Page 30 of Out of Bounds
“Bree—”
My hand flies up and I stop his next words with the slap I’ve been dying to land across his face for months. Years. It’s actually been years. My hand was looking for any excuse. I’ve had several, but this is the closest I’ve been to him, and this shitty shenanigan is a damn good excuse to give it to him. What a fucking asshole he is. I knew he could hit below the belt, but that waslow.
Ethan looks shocked by the slap but like he knows he deserved it. Damn right he did. If I were a man, we’d be down on the ground fighting it out and I’d beat him until he turned black and blue.
“You bastard.”
“Bree—”
“No,” I cut him off again. “You are such and asshole. All my life I’ve been kind to you, and you’ve just been plain old mean and horrible to me.” He has and now my damn night is utterly ruined, even with the excitement of the house.
“I can explain.”
“How can you explain any of that to me?”Is he for real?“What you did was so wrong on all levels. You had me arrested and told me I could go to Guantanamo Bay. You said Homeland security and Interpol would come after me if I left the country. I was taken to the police station in my underwear! Then you grilled me about my sex life. How do you explain that, you fucking asshole?”
I push him, shoving him as hard as I can but of course he doesn’t even move because he’s made of granite. All I manage to do when my hands connect with his rock hard abs is hurt myself.
“I can explain everything,” Bryce kindly offers, like he’s not an asshole too. “Ethan is the same dick from high school. He thinks he’s your white knight like Bruce Wayne or fucking Batman or whatever the hell. Your own personal vigilante to stop you from hooking up with the bad guys.”
“Bryce shut the hell up!” Ethan retorts.
“I don’t think so, if I’m going down, I’m taking you with me. So Bree, Ethan was the reason Bobby Fairchild never took you to the prom. He was a dick too who just wanted to collect your virginity like the Pied Piper he was. Ethan stopped him in his tracks. Ethan is also why Sam Daneman and Jim Stenner mysteriously stopped dating you. Fast forward to adulthood, Ethan was why we never had that second date. He stopped me from seeing you. He kicked my ass when I told him I really wanted to bang you. Then he threatened to shoot off my dick if I ever saw you again. That’s Ethan Carson for you. Fuck knows what else he might have done.”
My whole body is on fire. I’m so hot I could combust.
I feel like someone threw me into the sun and the longer I stare at Ethan the hotter I become. But it’s not just rage that’s coursing through me. There’s something else. It feels like shock, but I don’t think that’s a strong enough word to describe the emotion.
“Bree, I…” Ethan attempts but his voice trails off when Logan and Denver approach.
“I’m going home,” I say before anyone else can talk.
At this point I’m certain anything anyone else says will make me feel worse than I do.
“Bree, wait.”
When I back away, Ethan takes one step forward but Logan places one firm hand on his shoulder stopping him from moving. Denver—who’s normally Ethan’s wingman—gives him a hard disapproving look.
When I turn around, I see the girls were just behind me—all of them. Just like high school when Ethan did some shit to me.
But this isn’t high school anymore. In a few months I’m going to be thirty. I can’t run off and cry in the locker room or run home to my parents and ask them to make me muffins so I can feel better.
So I leave before I can draw any more attention to myself.
Chapter11
Bree
Imunch on the pizza I ordered from last night and curl up against the biggest cushion on my sofa.
Since I never got that burger, I ordered a large family sized pizza with hot barbeque wings and a cheesecake.
By the time it arrived I just dived in and ate not caring about gaining weight before Lucille’s wedding so I don’t fit into my bride’s maid dress. With the sordid history Lucille and I have, I don’t even know why I’m a bride’s maid.
It would have been far better for her to have chosen our other cousins who are just like her and some of her bitch friends than ask me. But she said she wanted all the cousins to join her on her big day.
I no longer care—about anything. Today I’m not caring. I’m taking a break from the world and I’m hiding away in my apartment.
The only thing I did when I woke up earlier was message one of my stylists to let them know I wouldn’t be at work today. Then I switched off my phone.
