Page 84 of Snared Rider

He lets out a steadying breath and I'm not sure if he's upset or frustrated. “I didn't mean for you to feel that way, love.”

“I told you: don't call me ‘love’!” My bottom lip trembles and I shake my head, fighting back the tears. It's a battle I’m not going to win because all my walls are down now and I'm drowning in pain. “I gave you everything,” I say, my voice shredded raw. “And you threw me away like I didn’t matter. Don’t you understand what that did to me?”

His jaw twitches, and this time I can see his own emotions battling for dominance. My words are affecting him more than he's letting on. "Beth, please."

I blink rapidly and I swipe at the tears now coursing down my cheeks. When he reaches out for me once more, I shake my head at him and I step away. “Don't you get it, Logan? You didn't break me, you destroyed me, and I can't be put back together in one day.”

He swallows hard, his Adam’s apple jumping spasmodically in his throat as his hands drag through his hair. I can see the tension in the hard planes of his body, can see what my words are doing to him, but I can’t rein it back. I’m furious, I’m upset, I’m heartbroken. I’m so many emotions I don’t know what to focus on first, so I hang onto the most prominent one, the one screaming the loudest: anger.

“What was I supposed to do, Beth? I was in an impossible situation back then.”

I have no idea what impossible situation he’s talking about, but it makes no difference; he gave up on us. He threw us away with no explanation. That I can’t forgive.

“Love me!” I scream in his face. “You were supposed to love me. That was all I needed from you.”

He blinks at my words. “I did love you. I still do.”

I fold my arms beneath my breasts and glare at him.

“Do you also love that woman you were with the night I came back?”

I have no idea why I ask this. It is none of my business and I don’t care. Not even a little. Except, I want to know his answer.

He looks confused, then realisation dawns. “Who? Anna?”

I snort. “Well, at least you remember her name.”

“She’s nothing to me, Beth. Just a distraction.”

Oh wow. His arseholery knows no bounds.

“Well, that’s just charming, isn’t it?” I shake my head. “Does she know you hold her in such high regard?”

I can see the moment his temper frays. His jaw tightens and his teeth grind. “Fucking hell, Beth! This isn’t about her. It’s about us.”

“Just because we fucked in the past doesn’t mean there is an us!”

“You two shagged?”

Dean’s voice behind us has my head whipping around. My heart is pounding a hundred miles an hour like an out of control steam train as I lock eyes with Dean. He’s standing at the mouth of the corridor, his hands fisted at his side and his expression is radiating pure, undulating fury.

Oh crap.

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