“He must have been following us,” she said, eyes wide, watching what he was doing.
“Yep.” He couldn’t believe he hadn’t noticed. But then that wasn’t a surprise since he’d had Lucy sitting beside him.
“Adam, I’m fine,” she said, touching his arm.
“Fine,” he repeated, but he couldn’t contain the anger and fear inside him any longer, and totally lost it. His head snapped up. “What in the fuck did you think you were doing?”
She clamped her mouth shut, sucking in a sharp breath through her nose.
“You could have been really hurt.” A growl tore from his throat. “You were hurt!”
“Adam, really. I’m fine,” she said again.
He held up the edge of the blanket, now soaked in her blood. “You’re not fine!”
“Stop yelling!” she yelled back.
“What if he dragged you in with him? What if he decided to finish what you started in that bar?” He stood, shoving a hand through his hair. “Do you even know you’re doing it? Are you even aware of the reckless shit you do?”
“Now, hang on—”
“No wonder Hugh’s so damn pissed with you. Jesus.” He locked eyes with her. “You don’t fucking think, Lucy.”
She grabbed her tank and tugged it on. “I was trying to help.” She got to her feet, still holding the other end of the blanket to her nose.
“By getting yourself hurt. By nearly getting yourself kidnapped!”
“He wasn’t trying to kidnap me!”
“You little fool.” He grabbed her arms. His fear over what could have happened was totally in the driver’s seat now, and had complete control over what came out of his mouth. “You think you know, but you don’t. You don’t know goddamn anything.” She had no idea, no fucking idea how he felt about her, how seeing someone punch her, make her bleed, had affected him. He felt like he was losing his mind.
“You’re an asshole.”
“I know,” he fired back. “Doesn’t change the fact that you nearly got yourself seriously hurt…that it could have ended up a hell of a lot worse. That you don’t think before you act.”
She was standing stiff, but at his words, yanked her arms free of his hold and took several steps back—away from him. “That’s not true.”
“Were you thinking when you started fucking your professor? A married man? Were you thinking then, baby girl?”
Her body jerked back like he’d punched her this time.
“Don’t call me that,” she whispered.
“Name fits.” He was breathing heavily, heart racing, head spinning. He knew he was fucking up more with every frightened, jealous word that came out of his mouth, but he was so past rational thought he didn’t know how to stop it. “Time to grow the hell up.”
She was shaking now. “Says the man with the revolving bedroom door.”
Now it was his turn to flinch.
“I thought we were going to have some fun together.” She shook her head. “I’m not having fun anymore.”
“Lucy…” He didn’t know what to say. He’d messed everything up, had hurt her. God, he could see it in her eyes. “I…I…” What? What could he possibly say to make up for the shit he’d just flung at her? I’m sorry sure as hell wouldn’t cut it.
She turned her back on him and pulled on her shorts and shoes. Without a backward glance, she headed toward the road.
“Where are you going?”
“We need to get to the next town, right?” She walked over to the piece of shit car their thief must have used to follow them and climbed in.
Shit.
Chapter Fifteen
As soon as they hit the next town Adam pulled over. He was probably just as anxious to get out of the confined space with her as she was. She took in the street they were on and had no idea where she was. All she knew was she needed to get as far away from Adam as she could manage, and started off down the road.
“Lucy!”
She ignored him and kept walking. What a mess. He was right—her brothers were right. She didn’t think. Took stupid risks. This whole thing—coming with Adam, forcing him to take her with him—was right up there. And right now, with everything else weighing her down, she couldn’t deal with it. It was too damn much.
By the lake, what they’d done. To her, it had been life altering, earth shattering. Nothing had changed for Adam, whether he felt it as well or not, and she knew that. Had always known it. God, she was stupid to think she could do this with him and have it not affect her. He’d told her what this was, and up until then she’d agreed with him. Yes, she loved him, but she knew he would never give her more, and she’d made her peace with that.