Unattainable (Undeniable, #3)(59)

Chaos. Well, he and Tegen definitely had that shit down.

But real love, mutual love, the sort of love Eva was talking about? How did you know if you had something like that?

Time, he figured. Over time, you would know. And then it dawned on him…

Wednesday! I have to be back at work on Tuesday!

Tegen didn’t live in Miles City anymore. Tegen lived in motherf*cking California. She had an apartment, a job, and probably friends. She’d spent years building a life there.

Fuck, he’d been so caught up in her, inside of her actually, he hadn’t given much thought to what was going to happen when lockdown ended.

He didn’t have time.

Cage stormed off in search of Tegen. Several short breaths later, he found her closing Danny and Ripper’s bedroom door with a bundle of clothing in her arms.

“Was that f*ckin’ necessary?” he demanded, marching up to her. “Actin’ like a goddamn lunatic?”

“You have got to be kidding me,” she said. “You’re mad at me for reacting to what you did? Groping me like club ass in front of everyone! Then saying you’d need a crowbar to pry my legs back open? You’re a sick, sexist motherf*cker and, what? Did you expect me to do a f*ckin’ jig? Or giggle and swoon and bend over the bar so you could f*ck me in front of everyone?”

Cage opened his mouth, then promptly closed it. What the f*ck did he say to that? She was right. He had been doing exactly what she was accusing him of.

He just hadn’t thought…

Fuck. He hadn’t thought. Period.

Snorting, Tegen pushed past him. “You think I don’t hear half the boys talking about how I jumped beds? I know they think I’m a slut, but you know better, don’t you?”

Pausing in front of his door, she glanced over his shoulder. “You do know better, right?”

Jesus, he was not going to get into another argument about whether or not Tegen was a club whore.

“Get inside the f*ckin’ room,” he demanded, stalking toward her. Grabbing her arm, he pushed open his door and shoved her inside.

“Goddammit, Cage!” she screamed as she threw her armful of clothing at him. “Stop treating me like that! Stop shoving me into rooms, stop talking about me as if I’m not right there and, seriously, stop acting like your Neanderthal father!”

“What are you going to do about Z?” he demanded, ignoring her. “You need me to make that call, or you got that shit covered?”

Tegen went still. “What?” she asked.

“You dumb?” he shot back, feeling his patience quickly waning. “You need to tell him the two of you, whatever shit you had worked out, is done with. Give him the apartment, whatever, just get it done. We can worry about gettin’ your shit outta there later.”

Tegen’s eyes flared wide and Cage got the answer he’d been seeking. She’d planned on returning home.

“What the f*ck are you talking about?” Tegen asked. “Why would I give ZZ my apartment?”

And stupidly, he took it one step further. “I told you I wanted you to be my f*ckin’ girl. You agreed.”

“I know that!” she snapped back. “I still don’t see what any of that has to do with my apartment?”

Cage lost it. For such a smart kid, she sure as f*ck turned out to be a dumbass adult.

“Because ain’t no girl of mine is gonna be livin’ three states over! Especially with another dude! What the f*ck kinda shit you thinkin’, Tegen?”

“Oh, really?” Tegen sneered. “Can you tell me what else I should or shouldn’t be doing? Is there a back-of-the-bike handbook around this f*cking dump that I should be reading?

“Oh, no, wait,” she continued, her voice dripping with sarcasm. “I forgot. None of you f*ckers even know how to read. Except ZZ.”

“If you think,” he bit out, “that you’re gonna be jumpin’ beds again after this shit with us, you are f*ckin’ wrong.”

“Jumping beds?” she shrieked. “Before this weekend, we were together once, Cage! Once, for a whole two minutes after which you basically told me you wanted nothing more to do with me! I did not jump beds! I was kicked out of yours and went happily to someone else’s!”

God, f*cking, shit! Why was she so damn crazy all the time? Why couldn’t she manage to scrape together more than five seconds of normalcy for him?

“Are you hell-f*ckin’-bent on drivin’ me to blow your f*ckin’ skull wide open?” he shouted. “What the f*ck do you want from me, bitch? Fuckin’ tell me so I can give it to you and you can SHUT THE FUCK UP!”

He was hardly surprised when, out of clothing to throw, she launched herself at him. He waited a beat before quickly sidestepping her, then hooked an arm around her stomach as she blasted by him. He lifted her right off her feet and heaved her across the ten feet between him and his bed.

“Cage!” she screamed as she jackknifed into a sitting position. “Stop manhandling me!”

Cage suddenly felt drained. She was exhausting. The constant back-and-forth, he hated it. It reminded him of his father, of their f*cked-up relationship, and that was the last thing he wanted this shit with Tegen to become.

“Jesus,” he said, running his hands through his hair as he turned away from her. “This is not how I want this shit to be.”