Yoongi led her to a secluded park. She didn’t understand why. Weren’t they going to dinner? A frisson of fear snaked through her. What if, once again, she had trusted the wrong person? She clutched her purse close to her as her hand began to free the zipper.
Suddenly, he reached for her hand, and, once he’d claimed it with his own, he drew it up against his chest, pulling her near him. And enraging the man following them. Yoongi bent his lips to her ear.
“Don’t look behind us, but your boyfriend is following us. What are the chances that he has a weapon?”
She started, and it took all her effort not to look behind her. She felt terror clawing at her throat. Her stomach jolted so violently that she nearly threw up. She clung to Yoongi’s hand without realizing it.
“I don’t know,” she whispered. “He does carry a pocketknife.”
“All right. He does carry a pocketknife,” he repeated it just to make sure his security team had heard it. Now everyone would be on high alert.
Yoongi and Stasia turned a bend in the park that left them completely alone for a few moments until their would-be assailant joined them in the remote location. As he turned the corner and found them standing together, Yoongi facing Stasia, her stalker was suddenly enraged afresh when Yoongi reached up to brush her cheek.
The violent man couldn’t hear Yoongi’s whispered words. “Don’t be afraid. Everything is going to be all right.”
Stasia didn’t trust Yoongi’s confidence, so she had reached into her purse, her fingers closing around her desired object.
Just then, a bloodcurdling scream erupted from her boyfriend’s lips as his feet brought him hurtling towards them. Yoongi turned to see the man’s hand held out, a knife pointed towards them. He was upon them in a flash, but Stasia was quicker than either Yoongi or him. Her fingers locked on the mechanism of the tiny can in her hand, she activated the pepper spray that a moment later overtook his lungs. Bending over, he fought for breath, the knife he’d held a moment before clattering, harmless, to the ground at his feet. Yoongi bent to pick it up as his security guards surrounded the defenseless man who was still fighting to breathe. A few moments later, they were joined by the police. Six people gave their eyewitness testimony of the events of the evening. Including a girl who had so much more to report.
At the end of the exhausting evening, Yoongi took her to one of his favorite – and deserted – restaurants. It was after nine o’clock when they arrived, so the little diner was cleared of people. Yoongi had picked this restaurant on purpose. He wanted to be alone with Stasia. He motioned for her to slide into the booth before seating himself next to her on the bench. She glanced up at him curiously as his hip and shoulder bumped hers.
Didn’t he want to sit across from her?
Suddenly, his hand came down over hers on the table, and she remembered the day they’d met. Had that really been just two days ago? How had Yoongi so dramatically changed her life in less than three days? Tears filled her eyes as the events of the past few hours suddenly sank in.
Yoongi whispered a few words to her to determine what she wanted to eat, then he quietly ordered for them both when the waitress arrived a few moments later. After she took their order, Yoongi released Stasia’s hand. She felt bereft for a moment. Until his arm slowly snaked around her, and he drew her into his side. She gratefully leaned her head against his shoulder and closed her eyes. She kept reliving the moment when Eun had come running towards them with the knife.
“I can’t unsee it,” she whispered.
“What?” Yoongi asked, thinking of the things he couldn’t unsee either.
“Him running towards you with that knife.” Her throat was nearly paralyzed from the fear that still clung to her.
“I was never so thankful to see a can of pepper spray in my entire life,” Yoongi murmured, a tiny laugh escaping his lungs. “You were magnificent, darling.”
Darling.
That one word wrapped around her heart like a warm comforter. Even now its heat was soaking into her, driving the cold bitterness of friendlessness away. She wasn’t alone anymore. She began to weep.
Yoongi’s hand on her arm tightened just enough to communicate his proximity to and awareness of her. He dropped his head to rest on top of hers for a moment before he lifted it so that his lips could find the crown of her head instead. He sat for several moments dropping kisses in her hair. She could feel the tender movements, and her heart was being wooed as her soul was wowed. No man, sarcastic or not, had ever been so gentle with her in all her life. Yoongi was breaking her heart in the sweetest way possible.
