I gulped in fear as their face flashed before my eyes, the memories of everything that he had ever done to me rushing back in a full frontal assault.

My emotions overwhelmed me and brought me back to that place, the one where I felt helpless to save myself. The place where I felt like I was nothing, worthless, just an object to be had and destroyed at any man's whimsy.

Not anymore.

I was done being a man's plaything. I was done being used and abused over and over by the same gender who didn't even bother with caring who I was, caring that I was an actual human being and not something that they could just take advantage of whenever they felt the pleasure come over them.

"I'm taking back what is rightfully mine. This is stolen property."

He took a menacing step forwards, and I could tell by the scent of the whiskey on his breath that he'd been day drinking. Again.

Guess things weren't going as well with Layla as he'd been making it seem.

"You shouldn't have come back here. I'll make you regret every stepping foot on my property ever again."

His words slurred and he stumbled as he tried to keep up his intimidating stature.

Normally, I would have been scared, but there was this electric zing that had filled up every nerve ending inside of my body.

It was like the old Lydia had taken a step back and was allowing this new, empowered version of myself to take front and center. I had only felt that way once before, in that dive bar where I had threatened a man who was trying to take advantage of a woman in front of my very eyes.

This was something that had to be done. I had to take my power back, otherwise I would always be a victim.

The man had the power. It was always the case in every situation in my life.

My father was a police officer, so I knew authority and power roles better than most, but he was a great man...but it also made me more susceptible to those with more powerful roles in society.

I would allow a man to walk all over me, especially after what Christian did to me. All he had to do was be forceful and imposing.

I was weak before, but I refused to be that whimpering, cowardly little girl anymore. I was going to fight back tooth and nail with everything that I had in me. I was going to show that he couldn't control me any longer.

"Oh yeah, Nate? And what are you going to do about it, huh? You look a little rough, you sure you can even walk a straight line, let alone threaten someone?"

"You bitch."

"Yeah, you've called me that before, plenty of times. But you got it wrong, I'm not the bitch."

I paused for dramatic affect while he scrunched his eyes in confusion, clearly more intoxicated than I first assumed.

"You are."

The rage in his eyes was immediate, but when he lunged for me I simply side stepped him and he fell half onto the foot of the bed and half on the ground.

"You are pathetic, and so not worth my time."

"I'll call the police! You're breaking and entering, and-"

"And if you do, I'll file a domestic abuse charge against you. Wouldn't be too hard to give myself a black eye, maybe rough myself up with your golf clubs? That'll really sell it."

"You're fucking crazy! Just get out."

"With pleasure."

I was the crazy one, really?

I was closing the door on my way out as a very sweaty Emmett came running up from the parking lot.

"What are you doing here?"

"I asked Lucas where you might have gone, I was worried about you."

He was a sight for sore eyes, but the revelation that I'd just had set me a little bit on edge.

How could I be sure that Emmett wouldn't hurt me the way that countless men before me had? How could I make sure that he really was who he said he was, and that once he got me under his spell that he wouldn't take advantage of not only my loyalty and trust, but of my heart?

His sparkling blue eyes shone like sapphire gems in the late setting sun, but all I could think about was the fact that I had to take a step back from him.

But I didn't want to do that without fully experiencing everything with him...well, almost everything.

I leaned up on my toes and pressed my lips against his.

He responded after a confused second, and his lips felt even better on mine the second time. I wondered if each kiss got better and better the more we did it, but that idea gave me second thoughts on ending things with him.

I just needed to make sure that this was what I really wanted, to make sure that I wasn't throwing away something that could potentially be the best thing to ever happen to me because of a revelation that the majority of men I invite into my life are toxic pieces of absolute-

Emmett's hand wrapping around my body like a vise shut up my rambling brain for once in my life and forced me to focus on the absolute visceral emotions that his kiss brought out in me.

Tingles began shooting up and down my spine and would crop up anywhere that his hands touched, almost like he was setting little fires and putting them out in the same breath, creating a smoky environment inside of me that twisted and twirled with tendrils of lust seeping into every bone in my body.

We pulled apart for air as Emmett whispered into my ear.

"I think we should take this somewhere that's not the doorstep of your psychotic ex fiancee."

A bolt of wanton need shot through me at the thought of pure intimacy with Emmett, but that wasn't what I wanted in that moment. Well, of course it was what I wanted, but not what I needed.

"Okay," I somehow managed to choke out, the word strangling me as it escaped my frayed vocal cords.

He led me around the building while he fiddled on his phone for a minute, but then we were smushed in a small alleyway between two apartment buildings with complete isolation and a dirty thought creeped into my mind.

No, no, that wasn't what this was about...no matter how much my body screamed for me to make my desires for him known.

"I called an Uber," he said, eyes still somewhat confused but filled with lust at the same time.

"Do you want to talk about what happened back there? Why you were with him?"

I shook my head, simply holding up the journal in my hand that he hadn't noticed yet due to my impromptu make-out session on Nate's doorstep, literally.

"Oh my god, you actually got it back? That's amazing!"

"I know..." I trailed off, not really sure how to explain to Emmett that I wanted to jump on him right then and there but refrained for fear of seeming like a sex crazed lunatic, even crazier than I must have seemed running away and ending up at my abusive ex's house.

Crazy.

What a funny word to make those with real mental health issues seem less than and inferior to those who were 'normal'.

Nate had called me crazy. He'd even mocked my therapy, telling me that I didn't need it because I 'seemed okay' around him. He didn't witness the panic attacks brought on by his behavior, though, because once he was done with the yelling and the hitting, the alcohol kicked in and he'd pass out, forgetting that anything had ever really happened.

The more and more that I remembered, the angrier I became. I knew that if I didn't distract myself that I would go back in that apartment and do something that would keep me from getting to attend my dream school so I focused my attention on Emmett, the glistening, muscular football sex god before me.

Oh god, maybe I really was crazy. After all, I was trying to convince myself that I didn't have feelings for him but if I was being totally honest with myself, he was the man of my dreams.

Could I have the man of my dreams yet, though, when none of them had yet to come true?

And what about his dreams, the NFL and adoring fans all shouting his name, fangirls waiting to pounce on him any chance they got? I couldn't compete with that.

"Hey what's wrong?"

"Nothing. Nothing. Just...just kiss me."

And so he did, and I was lost in his embrace as a whirlwind of emotions swept through me. I'd relish in his touch, the feel of his body warm against mine as I was pushed up against the hard concrete of the building behind me.

Our bodies melded together as if we were superglued, impossible to pull apart.

His hands traveled their way up my body and I moaned against his touch, eliciting a grin on his mouth as he began kissing his way up and down my neck to my chest then back to my mouth once more.

He pursued me in a glorious onslaught of sensations and temptations, all of which overwhelming me in every passing moment.

It felt as if I were on the verge of a breakthrough that would finally lead to my head finally feeling like it was on straight and no longer feeling like a victim. It felt like I was finally taking control of my life and what I wanted, which was so opposite from what I had been feeling earlier.

His phone let out a strangled beep in his pocket and he groaned against my mouth, but not in pleasure.

"That's our ride. Come on, let's go home."

And so he led us to the awaiting car, my thoughts more tumultuous than before, leaving me wondering if I would ever be ready for something as amazing as Emmett Scott.