Total pages in book: 111
Estimated words: 107823 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 539(@200wpm)___ 431(@250wpm)___ 359(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 107823 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 539(@200wpm)___ 431(@250wpm)___ 359(@300wpm)
It didn’t make him gloat, it pissed him the fuck off. He didn’t approach Angel to make Tessa jealous, the sweet butt had approached him and not to cause an issue but because that was what the sweet butts were there for.
What Tess didn’t know was he turned her the fuck down. Angel wasn’t waiting for him. No one was.
Once again, he had to make excuses to cover his own fucking ass.
All because of the woman standing before him.
Fuck my life.
It had been going along just fine until that first night Tessa came to him, crawled into his bed, somehow burrowed into his chest and got wedged there.
He was unable to scrape her free.
Right from the beginning, he should’ve told her to fuck off. To go find some other sucker willing to play her games.
His goddamn mistake. And now he was paying for it.
Just like he paid for his mistake when he was seventeen.
“Tell me, Tess… You don’t want me to approach Trip but you don’t want me to be with anyone else. That right? So, what the fuck am I supposed to do? My brothers know I ain’t a damn monk. Certainly know I ain’t celibate. Not even fuckin’ close. Sweet butts are wonderin’ what the fuck’s goin’ on and it won’t be long before everybody else starts wonderin’, too. You got me between a fuckin’ rock and a hard place.” Hard and uncomfortable just like his cock.
With a challenge in hers, Tess looked him dead in his eyes and had the goddamn balls to say, “Then go fuck her. No one’s stopping you.”
He grabbed her raised chin and tipped her face up even further before dropping his head and practically going nose to nose with her. “I don’t wanna fuck her,” came out slowly on a hiss. “That’s the goddamn problem. Don’t wanna fuck any of them.”
Her lips twitched. Barely, but enough so he caught it.
Was this more than a game to her? Was this some sort of fucking power play? Because if it was…
She was lucky he didn’t have a fucking temper like her brother because right now, his anger was simmering and it took a shitload for it to get there.
The urge to curl his fingers around her throat and pin her against the fridge, keeping her there until she cried mercy shocked the fuck out of him. Instead, he released her chin and stepped back, forcing his hands to his sides instead.
Was that what she wanted? Was she trying to break him?
If so, why?
She could push him until he snapped but even if he did, he’d never hurt her.
Never.
If that was what she wanted for whatever the reason she wanted it, she was goading the wrong man. When he wasn’t old enough to know better, he had fallen into a trap that changed his life and now that he was, fuck him if he’d fall into one again.
So, fuck her.
He was fucking done with her.
So fucking done.
He jerked his head back when she reached up, but she wasn’t reaching for his face, instead she snagged the elastic band once again holding his hair back. She jerked it free and then combed her fingers through its length as she dropped her hands. Her head tilted, her dark brown, unreadable eyes searching his face.
And, fuck him, he let her.
He let her fucking do it. Once again he didn’t stop her.
Stupid fuck.
When she finally took a step back, she held the hair band up in front of his face. “This belongs to me.”
“Tess.” The simmer was now a rolling boil.
She only shook her head and pushed past him with the whiskey bottle in her hand, the six-pack tucked under the same arm, and his elastic band now tucked deep within her front pocket.
“Tess!” he called out, louder this time.
She hesitated with one hand planted on the kitchen door. She didn’t bother to look behind her. To look at him.
Fuck her.
Fuck. Her.
Stay strong.
“Don’t bother comin’ tonight. My door will be fuckin’ locked.”
Yeah, he was done with her but, for fuck’s sake, she clearly wasn’t done with him yet when she shoved open the swinging door and whispered, “No it won’t,” just loud enough for him to hear, before disappearing through it.
With her hand on the door knob, Tess closed her eyes, afraid to turn it.
Her heart pounded so badly she worried it would wake up everybody in the bunkhouse.
If it was locked…
Shit, if it was locked, she needed to take it as a sign.
He could’ve slept with Angel, he didn’t.
He could’ve lied about it, he didn’t.
He said his door would be locked.
She turned it and her eyes flashed open.
It wasn’t.
She pressed her forehead to the smooth wood and took a deep breath in relief, even knowing that standing out in the corridor for this long was a risk.
But she didn’t want Easy to witness that relief.