No, my calm isn’t going to come back completely. I’m still worked up for another reason altogether and it has nothing to do with anger. I can’t get over seeing her stunning face, the face that has consumed my dreams and haunted my memories for way too fucking long. Even with my rage at seeing her openly touching the men I consider brothers, I still couldn’t stop my dick from trying to break out of my pants. All it took was one look at her tight, sexy-as-sin body wearing next to nothing and I found myself having to immediately adjust myself. So hard my dick was aching in a way I haven’t felt in many years. I didn’t even know who she was then and the attraction was that strong, just like it always had been.
When I walked up to the bar, coming up on that firm ass encased in skin-tight red fabric, I turned feral. I was like a raging bull being set free with one target in sight. My eyes traced her spine, each delicate little bump on her exposed skin, and my only thought was getting her to a bed and following that line with my tongue until I was buried deep between her creamy thighs.
And then she turned around and I froze in my tracks. Lust left in a snap, and instead of rushing this hot piece of ass off to the nearest empty room, I wanted to throw her over my shoulder, drag her off, and demand answers. I have been waiting for this moment for twelve long fucking years. The last thing I’d expected her to do if I ever saw her again was faint to the floor.
“What the fuck are you glaring at, Locke?” I spit out at him. I don’t feel like dealing with more of this bullshit. I’m just itching for a fight now.
“I’m looking right at you, motherfucker. It shouldn’t take a big leap of ‘clue the fuck in’ for you to realize I’m looking right at your dumb fucking ass,” he snarls at me with such ferocity that I’m momentarily rendered speechless.
“What the hell? Is there a reason you seem to think I pissed all over your shit?”
He looks right at me, cocking his head to the side, and I find myself shocked on my ass once again tonight when he opens his mouth. “I just sat in there and held some chick I do not know, a chick who not even an hour ago looked like she was on the top of the fucking world, happy with life, and spending time with her friends. Her smile died. Do you understand that, Reid? One look into your eyes and that big bright smile just died. The life went completely out of her eyes and her body gave out. Do you fucking get that? I just sat there and let her basically crawl into my fucking body with nothing but fear oozing out of her. Fear YOU seem to have put there. That happy woman from earlier is long fucking gone and I would love to know how you are the reason.”
Shock holds me silent. Shock and confusion.
Sniffling to my left distracts me and I glance over at Dee. She is looking at me with part confusion, part anger, and a whole lot of hurt.
Shaking my head, I look back over at Locke. “I couldn’t fucking tell you since I haven’t seen nor heard from her in twelve years. Bitch up and disappeared, so if you want answers, you are asking the wrong fucking person.”
“Excuse me? This is the chick who left you? The same one you claim is a cold, heartless bitch? Because I have to say, Reid, the woman who just broke the fuck down in my arms is not a cold, heartless bitch. That woman is feeling the weight of the world on her shoulders.”
“What the fuck are you talking about? This is the same shit with Greg, talking yourselves in goddamn circles. Maybe if you want me to buy a fucking vowel, you could give me a fucking hint,” I roar right back at him.
“All right, you want to know what the fuck I’m talking about? There is a woman in there who looks like her world just ended. She looked like she had seen a ghost. Lost and scared. So scared she is shaking. She was trembling so violently she would have fallen to the ground had I let her go. So I will ask you one more fucking time, you sure that is the chick who left you?”
I hear another gasp off to my side. Swear to Christ, this bitch needs to calm her tits.
“What the hell does it matter now, huh? It’s been twelve fucking years. I don’t think two fucking minutes of her time is too much to ask. I’m sure her husband wouldn’t mind.” I know I’m shooting low, but I am so livid I can’t even see without red closing in my vision.
Another gasp at my side.
I look over at Dee. “Are you fucking okay?”
Her jaw is opening and closing repeatedly. She looks like a damn fish out of the water struggling to breathe. I do not have time for this shit.
“Seriously, do you need something? Water, a chair, a fucking Midol?”
Her mouth snaps shut and a thin line forms before she marches right into my space, coming up on her toes in attempt to meet me eye to eye. “Listen here, you . . . you big bully, you will not sit here and be a little shit. You have no clue what is going on, but I promise you this. It is bigger than your need to ‘chat.’ Do you understand me?” She follows that burst with a few pokes to my chest.
“No, little girl, I do not fucking understand you, not one little bit. So maybe your ass can clue a bastard in?” I feel like the walls around us could have fallen with that burst of anger from me. Any second my head is going to explode. I can feel it now.
Sighing softly, washing the frustration and anger off her face and looking up at me with sympathy, she says, “I can’t, Axel. This isn’t my story to tell.”