Lost Love (Cowboys and Angels #1)(22)
I didn’t want to let her go. The smell of her perfume, the same one she wore all those years ago, was holding me captive. Not to mention how on fire my body was against hers.
Finally, she pulled her head back and looked at me. I wanted to fall to the floor. I hated seeing her cry. Always had and forever will.
“You left me,” she barely said.
My eyes closed as the pain in my heart became almost unbearable.
She dropped her hold on me and stepped back.
“I was stupid.”
She nodded. “But you moved on.”
I shook my head. “No, Paxton. I didn’t move on.”
A small huff of air left her mouth as she gave me a befuddled expression. “You got married. You had a child.”
Her arms wrapped around her waist. “You had a child,” she repeated as a tear slid down her cheek.
Reaching up, I wiped it away. “I didn’t love my wife, Paxton. She knew I didn’t love her because I told her about you.”
With wide eyes, she jerked away as if she had been burned. She shook her head as she took a few steps back. Paxton spun on her heels and went back to the bar. I watched her walk away like she couldn’t stand to be near me. What in the hell just happened?
Making my way through the crowd, I came up behind her. She was drinking her beer when I put my hands on her waist. Jumping at my touch, she set the beer down and turned to me. The idea that she didn’t want me touching her made me feel ill. We were inches from each other. Paxton’s breath came faster, heavier as her eyes landed on my mouth.
Fuck I wanted to kiss her. My fingers dug into her body, and she sucked in a breath. Even though the bar was getting crowded, it felt as if we were the only two people. The heat between our bodies was growing by the second. The passion we shared for one another was still present. There was no denying it.
I licked my lips and bent closer. Her eyes never left mine. “Paxton,” I whispered.
“Tell me something, Steed,” she said, our lips inches apart.
“Anything.”
Her eyes turned dark. “How is that you didn’t want our baby, yet you wanted the baby you had with a woman you didn’t even love?”
It felt like every ounce of air in the bar had been yanked out as I fought to breathe. “W-what?”
Placing her hands on my chest, she pushed me back. “I think our conversation is done.”
She left.
My feet were frozen. I stared at the spot she’d stood moments ago as her words hit me like a fucking Mack Truck. No matter how hard I tried to say something…do something…I couldn’t.
“Daddy!”
I sprung up in bed and groaned. I had the worst fucking headache ever. “Oh Mother of God,” I said as I dropped back onto the pillow.
Chloe crawled on the bed and started jumping. “Daddy! Get up! I’m going to be late for school!”
“Chloe, baby, please stop jumping on the bed. Daddy has …”
“A hangover?”
Snapping my head to the door, I shot Amelia a dirty look.
“Have fun last night?” she asked with a smirk.
Chloe kept jumping.
“Chloe, please stop.”
“Cord said you drank until you damn near passed out,” Amelia said. “Mitchell had to bring you home. I was already fast asleep by then.”
I swung my legs off the bed and attempted to stand. “It was a rough night.”
Amelia let out a gruff laugh. “You don’t say. I take it things didn’t go well with Paxton.”
“Who’s Paxton?” Chloe asked.
Before I had a chance to answer, Amelia did. “Paxton is Ms. Monroe, Daddy’s old girlfriend.”
Chloe gasped. I turned to Amelia. “What in the hell, Meli?”
With a shrug, she shot me the finger behind Chloe’s back.
“What? Do you have a problem with me drinking, Meli?”
Chloe pulled on my T-shirt. I was wearing the same damn thing I went out in, minus my boots. “Daddy, did you and my teacher really go out on dates?”
Fuck. I don’t want to have this conversation with Chloe. Especially right now.
“You couldn’t keep your mouth shut, could you?” I spit at Amelia.
“Chloe, princess, will you run to your room and give me and your daddy a few minutes of grown up talk?”
“Sure!”
The second she was out my bedroom, Amelia shut the door and turned to face me.
“I’m not in the mood for your shit today, Amelia.”
Her brows rose as she gave me a defiant look. “Well tough shit. You’re an asshole, do you know that?”
I headed into the bathroom and turned on the water. I needed to splash my face and wake the hell up. “Yep. Figured that out years ago when I walked away from the only woman I loved.”