Page 63 of Treacherous

"…Only you can cool my desire…Oh I'm fire…"

"So this is what you do," I choked out when I was finally able to speak again. "You fight for money. You're a fighter."

"I told you," he replied in a cold tone. "I do what I'm told – and I told you to stay."

I chose to ignore that sexist remark and asked, "Was that man your boss?"

Noah glanced at me. "Who, Gonzalez?"

I nodded.

"No," he replied quietly. "He's just the asshole who was in charge of the fight tonight."

"Are you going to be in trouble?" I asked him.

Noah shrugged noncommittally. "He shouldn't have touched what's mine."

"Except I'm not yours, Noah," I reminded him. "And now you've punched one of your bosses…"

"Thorn, it's fine," he snapped. "I'll figure this out."

Tightening his hold on the wheel, Noah cleared his throat roughly. "You shouldn’t have gone off on your own." Frowning he added, "You could've been hurt."

"Could'vebeen hurt?" I shot back sarcastically. "Oh yeah, because Gonzalez putting his hands in my knickers was so much fun.Thatdidn’t hurt at all." I shuddered and leaned my head back against the seat. "I need to shower."

Noah didn’t reply to that, but the way the car swerved slightly proved he was listening.

"Why do you do this?" I asked him when the lights of the city came into view.

"I do this for reasons you'll never understand," he said stiffly.

"Why do you fight?" I pressed, not satisfied with his noncommittal reply.

"Why do I fight?" Noah repeated my question and he seemed to think about it for a moment. "Because I don’t know how to do anything else."

"Yes, you do." I sighed heavily. "You're a senior in high school for Christ's sake. There are other jobs and sports you could be doing – legally."

"I need the release, Teagan," Noah grumbled as we pulled onto Thirteenth Street. "I need it to take the edge off of…life."

"That's a really pathetic reason," I told him as we pulled into my driveway.

Hissing out a sharp breath Noah jacked the handbrake and slammed the palm of his hand against the steering wheel. "I've been through more shit than you couldeverrelate to, Teagan." He was staring straight ahead, breathing fast and hard. "So don’t fucking dare call me or anything I do pathetic. You have no idea of what I've…" He stopped and clenched his fist. "Just don’t."

There was something about the way Noah's voice rose – the deep pain in his voice – that touched something raw inside of me. I realized I was worried about him, even though a huge part of me hated his guts.

"Tell me, Noah," I urged. I knew I should walk away right now, leave him to it, but I couldn’t. We were on the verge of something – what, I had no clue, but I could feel it in my bones. "Make me understand…" My words trailed off as I studied at his closed off expression.Piss him off… Get him to talk by pissing him off."Or is your real reason for beating people to a pulp aspatheticas your fake one?"

"Teagan, back the fuck off," he snarled. Opening his door Noah climbed out and slammed the door before leaning against it. "My reasons are my own which means they –I– have nothing to do with you. Get that through your head. Fuck."

Anger boiled in my veins and I unfastened my seatbelt and scrambled out of the car. "Fine," I spat. Leaning over the roof of my car I narrowed my eyes and glared at him. "I'm just the girl who was almostrapedbecause of your need for arelease."

Noah flinched and I was glad.

"Teagan, I'm…" Noah stopped abruptly and tossed my keys over the roof of my car instead. "Just go home."

I caught them mid-air and shook my head, feeling hurt, angry and weirdly emotional. "I'm not doing this anymore, Noah," I told him, detaching my car key from the rest of the bunch before shoving my key across the hood towards him.

Noah picked up my key and frowned at me.

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