Breathtaken (Marcus Butler)

Chapter 27

Chapter 27

(9 days later)

“Will you answer it for me?” Marcus groaned into the pillow, passing his ringing phone to me. I was sitting up in bed, watching TV, unlike Marcus who had refused to get up.

“Sure,” I sighed, glancing at the caller ID before I accepted his call. It was Alfie.

“Hello, this is Marcus’ personal slave as he can’t be arsed to get up, how can I help you?” I greeted in a mock-receptionist way, much to Alfie’s amusement on the other end of the phone. Marcus grunted, probably because he knew deep down he was being a lazy shite.

“Do I need to come round and bully him out of bed?” Alfie asked in a serious voice, and I didn’t doubt for one second that he wouldn’t be true to his word.

“Don’t worry, if he’s not up in the next quarter of an hour, he’s going to regret it,” I laughed, but I was being serious as well. Let’s just say I wasn’t afraid to refer back to old tactics, and since Marcus hadn’t been to the gym for a few weeks, I was sure I could take him.

“I don’t doubt it. Listen, me and Miranda are going out today, but if you guys wanted to come with us to the bar tonight, we’re planning on having some serious fun,” Alfie offered, kindly. I chuckled at his phrase ‘serious fun’, which was just code for getting drunk as fuck.

“Sounds great. I’m sure Marcus will get out of bed for that,” I replied. Alfie laughed, hanging up not long after as he said he had to run because he and Miranda were leaving to go out.

“What did you agree to?” Marcus mumbled, rolling over to face me. Still with his eyes closed, he reached out and wrapped a strong arm around my waist, cuddling into me like I was a teddy bear. I smiled, running my fingers through his hair before replying.

“Getting pissed,” I replied casually, smirking when I felt Marcus’ grip on me tighten.

“Will that guy be there?” he asked, his voice deep. Daz? Shit, I hadn’t thought about him!

“Probably. Look, I told you nothing happened. I kicked his ass…verbally,” I replied defensively, which I guess was partly true. Nothing happened because I stopped it from happening, but only because I kept him talking. If I’d had the strength, I’d have physically stopped him and then some.

“He was manipulating you. He could have easily raped you, you said that yourself when you were in floods of fucking tears! If I see him, please don’t be surprised when I beat him to a pulp,” Marcus warned, but I guess I couldn’t argue with him. I’d decided to tell him about Daz the next morning after it all happened, since I woke up with a fresh load of tears on standby. Things like that don’t just go away overnight…literally.

“That’s why I’m not going to point him out,” I said through gritted teeth, reaching for the TV remote since the adverts were doing my head in. Or maybe it was the prospect of me ever having had anything to do with Daz that was suddenly making me angry. Yes, I’ll blame him.

“But why would you protect him after everything he did?” Marcus asked, confusion etched on to his features even with his eyes firmly closed. To be honest, the fact we were having a dispute whilst he was still half-asleep was very strange. But I carried on anyway.

“I’m not protecting him, I’m protecting my reputation, your reputation and my uncle’s for that matter! I told him who I was Marcus, as a defence mechanism, so if you just swan over there and beat the crap out of him, he knows exactly who to run to! I haven’t seen my uncle for years so it was nice enough that he even let us stay here, but if he was to be told that you’d done that to one of his employees? Well, we can kiss our free honeymoon goodbye,” I explained, exhaling loudly as soon as I was finished. Marcus sighed, and sat up so fast that I nearly jumped a mile. Clearly this lover’s tiff deserved Marcus’ full visual attention.