“Well, I don’t want you to know about it.”
The silence that descended was terrible and absolute. Then his leather jacket creaked as he turned away from her and cranked the car, grumbling something that sounded like, “Crazy ass fucking females.” He backed out of the parking spot and peeled out so fast she was scrabbling for a handhold. But at least he didn’t drive crazy once they reached the interstate; her heart was in her throat enough as it was.
“I thought we’d turned a corner, you know,” he said as he violently shifted gears. “And I always thought you trusted me more than this.”
“It’s not that I don’t, it’s just… Shit. I’m mad at a friend. So what. Why are you making it such a big deal?”
“Why are you? It’s only a big deal because you’re shutting me out. I doubt you’re this mad at Candace. Or Sam.”
“No,” she said cautiously.
“A friend, huh.”
She clamped her mouth shut.
“Has this friend at any point stuck his dick in you?”
Her vision practically went black. “You did not just say that to me.”
“Yeah, I did.”
“Then I think you need to shut your mouth before you say something else you’re going to regret later.”
“I won’t regret shit, except maybe that I set myself up for this to start with. Thanks for your lack of denial, by the way. Tells me all I need to know.”
“God! You’re being so unreasonable. I realize you’ve been burned and all, but don’t project that onto me. I won’t tolerate that.”
He was quiet for a long time, too long. “There’s a lot I won’t tolerate, Macy. I have a line. Once it’s crossed, that’s it. Secrets, sneaking around, other motherfuckers sniffing around while you pretend like it’s no big deal. Been there. These are major fuckin’ issues for me. You should know that.”
Macy scoffed, trying to hold on to anger that was fast morphing into heartbreak. “Poor you. Get over it. I don’t think I’d be too out of line in suggesting that you’re just looking for some reason to believe the line has been crossed when it hasn’t. I haven’t done anything. I’ve explained to you that I don’t lay my drama out for everyone to see. You want everything up front, and that’s a major friggin’ issue for me.”
“You brought your drama to the fucking table back there. You had your drama written all over your face. What am I supposed to think?”
“Fine, Seth. The friend I was talking to is Jared Stanton. You saw him at the bar on Valentine’s night. I’ve known him for as long as I can remember. We dated from the time I was fourteen years old until I had my accident. After that, he knocked up some other girl, got married, had twins, got divorced. I give his daughters horse riding lessons because he works a lot, and he knows I’m damn good at it. And yes, he wants me back. I saw him at my parents’ house last weekend. He wanted me to come to a roping today. I agreed to go for old time’s sake, but I blew him off to see you. And he’s pissed, and he said some really shitty things just now. End of story. Satisfied?”
“All this has been going on since you’ve been seeing me?”
“Yes.”
“Fuck.”
And that was that. He completely shut down. Maybe she deserved it; maybe—no, definitely, she supposed, considering his reaction—she should’ve been up front with him about it all. She really hadn’t considered it that big a deal. Because it wasn’t one, at least in her mind.
Then again, she’d never been the one left behind before. She’d always been the one who did the leaving.
Jesus. Who’d have thought being the type of person who liked to keep your mouth shut instead of flapping a hundred miles a minute would blow up so spectacularly in your face? Wasn’t it usually the other way around?
“Look, I’m sorry,” she said, hating the pleading undertone in her voice. “None of this is as bad as it sounds. I’ve been telling him and telling him I’m not getting back together with him. He knows about you. It’s not like I’m keeping us a secret.”
“Just keeping him a secret from me.” He braked so hard in the parking lot of their hotel that if she hadn’t been wearing her seat belt, she might’ve been thrown into the dashboard.
“For good reason, apparently!” she snapped, unbuckling and flinging the belt off. Once she’d gotten out of the car, she noticed he made no move to do the same. He didn’t even kill the engine. Holding on to the door, she leaned in to look at him, her pulse in her ears. “Are you leaving?”
His face was in shadow, but given the ice in his voice, that was probably a good thing. “Shut the door.”
Oh God, there had to be something she could say to make this better. Some magic phrase that would let him know he had no reason to be jealous or threatened. None whatsoever. But if this was his reaction whenever she received the least amount of attention from the opposite sex, did she really want any part of it?
If this was how he wanted it, then this was how it was going to be. She slammed the door and didn’t wait around to watch him leave.
Which he did.
Oh, hell no.
Thank God they’d each taken a key card. She let herself into the room and gave her purse a fling in the darkness, hearing the contents scatter wherever it landed. The first thing to draw her gaze as she flipped on the light was his overnight bag on the dresser. She hoped there were no prized possessions of his in there, because she damn sure wasn’t going to take it back to him. He was lucky she didn’t burn it on sight.
“Crazy fucking females my ass,” she muttered into the silence of the room. Men were the insane ones. Did he think just because she’d allowed him into her vagina a few times that he owned her? Did Jared think the same thing? She had bad news for him especially. She hadn’t exactly been celibate since their breakup, even before Seth. There hadn’t been many, but there’d been a few.
Her phone had landed at the foot of the bed. She scooped it up, sighing and switching it on as she dropped heavily onto the unkempt bed, exhausted. Jared had apparently followed her earlier suggestion. No messages from him. Candace had left her a voice mail. Just wanted to chat. Well, she wasn’t in the chatting mood.
What the hell was happening? Was he just heading back to Oklahoma without a word? Was he going somewhere to cool off until they could talk rationally? She’d never seen him enraged. She didn’t know him like that. Probably a good thing she had gotten a glimpse before this went any further.
Whatever, she thought, dragging herself up from the bed. She’d figured she’d sleep naked in his arms tonight, so she hadn’t packed PJs. Bad idea. As she stripped to her underwear, she eyed his bag. Surely he’d have a T-shirt in there; he lived in them. The one she pulled out was black (shocker) and read Cannibal Corpse in dripping red letters. Lovely. But as she pulled it over her head and freed her hair from the collar, his vaguely citrusy scent enveloped her, and the last of her anger dissipated.
She’d get some sleep, go home and try to forget the past few weeks had ever happened.
She jolted awake to a mouth at her neck, wet and hot and sucking.
Lust crashed over her like a tidal wave, sweeping any grogginess right out of her head and kicking her pulse into double time. With a little gasp, she grasped the sides of his face and pulled his mouth to hers, drinking in warm whiskey-drenched breath—he must have just taken a hit of it, because his flavor made her instantly drunk. His tongue tangled with hers, and she sucked on it, rejoicing in the tormented groan the action pulled from his throat.
Searching her heart for any remnants of her earlier anger and finding it still burning, she knew she should stop him. His hot hand slid under her T-shirt—his T-shirt—traveling all the way up to her breast, and the notion flew out of her head. He kneaded it roughly, tugging on her nipple until it stood at aching attention. She wanted his mouth there. She wanted it everywhere. Her own hand slipped between them, and she practically growled in frustration at finding his jeans still on. But there was nothing frustrating about the thick ridge pressing against his fly. A surge of answering wetness saturated her, and she worked at freeing his cock from his jeans.
An unpleasant thought teased at the edges of her consciousness, and she didn’t want to let it take hold, but little by little it grew until it permeated even the need pooled hotly between her legs. What if he was so drunk he didn’t know what he was doing? Had he driven like this? Turning her head as his mouth burned down her throat, she saw the squat bottle of amber liquid on the nightstand. Maybe he’d just brought it back and drank here. The TV was on but muted, its light flickering against the ceiling. What if he’d just awakened with a hard-on and—surprise!—there was a warm, willing female body within arm’s length?
“Say my name,” she whispered against his lips as her fingers completed their task and his heavy length filled her eager hands.
“Macy,” he breathed. His arm wound around her, pulling her closer. His other hand abandoned its place on her breast and slid down her stomach into her damp panties. “Macy…”