“You want him here, darlin’?” the taxi driver said, eyeing Craig with suspicion.
Rain looked panicked. Probably at the thought of him throwing another punch. “It’s fine.”
The driver pulled off into traffic and Craig stared at his girlfriend’s elegant profile. She refused to turn to him.
“Why?” he said. Not sure if he was asking why she flirted with that arsehole, or why she’d looked at him like he had hurt her, or why she was crying right now when he’d never seen her cry.
“Not here,” she whispered, her fingers curling into the fabric of her dress.
Everything about her was wounded and vulnerable, and despite how angry he was with her, all he wanted to do was pull her against him and take away whatever pain she was feeling.
Instead they sat in absolute silence all the way back to her flat. She paid the expensive cab fare because Craig had left his wallet and keys back at the bar.
Reluctantly she let him into her flat and they strode into her large living area.
“So.” He crossed his arms over his chest and sat on the arm of her couch. “Want to tell me why you thought it was a good idea to let that fucker touch you? And then do you want to tell me why you were so pissed I hit him?”
Rain was walking past him when she caught sight of her face in the mirror above her fireplace. She gave her reflection a bitter smile as she wiped at her smeared makeup. Catching him looking at her through the mirror, her smile fell. “I wasn’t pissed you hit him. I rather enjoyed that part. Thank you.”
“You’re welcome,” he said gruffly. “Now what about the part where you let him touch you?”
She shrugged as if Angus touching her wasn’t a big deal, and Craig wished the arse was in front of him so he could punch him again. “It escalated quickly. He was smarter than I thought. He knew I was up to something. He was being a creep. I was about to push him off.”
Fury suffused him. “So the fucker was attacking you?” He stood up, wanting to go back to the bar to kill him.
She shook her head. “He was just messing with me.”
Craig considered the fact that she’d been in the position to allow Angus to mess with her. “And how did he manage that, eh? I thought we agreed that you were over the whole childish revenge scenario. What made you approach him?”
Her eyes brightened with anger as she whirled to face him. “One, I didn’t approach him, he approached me! And two, I never agreed to let it go.”
“Well you’re fucking letting it go now!” he yelled. “How do you think your sister would feel about this? You really think she’d be okay about you doing whatever it takes to get revenge on her ex-boyfriend? Did you really think she’d been fine with you fucking her ex?”
“I would never have slept with him!” Rain shouted. “I’m not a whore! Unlike some people I know!”
He jerked back, feeling like she’d hit him. “And what the hell does that mean?”
“You know exactly what it means,” she hissed, stepping toward him, her whole body bristling. “I am a complete idiot!”
“What are you talking about?”
“I had to sit there in that bar tonight and watch you with those women.” Her voice cracked as she spoke.
Craig suddenly felt something unpleasant and uneasy settle in his gut at the pain he heard in her voice, the hurt he saw in her eyes. Pain and hurt he’d apparently caused. “The customers?”
“Your customers.” She smiled bitterly. “The one whose hair you touched, the one who touched your chest, and all the others you wink and smile at and call beautiful. Just like you call me beautiful.”
“Rain, it’s not the same.” He shook his head, dumbfounded that she could even think it was the same thing. “It’s work.”
“No.” She shook her head wearily. “You said you’re with me, which means that flirting with women for whatever reason is out of the window. You shouldn’t want to or need to, and you should certainly be mindful of me when I’m in the same fucking room!”
“Rain—”
“You know, Joss and Braden can’t take their eyes off each other,” she suddenly said, confusing him momentarily. “I watched them. Their eyes always finding each other throughout the night. And of course I was watching you. But you rarely looked for me. It would seem you either forgot I was there or you just didn’t care if I saw you flirt. So which was it? Because I don’t know what’s worse.”
“It’s not like that.” He stepped toward her, trying to find the words to explain, to calm her down.