Page 72 of Cold Hard Kisses (London Mafia Kings)

I hadn’t thought he was going to let me go, but when I reached the front door and he still hadn’t come after me, I realised that was exactly what he was going to do. Somehow, that hurt even worse, and the tears I’d been so desperately fighting now streamed down my face.

Chapter Twenty-Four

Tam

Iopened my bottleof pills, tipped two out into my palm, then hesitated and added another two. I threw them into my mouth and dry swallowed them, grimacing at the sour, gritty taste on my tongue and the sharpness as they scraped down my throat.

I wasn’t used to not getting my way, that was all this was. It was the only reason I was upset. Hallie had defied me and packed up her stuff and gone running back to her father. The wedding was off. I should be happy. I actually had got what I’d wanted, at least it had been what I’d wanted at the start of all this. The Cornells and the Wynters weren’t going to be united. I guessed I’d proven that such a thing was impossible. Now I just needed my father and for Marlon Wynter to accept their ludicrous plan was never going to work.

Guilt twisted at my insides. Would Hallie get into trouble with her father for going home? I remembered seeing the mark across her cheek when she’d first come to the house, as though someone had hit her. I was fairly sure that someone had been her father, so what was his reaction likely to be now?

It wasn’t my problem. The fucking Wynters were never my problem. Hallie Wynter meant nothing to me.

I paced around my big, empty house like a dog unable to settle. It had never felt empty before, and its size had never bothered me, so why did it now?

I stopped in the living room and went to the booze cabinet. This was just a brief phase. I’d got used to having her around, that was all. But she was completely replaceable. I could go to a club and pick up any woman I wanted and slot her straight into the empty place that Halie had left.

Opening the cabinet, I took down a cut-crystal glass and helped myself to a decent measure of thirty-year-old Scottish whisky. I’d already drunk too much when I’d been out-drinking Hallie’s idiot little brother, but I wasn’t about to stop now. If anything, I needed to drink even more so I could stop thinking about how much I was going to miss her.

No, I wasn’t going to miss her. That was the drink talking. She was just a girl. A sexy, intense girl who also happened to come from the same background as me and who completely understood the world that we’d both lived in our whole lives. I’d thought, because of her youth, that she’d back down to me and do whatever I said, but the opposite was true. I was so used to women in my life offering me nothing to push against—always happy to go along with whatever I said—that Hallie had been refreshing. Even with the will of her father behind her to make this work, she’d still pulled me up when I was being an arsehole. And I’d deliberately pushed her, seeing how much she would take, until I’d finally pushed her too far.

It was ironic that the one person I wanted to talk to about what had happened at the club was Hallie. I wanted her to talk sense into me, but she was no longer here. I wanted to not have to think, but the best way of stopping my brain from torturing me was by losing myself in the hot, sweet heat of Hallie’s mouth and cunt. I found myself missing her with an ache that was visceral. How had it come to this?

Taking another shot of whisky, I realised I couldn’t stay in this house without her. What I needed was to get out of my head on booze and pills and have some fucking fun for once in my life. I was too used to taking everything so seriously. I needed to lighten up. I was Tam fucking Cornell and I wasn’t about to be brought to my knees by some twenty-one-year-old who also happened to be a member of a family I couldn’t even stand to look at.

I called my driver to get him to take me back to the club. No one would even mention the mess caused by Jayden Wynter.

Why hadn’t I just bought him a drink? Why hadn’t I clapped him on the back and told him how much I was fucking obsessed with his sister? Hallie had been right when she’d said I was the older one and should have known better.

I warred with myself once more. She hadn’t been right. Jayden Wynter had been on my territory, and Hallie and I weren’t even married. We never would be married. Jayden had walked into my club as though he had a right to be there when he didn’t, and I’d reminded him of that. He’d taken liberties he didn’t have. At least now the Wynters were under no misunderstandings about what I thought of them.

I squeezed my eyes shut and exhaled slowly through my nostrils. The things I’d said about Hallie played over in my mind, and inwardly I cringed. I’d implied that Hallie’s brother had a thing for her. What the hell had I said that for? I’d been angry about him mentioning Harvey and I’d wanted to hurt him. I’d wanted to hurthim, not her, but my stupid mouth had dragged her down with it. I’d taken an incredibly erotic moment between us and hurt and humiliated her with it.

Well done, Tam, you fucking moron.

I remembered to change the code on my alarm before I left the house. At least now she wouldn’t be able to get back in.

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