Page 66 of Tess, Property of Blaze

“Yeah, baby?” He moves some hair out of my face with his finger and I shiver.

“Thank you for being so good to me. You’ve always been there for me. I know I’ve already said this, but I don’t deserve you. I’m so sorry I lied to you. I just didn’t want to lose you, and I didn’t know how to tell you….”

He looks away and stretches his legs out, his gaze on the lake. “I’m sorry too.”

I snap my head toward him. “Sorry for what? You have nothing to be sorry about.”

He turns to me, looking down at his feet and then meeting my eyes. “The night I asked you to leave the clubhouse, something happened between me and Katie.”

I pull away from him and stand up, so pissed off right now. I look down at him, then at my ice cream, now on the ground, ribbons of green melting into the dirt. “You slept with a club whore?” I hiss at him, then shout, “Are you fuckin’ serious?” It feel like all the blood in my body is rushing to my head.

He holds his palms out to me. “Calm down, baby, sit back down.”

I cross my arms over my chest. “I’m not going to calm down. You’re telling me that the same night I left, you slept with someone else.”

“Tess, please just sit down.”

“Oh, it’s Tess now, is it? You finally decide to say my name when it involves a club whore?”

He gets up from the seat, and I step back, my hands out. “Don’t touch me. I can’t believe I was feeling so guilty, when you didn’t take too long to replace me.”

“Will you just listen to me, baby.”

I point my finger at him. “Don’t you dare call me baby. All this time you’ve been sleeping with Katie—the whore who looks like a cheerleader?”

“I didn’t sleep with her,” he growls.

“Oh, I’m sorry, you were fucking her.”

He shakes his head, his hands now on his hips, clearly losing patience. “Fuck!” he grunts. “Listen, I never had sex with her, okay? She just gave me a blow job.”

Tears spring to my eyes. I’m feeling hurt and betrayed, that he let a whore touch him right after we were together. I inhale deeply, trying to calm myself down. I look down at the ground, kicking at an imaginary stone, then look up at him, feeling suddenly exhausted. “I don’t know what’s worse, the fact that you let her touch you, or the fact that you think her giving you a blow job is nothing. You let her lips, her mouth, her hands touch you, and that’s so much more than just sex.” I turn around and walk away, in a rush to get away from him. I can’t bear to look at him right now.

He runs up behind me and places his hand on my shoulder, turning me to face him. “Tess, please,” he begs, desperation in his voice. “It was nothing, I promise you. I was hurt, angry that you lied, and that you were married and never told me.”

I let him speak, and when he’s finally finished with his excuses, I just nod. “Blaze, I need you to let me go.”

His eyes widen and his face goes pale. “Please, baby, don’t leave like this.” He cups my face with his hands. “I love you, goddammit, I won’t let you go. Not after everything we’ve been through.”

I step back and his hands drop to his side. “I need some space right now, to get my head straight.”

He inhales and leans in to kiss me, but I turn my head away, the thought of him right now making me sick. “Please tell me I haven’t lost you over a fuckin’ whore.”

I look him straight in the eye. “You should have thought about that before you let that fuckin’ whore touch you.” I then turn back around and speed walk to the sidewalk, grateful that a cab’s approaching as I get there. I signal for it to stop.

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