Total pages in book: 85
Estimated words: 82951 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 415(@200wpm)___ 332(@250wpm)___ 277(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 82951 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 415(@200wpm)___ 332(@250wpm)___ 277(@300wpm)
Blondie giggles at something he says and leans against him, pressing those tits of hers against him, and he doesn’t pull away.
And I see red.
I can’t say that I’ve ever felt jealous in my life, but in this moment, I want to scratch that woman’s eyes out.
Of course, I’ve been trained better than that.
I hang back and wait for Drew to see me. It takes him a few minutes because he’s too wrapped up in what the blonde is saying, but when he does, he blinks in surprise and disentangles himself from the woman, who narrows her eyes menacingly at me as he turns his back to her.
I simply raise an eyebrow and stare at her coldly until she walks away.
“Hey,” Drew says and leans down to kiss me, but I turn my face, and his lips land on my cheek. He frowns down at me. “What’s wrong?”
“I think I’d like to stay in tonight,” I reply. I can hear the ice in my voice, and I don’t care. This isn’t the time or place to have a fight, in the middle of town and in front of most of his family. “Let’s order dinner in.”
“Okay, that’s fine with me.” He narrows his eyes, then takes my elbow in his hand and turns to the others. “Have a good night, guys. We’ll see you tomorrow.”
The cousins wave and bid us goodnight, and we set off walking to the condo.
“What the fuck is going on?” he asks again.
“I’m not going to talk about this in front of an audience,” I reply tightly. I want to pull my arm out of his grasp, but that’s petty. I don’t like feeling unsure and insecure. It’s the worst. But seeing another woman sidled up to my man, and he does nothing at all to push her away is ten times worse.
I’m so damn mad.
It’s getting dark. The sun has already set, and the last of the light is fading. By the time we reach the condo, it’s completely dark outside, and I don’t bother to turn on any lights as I march into the living room and flip on the fireplace to get warm. I shed my coat and boots, tossing them aside.
“Okay,” Drew says, sounding completely calm. “We’re alone. Why are you mad, London?”
I turn and look at him, standing on the other side of the room, his arms crossed and looking so fucking beautiful it steals my breath away.
I’m so in love with him, and just the thought of him looking at someone else has my heart breaking into pieces.
“I think that maybe we’re more different than I thought.” My words come out slowly, as if I have to push them over the lump in my throat.
“What are you talking about?”
“I saw you,” I reply, unable to hold the frustration or anger back any longer. “I saw the way you were looking at that woman and smiling at her. You smile at me like that, and I’ve just learned that it isn’t because I’m special in any way. Apparently, you look at anyone you want to fuck like that. And then she pressed herself up against you, all cozy like, and you did nothing. You didn’t push her away. You didn’t tell her no. You just let her do it.”
“You’ve got to be kidding me.”
“Don’t do that.” I point at him and round the couch, pissed off now. “I don’t even think of anyone else besides you. You completely consume me, so imagine my surprise when I saw you with her, flirting and smiling. Imagine if the tables were turned, Drew. Or maybe it wouldn’t piss you off. Maybe I’ve misunderstood what we’re doing here, and if that’s the case, fine. I have options, too, you know. I have a whole phone full of eligible bachelors’ phone numbers that I can use.”
His eyes narrow, and his hands fist in anger, but I raise my chin defiantly.
“What would you have had me do?” he demands. “Be an asshole to them? They recognized Ike and wanted to talk to him, so we humored them. It was nothing.”
“It didn’t look like nothing.”
With the anger drained out of me and nothing but hurt remaining, I turn to look out the window, staring out into the dark.
I can see his reflection as he walks up behind me. At first, he doesn’t touch me at all; he just watches me.
“It was nothing,” he repeats, his voice calm now, and even hushed in the darkness.
“I’ve realized recently—maybe in that moment when I watched you with her and you didn’t know I could see you—that I’ve never really loved any man the way that I’ve fallen in love with you.” I’m so glad he’s behind me and can’t see my face because when I close my eyes, tears track down my cheeks. “And that means that no one can hurt me the way that you can. Even if that’s a simple, careless look at another woman’s tits. It was enough to stab me in the heart. But when she touched you, and you let her? I don’t want to relive it.”