Total pages in book: 86
Estimated words: 81009 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 405(@200wpm)___ 324(@250wpm)___ 270(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 81009 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 405(@200wpm)___ 324(@250wpm)___ 270(@300wpm)
A click caught my attention, and I sat up straight, dropping my hands to my sides. The doorknob turned then the door swung open and Tex came strolling inside like he had every right to invade my privacy.
“What?!” I exclaimed, jumping up off the bed.
Tex closed the door behind him with more force than necessary. His gaze locked on me as he moved closer with long strides. “You want to explain why you weren’t responding to me?” he asked, his eyes narrowing.
I wasn’t going to back up or cower to him. If he wanted to burst into my space and ask questions, then, fine, I’d give him answers. My arms went back to cross over my chest again as I glared at him.
“If I wasn’t responding, I would think it was obvious that I didn’t want to see you,” I snapped.
His gaze darkened. “You sure didn’t seem to mind the sight of me this morning.”
“We all make mistakes,” I replied, keeping my head high.
He was inches from me then, and the warmth from his body gave me chill bumps. “You sure didn’t think it was a mistake when my head was between your legs and you were screaming my name.”
I hated him. I hated him for having that as ammunition to humiliate me with. I hated him because he wasn’t Rome. I hated him because he hadn’t been my Rome since the day his mother had died. He’d left me too. I’d lost them both. Seeing him was a constant reminder of all I had lost.
The image of the girl I had seen in front of him, on her knees, giving him a blow job, was replaced by Nixie doing the same to him in his bedroom. I put her in the other girl’s place. I hadn’t been enough for him then, and I wasn’t now. Men like Tex needed more than what one woman could provide. He wasn’t like Eamon.
“What do you want, Tex?” I asked.
“Tex?” he repeated. “You’re calling me Tex now?”
“That’s who you are now. Rome has been gone a long time.”
He grabbed my chin, and I tried to jerk away from his hold, but he held firm.
“What changed? You were soft and sweet in my bed hours ago. Not that the little wildcat thing doesn’t make me hard. It’s hot, but I only want that when you’re under me.”
I let out a hard, sharp laugh. “That’s not happening. Not again.”
“Don’t tempt me unless you want me to show you right here just how wrong you are.”
“God, Tex! How often do you need it? Should I be flattered I was chosen twice in one day, or is Nixie going to be the one to close off the night?”
“What the fuck are you talking about?”
I shoved at his chest hard, but he didn’t even budge. It was like hitting a concrete wall.
“You know what I’m talking about! You didn’t even try to be sneaky about it. Just took her right into your room. I hope you washed the sheets first.” My words dripped with bitterness.
Tex’s confused look was mixed with anger. “I didn’t take Nixie to my room. I’ve not been in my goddamn room since this morning. I had two meetings and then had to go to Pepper’s bar with Micah. I got back and came straight here when I couldn’t find you anywhere else.”
The joy that sprang up inside me was immediately shoved back down by my self-preservation.
“I saw her coming out of your bedroom,” I told him. “You can’t expect me to believe you just leave the door unlocked.”
His hand left my chin to bury his fingers in my hair and hold my head still so that I had to look at him. It was that or close my eyes.
“I do when it’s going to be cleaned.” His voice dropped as he lowered his head and stared down into my eyes. “You sound jealous, Angel Face.”
“I don’t sleep around. I’m not going to do this with you. I can’t just have sex with someone who sleeps with a different girl every day or night or both,” I told him. “We can call this morning our closure and leave it at that.”
His hand fisted in my hair, and he tugged my head hard enough to make me yelp. Then his face was in mine—so close that our noses touched. “Nothing about what we did was closure, and you know it.”
I winced as my eyes watered. He must have noticed because his grip loosened.
“We don’t get closure. Our fucking souls connected twenty- one years ago, and they haven’t let go. Even though you married someone else. Even when I fucked some faceless female. They. Never. Let. Go. You might have loved your husband, but not the way you did me. Because you couldn’t. When I was inside you this morning, it was the first time I’d felt like I had a goddamn soul in eighteen years.”