Unbreak My Heart (Rough Riders Legacy #1)

I closed my eyes.

“Huh-uh. Look at me. Keep those eyes open because the room will start spinning and I don’t wanna deal with you being sick as well as being stupid.”

Stupid. I hated being called stupid. And it stung hearing it from him. “I’m not that drunk.” I put my hands on his chest and shoved him as hard as I could.

Boone wasn’t expecting it and stumbled back two steps.

“Leave me alone. I don’t need you to fucking babysit me, Boone.”

He clenched his hands into fists at his sides and stared at me. “What the hell do you think would’ve happened if I’d left you alone with Tyler?”

“I would’ve figured something out.”

“Before or after he fed you more booze, dragged you into his bedroom and raped you?”

“What?”

“Rape. Sex without consent,” he snarled. “Tyler doesn’t fucking care if you’re conscious.”

I felt sick. “And how do you know that?”

“Because he did it to a friend of mine. They were drinking and then the next thing she remembered was waking up with him on top of her.”

“Oh God.”

Then Boone was face-to-face with me again. “I told you to stay away from Kara. And I heard you’ve been here, at her brother Tyler’s house, for the past two weekends.”

“I didn’t know it was his house.” I swallowed hard. “I didn’t know Tyler was her brother.”

His eyes turned hard. “You just showed up at some random person’s house and started drinking with strangers? Jesus. Sierra. You’re smarter than that. Why would you do that?”

“Because I’m fucking sick and tired of sitting at home by myself all the time, okay? No one in this godforsaken town wants anything to do with me. So when Kara and Angie asked me to hang out, I said yes. I thought maybe I’d meet people.”

“You don’t want to meet the people they hang out with,” he snapped. “For Christsake, Tyler is twenty-three. He’s been in jail. The only people who hang around him are his loser jailbird buddies and his sister’s high school friends who don’t have any other place to drink.”

“Then why are you here?” I demanded. “Are you one of his loser friends?”

“Fuck no. I showed up because I heard at school this is your new weekend hangout.”

“Bull. I haven’t seen you in school for weeks, so I doubt you heard anything.”

“I only need one credit to graduate so I’m there for one class in the morning, so yeah, I heard. You’re some kind of party girl now.”

So?”

“So you don’t need to head down this road again, Sierra. Making bad choices like you did in Arizona.”

Maybe he was right. But he had no idea how alone I felt. And it wasn’t like he called to check up on me like he’d said he might. I mumbled under my breath that he had no business judging me and tried to sidestep him.

He was crowding me. “What did you say?”

“Why do you care? We aren’t anything to each other.”

“You don’t believe that because you know it’s not true.”

“Then what are we?” I demanded.

Boone said something under his breath.

Screw this. Screw him and his stupid brooding ways. I slumped against the door. “Whatever. You’ve done your good deed, protecting me from Tyler. Thank you. You’ve made it clear I’m a fucking idiot and a pain in your ass. So go away.”

“I’m just supposed to what? Leave you here?”

“Yes. I’ve got my own car now.”

Boone’s hands were on my arms. “You think you’re gonna drive after you’ve been drinking? Bullshit. What the fuck is wrong with you?”

I twisted out of his hold. “I wasn’t gonna leave right now, asshole. I’ll be sober enough to drive in a couple of hours. I’ll just hang out until then.”

“Listen to yourself. Do you really think Tyler will let you hang out? Especially after I convinced him that we’re together? What exactly do you think the people out there think we’re doing in here? Talking?” he half-sneered.

I opened my mouth to deny it, but Boone was right. “Fine. You can stay in here with me until I sober up. That oughta add to your stud reputation. That you banged me for two solid hours.”

Boone blushed. Then he got pissed off. “Right. Because that’s all I give a shit about. My reputation as some kind of stud. Even if we stay in here, that doesn’t deal with the problem when we leave the bedroom.”

“Which is what?”

“We’ll have to act like we’re together, so Tyler doesn’t track me down and beat the fuck out of me for pulling one over on him. That’s the kind of guy he is. Making him look stupid turns him psycho.” He ran his hand through his hair. “Dammit. This is the last thing I wanted.”

Meaning, I’m the last one you wanted to be tied to—in reality or even pretend.