Page 36 of Reckless Temptation

I wouldn’t fuck off. No one would get away with telling me to leave Sabrina. I hadn’t counted on being in a fight tonight, not for a stranger we’d happened upon so suddenly in the alley, but here I was. And I unleashed all my pent-up fury on this stupid fucker. Raining hits and kicks down on him, I fought back so swiftly that he’d never be able to get away without having his ass handed to him.

Several minutes later, with aching knuckles and my chest heaving to catch my breath, I spat out a mouthful of blood from when he’d gotten a lucky jab in to my face. He lay on the ground, moaning in pain and clutching his side.

Sometime during the fight, the scared woman ran off. As I spun slowly to glower at Sabrina who’d stayed behind me, the man pulled himself off the pavement and escaped too.

I didn’t care. I’d helped. That woman got away. That asshole wouldn’t be feeling good for a long time.

But Sabrina wouldn’t fare so well. This stubborn good girl behind me wasn’t getting off the hook that easily.

She furrowed her brow at me, taking me in as though I were a feral animal on the loose. I felt like one, rabid and enraged. “What the fuck is wrong with you?”

“What’s wrong withme?” She gaped at me, indignation clear on her face.

“What the fuck is wrong with you to run toward danger like that?” I flung my hand out at where the woman had cowered from the man I’d beaten.

“What’s wrong with you”—she shoved at my chest, sending me back a step because it surprised me—“that you wouldn’t?”

“What?” I narrowed my eyes at her, confused. “Are you judging me, testing me over why I wouldn’t interfere in someone else’s business?”

She stepped back, frowning more. “It’s one thing to bully me, Nick. It’s one thing to try to slander me and hurt my reputation. But that’s nowhere near as disappointing as your being too afraid to help a defenseless woman.”

“Afraid?” I set my lips in a firm line, breathing hard through my nose. I wasn’t going to stand around and listen to how I disappointed her. I didn’t want to even care whether I’d disappointed her!

“Why are you pretending to be a coward?” she asked, backing away from me with scorn on her face. “Go ahead and be the big, tough guy who wants to make my life hell. But you’ve got no excuse to stand back from helping someone else out of real and present danger.”

Coward?

Did she just fucking call me acoward?

If there were ever a word to trigger me into red-hot rage, that was it. My dad tossed that word at me when my mom’s mental health intimidated me. He’d told me not to be a coward whenhe died. Even George seemed to think I was a coward, not being mature and seeking a real future or career.

Sick of Sabrina’s angry scowl and precisely wicked words, I turned around and walked away.

How dare she…

I shook my head, grinding my teeth so hard that my jaw would be more sore after that one hit the guy got in.

Sabrina had no right to say any of what she’d shouted at me, and I hated that she could see through me to ever speak those words.

A coward?

After I singlehandedly took that man down so the woman could get away in the end?

Maybe I’d hesitated for a moment because I was so shocked that Sabrina ran to save her without any regard for her own well-being.

But I wouldn’t have ignored the situation.

I could’ve stayed to tell her that. I should’ve corrected her.

The mere possibility that I could be a coward pissed me off, though.

Despite how she’d ignore me so stubbornly, Sabrina was perceptive enough to see through me.

And I wasn’t sure that I liked what I saw in myself anymore, either.

13

SABRINA

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