Page 43 of Broken Player

“I’ll take whatever micro brew they’ve got,” Quinn said, and Ryan agreed.

“Be right back.” The place was pretty busy, so I had to weave in between quite a few people to get to the bar. I placed our order and stood to wait for the bartender to bring it over. While I waited, I pulled out my phone and scrolled through social media absently. Someone brushed against me, but I didn’t pay much attention because of how crowded the bar was. When it happened again, and I felt a hand move against my stomach, I looked up.

A girl with fake eyelashes and bleached blonde hair in a tight red dress that left nothing to the imagination looked up at me with a wicked grin. I stepped back, pulling her hand off of me. “What the fuck are you doing?” I hissed.

“Don’t you remember me?” she pouted.

I wracked my brain, but it was just a blur of blonde hair and long legs, none sticking out more than any of the others. Shaking my head, I turned back toward the bar. “Sorry.”

“Maybe you’ll let me jog your memory,” she purred, skating her arm back around me until her tits pressed into my side. I was getting seriously pissed off. Why the fuck was this girl touching me?

“Hard pass,” I snapped.

“I bet I can snap you out of that cranky mood,” she offered, sliding her hand lower. Why the fuck wouldn’t she get the goddamn hint? I glanced across the bar toward Ryan. If she saw this girl all over me, I knew she wouldn’t take it well, and suddenly the thought of anyone else touching me was repulsive.

“You need to back the fuck up off of me now.” Ryan’s eyes locked with mine as she made her way up to the bar, and I knew she’d seen the whole thing. Fuck.

The blonde finally got the hint and stepped away as Ryan moved to my side. Blondie shot Ryan a glare before finally backing off and slinking back to whatever hole she’d crawled out of. I doubted this would be the last time that shit happened. I’d been with alotof women, and I left most of them wanting more since I was never with the same girl twice.

“Friend of yours?” she asked with a voice more casual than I could tell she looked. The hurt in her eyes killed me. I vowed never to hurt her again, yet here I was doing just that. Would there ever be a day when I wouldn’t cause her pain?

“Not even a little bit.”

“Right. I’m going to the bathroom.” She spun on her heel and stalked away from me.

“What the hell are you doing, man?” Quinn stepped into the spot Ryan left open, grabbing two of the bottles the bartender slid in front of me.

“Grabbing beer?” I grabbed the last one, and we made our way back to the booth. I slid in across from him, taking a sip of my beer.

Quinn rolled his eyes. “You’re not that fucking dense. With Ryan.”

Picking at the corner of the label, I sighed. “I can’t let her marry another guy. It will wreck me. I made a mistake leaving all those years ago without reaching out and at least being her friend.”

He nodded, sipping his beer. “Yeah, you really fucked her up. I stepped in to try to fill your shoes freshman year of high school, and we’ve been best friends ever since. But she’s waited for you for twelve years, Maddox. Do you understand what I’m saying?”

“That she’s missed me?” I really didn’t know exactly what he meant, and I wanted him to spell it out.

He narrowed his eyes on me. “She didn’t just miss you, bro. She saved herself—every part. Up until Yates, she hadn’t kissed anyone else. She’s never had a boyfriend until him. I’m the closest thing she’s got, and it’s only because I’m safe. You don’t know the power you’ve got over her. It’d be so easy for you to break her. But if you break her, I’ll fucking kill you myself.” That last part he growled at me threateningly, and my respect for him went up even more.

And she’d never even had a boyfriend until this Yates guy? We’d lived such different lives. While I’d been hung up on her, I shoved her to the back of my mind, pretending she didn’t exist so I could try and move on. Except I never had. Subconsciously I had all these rules to keep me from really finding someone else.

And I felt guilty as fuck every single time. It was why I always had to be drunk when I hooked up with girls. I couldn’t handle the guilt.

I stared across the table at Quinn. “Do you think I really have a chance to stop this wedding and get her to see that she belongs with me?”

He leaned back in the booth and ran his hand through his messy hair before nodding. “I do. But it’s going to take a fuckton of work. Lucky for you, I’m on your side.”

“Why?” I asked, unsure why he’d want Ryan with a fuck up like me.

“I’ve known our girl for a long time, but I’ve never seen her light up the way she does when she talks about you. Even before you came back, when she told stories about the past, she always talked about you so reverently. I love Ryan, probably more than I should.” A dark shadow crossed his face, and I sat up straighter. He was gay, right? “And that means the only thing I want for her is to be happy. I don’t know you very well, but what I’ve seen sofar, you seem like a good guy. I saw how you tried to get that skank off of you. I don’t think Ryan was thinking clearly enough to see that part,” he noted.

“So, how do I fix it?” I took another big sip of my beer, letting the cold liquid slide down my throat.

“Treat her like the motherfucking queen she is. Show her you want her more than anyone or anything else. And most of all, never, ever give up on her and run away again. No matter what.” He finished, his eyes boring into mine. The threat was implied. If I did this, if I went down this road with her, I better be sure because if I tried to back away, he’d be there inflicting every bit of pain on me that I do on her.

Except I knew I’d never back away. I’d never wanted anything like I wanted Ryan, and now that I’d unlocked the feelings from the depths of my soul, there was no putting them back. There was no containing them, and there was no stopping what I was about to do.

No matter what it took, Ryan Knight would be mine.

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