed leading since he couldn't see and the other was just waking up. Taylor turned to see me having stepped back several feet from him. I was visibly shaken, astonished and scared by what I had just witnessed. He noticed the fear in my eyes and instantly softened his. He wiped the blood off his knuckles onto his pant leg and watched to make sure the crowd was leaving before walking over to me.
"Please don't be afraid. I'm sorry you had to see that." He stood in front of me looking in my eyes and affectionately ran his left hand down the side of arm.
I blinked, still partially shocked that he seemed unscathed. "I'm…I'm…I'm not afraid of you. Are you ok?"
He smiled. He looked relieved. I think he must have been very afraid that he had ruined everything. "I'm ok baby"
I still wasn't sold on that but he took my hand in his left hand and said "Let's go". I decided that it would be better to tackle the truth about his hand in the hotel room. I leaned my head on his shoulder for just a moment as we walked away. He kissed the top of my head but looked away to keep an eye on the crowd until we were rounding the corner leading to his car.
As we grew closer to the car we noticed the cameras. Oh great the press! They hadn't seen us yet but both of us knew they would. I was so glad they weren't around the corner, if they had to be here at all. As we neared them, knowing that we had to go past them to the car only a few feet away, I started getting really nervous. Taylor tucked my arm underneath his again, pulling my body closer to his.
He must have noticed my apprehension to the cameras because he bent down and whispered in my ear "Just stay right here with me, put your head down and don't stop walking. Social media must have tipped them off." He tucked his right hand in his pocket cluing me in to that there must have been damage to it that he didn't want them seeing.
Within seconds we were overran by flashing lights and shouted questions. "Taylor what are you doing in Denver?" "Taylor are you here to visit your girlfriend?" "What's her name Taylor?" were just a few of their questions. We arrived at the car and Taylor first escorted me to the passenger side, getting me in and closing the door. I was never so thankful for tinted windows and soundproofing. They were slightly pushier with him, getting very close to him before jumping out of the way. "Come on guys I'm just taking my girl out for the evening." They relished the idea of an omission about our relationship so much so that they backed off long enough for Taylor to sneak into the car and for us to pull away from the curb.
"You told them that on purpose didn't you? You never normally talk to the press." I asked when we were safely pulling away into traffic.
Taylor was still watching in the rearview mirror to see if they were going to follow us. He grinned at my question and said "You don't mind do you? I'll have Elliott officially tell the press in the morning."
"No I don't mind." I went to reach out to hold his hand when I noticed that he hadn't put it either on the shifter or on my lap like normal. That would be his right hand! I found it tucked across his lap laying with palm up. I swallowed hard. I didn't want to see him hurt and especially not because of me. I was just starting to get the courage to insist to see it when we pulled into the parking structure of the hotel.
I was quiet all the way into the hotel. He had walked around to get me out but I had already opened the door. I was too in my head to notice him heading over to wait on him. He put his hand on the small of my back as we walked in. That small touch normally gave me goosebumps but this time I didn't even seem to notice. We had walked across the parking lot to the doors to enter the hotel and hadn't said a word.
I reached out to open the door but he stepped in front of me, stopping the door. He placed his right hand on my stomach and the left on the side of my face. "Stop baby, talk to me…Something's wrong" His eyes were pleading and scared.
I hadn't realized I was holding back. I leaned into his hand, nuzzling in it. We stared into each other's eyes for a few minutes before I gave into his pleading. "I know your hurt…"
He let out a sigh, shaking his head, and said "You're still worried about me."
"Of course I am…I love you. I heard your fist hit Taylor."
"Did you just tell me you love me, for the first time?" He was trying to change the subject. We had talked about loving each other but hadn't really said it to each other.
"Yes I did. And you're not changing the subject." The look on my face must have told him that I wasn't budging.
He signed defeated. "You're definitely stubborn huh…Ok If I let you look at it can we do that in the room."
I raised up on my tip toes to kiss him sweetly on the lips. "Of course sweetie" I answered. With that he stepped back letting me open the door and we headed up to the room.
We entered our room and he closed the door before saying "So did you want to call Sarah and let her know about the press tonight so she's ready to answer questions too?" I knew he was right but I also knew that he was trying to change the subject again too.
"I swear. Sit down on that bed right now. I'll call Sarah in a minute. She'll be up for a while. The worst I could do is interrupt her and some man she found."
He protested but moved to the bed and sat down "You know I've trained in martial arts for years right? I can take and give punches Kaley." He still had his hand tucked in next to his body so I couldn't see it very well.
I pulled the chair from the desk over and sat in front of him before I pulled his hand away from his side by the wrist. It only took one look to know he had broken one knuckle. I had several years of EMT training and had witnessed injuries much worse than this in my childhood home. My brother was a bit of a fighter and tousled with my father a couple times. It was always my job to fix up the injuries. For a little while I had thought about being an EMT just because I had so much practice at it growing up. A few years of college in that field showed me that I couldn't do that daily. It was part of my realization that I needed a break from the chaotic life that I had growing up that lead me to shift to English as my major.
"Babe doesn't that hurt?" I asked him
"Eh it doesn't feel good. I guess it's been a little while since I was in the gym sparring. My hands are getting soft" he added with a small chuckle.
"I think you were impressive." I went and got a washcloth from the bathroom along with the first aid kit. I cleaned the blood from the knuckles gently, assessing any other damage while I did.
He watched me intently for the first few minutes. Then he asked "So…it didn't frighten you?"
I finished wiping his hand before looking up to answer. "No…Well the situation scared me. You didn't. I was afraid for us for a while."
"I'm so glad to hear that. I knew when that kid came back at me after I hit him that I would have to put several of them down hard to get you out of there safely. That was the only thing I was worried about. I don't normally use that much force that quickly but the fight would have dragged on."
"I know." I answered simply but went back to fixing his hand. I cleaned and treated the cuts with ointment before wrapping the knuckles with tape to stabilize the broken ones.
He watched me until I was almost done. I was just finishing taping them when he asked me "Kaley, how do you know how to do this so well?"
That was one question I hoped he wouldn't ask…