Page 36 of Wanted

“Well…sort of. Hell, I don’t know. I don’t know what Braden told himexactly. But I’m sure he hinted at it, Sara.”

“Well, I’m not going now, so you can forget about it.” I stalkedaway from her and into the bathroom. It was late and I needed to take a showerbefore bed.

“Youaregoing becauseI’m not allowing you to chicken out.” When she sensed her words were falling ondeaf ears, she followed me into the bathroom and was the one crowding mypersonal space in return.“You listenhere. I love you as if you were my own sister, but I’ve listened to you cry forthree months over that asshole. I’ve been your shoulder to lean on, talked youdown from your bouts of hysteria, and have been there for you in every otherway possible. Even force-feeding you so you didn’t starve to death. I was happyto do it. All of it. But right now, you have an opportunity to start livingagain and meet some new people, and damn it, you’re going to do it. You don’thave to marry the guy, you don’t even have to sleep with him, but youwillput on your big-girl panties and enjoyone night out with friends. See where the night takes you.” She stunned mespeechless. “Do you understand me?” she demanded.

How could I argue with anything she’d said? I couldn’t, so I gavein. “Fine.”

“Good. Now, is there anything else you want to talk about?” She laughed,knowing she’d essentially trapped me into a night of forced fun.

“Nope, I think you about covered it.” I quickly learned it wasbest not to fight her. She’d made some really good points, and because she wassuch a great friend, I decided to go along with her plans. Humor her.Who knows? Maybe I’ll actually end up havinga good time for once.

~23~

Alek

Drunk.

I was drunk yet again.

It seemed the only thing I was good at following through withrecently was downing large amounts of alcohol. As I lay on the couch, Icouldn’t help but think back to the previous week. Apparently, I loved totorture myself.

It’d been seven long days since my planned encounter with Sara. Shelooked beautiful, of course, but her distress enveloped her, making her looktired. Weight loss was the first thing I noticed. She was too thin, obviouslythe result of her not eating. When I was close enough, I saw the dark circleshovering under her eyes. She did her best to cover them up, but it didn’treally work.

My heart leapt when she finally made eye contact with me. I lostmy breath for a few seconds. No matter how much time went by, it would donothing to squelch the sizzling desire which passed between us whenever we wereclose. I knew my presence was going to affect her. Hell, it affected me morethan I ever wanted to admit. But I had to see her. I was going out of my mindnot being able to talk to her. I wanted to beg for forgiveness so many timesbut never found my opportunity until that night.

I knew I was a dick for trapping her the way I did, but shewouldn’t listen to me otherwise. Seeing the anger in her eyes was a good thing;it meant she still had some sort of feeling toward me. When I leaned into her,I thought I caught a glimpse of desire there as well, but I didn’t have enoughtime to find out before she started yelling at me. I wouldn’t lie and say herwords didn’t hurt me, but I deserved all she had to give and then some. Wantingnothing more than to tame her rage with a kiss, I knew better than to push her toofar.

Winning her back again was going to be my biggest feat. I wasn’tsure if she would even give me a third chance, because that was exactly what itwas.

Mythirdchance.

I tried my hardest not to think about it, but I couldn’t forgetthe way that asshole claimed Sara…right in front of me.Who the hell did he think he was, touchingher so intimately, clearly showing his sign of possession? I knew what he wasdoing because I’d exhibited the same behavior when she was mine. I knew it wasNeanderthal-like but I was letting every other man in the room know she wastaken.

She was mine.

Except she wasn’t mine anymore.

I was forced from my thoughts when the sound of my phone cutthrough the air. My hand dangled over the couch, desperately trying to searchfor the damn thing. Once I’d found it, I did my best to see who was calling,but my vision was blurry.Fuck it! I’llanswer it blind.

“Hello,” I slurred down the line.

“What the fuck, man? You missed our meeting. Again,” Kael beratedon the other end. I heard him huffing into the phone. What? Did he miraculouslythink I would get my shit together simply because he was annoyed with me? “You’vehaven’t been yourself ever since you made that stupid, self-sacrificing choice.”He remained quiet, clearly trying to give me some time to react. I chose not torespond. “I told you not to do it, Alek. I told you not to make any rashdecisions, to think about it before you decided to cut her out of your life.”

“Ididthink about it!”I finally yelled in response. “It’s all I fucking thought about, drunk andsober, night and day. It was the best choice for her. At the time.”

“Yeah. You keep telling yourself that. Keep trying to convinceyourself what you did was the best thing for her.” Kael was obviously pissedoff at me. He knew I was hurting, trying to assuage my pain with alcohol. Whichwas exactly why I missed yet another one of our meetings.

“I don’t want to talk about this anymore, Kael. She won’t eventalk to me. I’ve tried, but she hates me.” I blew out a drunken breath of air.“She hates me, Kael. What am I going to do?”

“Wait. When did you try to talk to her?”

“Last week, but some asshole had his hands all over my woman. Hedidn’t want her to talk to me, but I fooled him. I made him disappear so Icould pin her against the car.” The scene played out in my head, but the wordsspewing from my mouth made everything sound weird.

“Jesus Christ, Alek. Did you attack her? So help me, if youharmed her in any way, I’ll kick your ass myself.” He was seething, his angerpalpable even through the phone.

“How could you think I would ever do that?” Even drunk, I wasoffended he thought so little of me. But then again, I’d been drunk for themajority of the past three months, so it seemed he had cause to worry. “I loveher, Kael. I love her so much,” I cried into the phone. If I knew anythingabout my good friend, I knew he was shaking his head at me.

“Listen. Here is what you’re going to do. And so help me, if youdon’t, I’m coming over there and we’re going to have it out.”

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