Page 45 of Until You're Mine
“That’s funny, saying he needs to know I can take care of myself when you’re the one who won’t even leave me alone in the gym. You’re the one who doesn’t know what I’m capable of, you fucking hypocrite.”
I’d stoked the fire, so I’d deal with the flames. The fact that I’d take any kind of passion at this point, as long as it was aimed at me, only proved how far gone I was for the girl. “Fine, you got me. But at least Icouldprotect you if you ran into trouble. That guy certainly couldn’t. He’s soft. Cookie dough.”
“For your information, I happen to like soft.”
I cupped her chin, forcing her icy blue gaze to mine. “No, you want to want soft, but you don’t. You want hard.”
I ran my thumb along her jawline. “It’ll never work out—he doesn’t even know you. There are dozens of things I’d call you, but since Idoknow you, ‘angel’ sure as hell wouldn’t be one of them.”
I moved my thumb, dragging it across her bottom lip, and desire like I’d never felt before seared through my veins, laying waste to everything else. “Now. Now, now, for the love of Godnow.”
She turned her head away, and I dropped my hand, even though it went the opposite of my instincts. When her eyes met mine again, they were glossy. “You’ve hardly talked to me all week, and now that my boyfriend shows up you suddenly want to kiss me?”
“I want to kiss you every time I see you. If I had my way, I’d be kissing you every second of every fucking day.”
She shook her head, and I felt two inches tall. I’d pushed too far. Iwasan asshole.
“You okay down there?” Finn asked, peeking over the half wall that’d kept us nice and hidden for a few minutes.
Brooklyn stood, threw her purse over her shoulder, and stormed away from me and out of the gym.
I thought I’d known misery before, but this was deeper than that, the kind that ached down to my bones.
I’d let her slip out of my fingers this week as I focused every ounce of my energy on training for my huge upcoming fight, and I was afraid it was something I was going to regret for a very long time.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Brooklyn
“Do you want to watch something?” I asked Trey, very aware of the good foot of space between us on the couch. You know what takes all the air out of your boyfriend surprising you by showing up early? Taking him down to the mat two times in a row. There’d been a voice in the back of my mind screaming it was a bad idea to step into the cage with him, but I’d let my pride and my irritation that he thought he could take me down so easily win out over common sense.
I’d let fucking Shane Knox mess with my head.
I ran my palms down my jeans. “I’m sorry about the gym. I just—”
“Let’s never talk about the gym again.” While Trey’s voice was as calm as ever, his words held a finality he didn’t usually use.
I picked up the remote, deciding anything was better than the impenetrable silence, but hesitated before clicking the power button. “Can’t it be something you’re proud of?”
“My girlfriend humiliating me in front of the meatheads she hangs out with all the time? You want me to be proud of that?”
“Yes?” When he put it like that, I supposed it didn’t exactly sound like something you bragged about at the company picnic. Still, I was proud I could defend myself. I’d felt stronger these past few weeks, and I didn’t realize how important that was to me until I’d questioned how well I could still protect myself. “I’m related to most of the meatheads, if that makes you feel better.”
“No. It doesn’t make me feel any better, Brooklyn.”
I grimaced, at a loss what to try next. I’d spent the first two weeks here in San Diego anticipating this trip and the next two confused and torn how to feel about us in general. Never in a million years could I have predicted it’d go this badly. “Do you want to go to the beach?”
Trey sighed. “This… Us…” He raked his hands through his sandy-colored hair and leaned forward on his forearms. “Long-distance has been rough. A lot rougher than I thought it’d be.”
I nodded. “It has. Are you saying that…you want to take a break?” It killed me that relief was my main emotion, kicking sorrow off the stage.
“I feel like I don’t even know who you are.”
“Because I know some self-defense moves and a few MMA takedowns?”
“Because there’s this whole other side to you, but mostly because of that guy at the gym,” Trey said. “You’re not that way with me.”
I shrugged. “I’m sorry I don’t want to murder you the way I want to murder him.”
