Unattainable (Undeniable, #3)(71)

Trembling, I could only stare at him. The feelings were all there, the need, the ache, but the words wouldn’t come. I couldn’t say it.

“Fucking shit, Tegen!” Cage yelled, backing away from me. “What do I gotta do?”

His arms dropped to his sides and his fists clenched into tight balls. Our eyes met and his nostrils began flaring. There was no doubt in my mind in that moment; he was truly his father’s son.

And I was my mother’s daughter. Weak. Desperate. In love with the wrong man.

“Try. This. Shit. With. Me,” he said, growling through his clenched teeth.

Ohh. My heart broke. It took all of my willpower not to run to him. He knew everything about ZZ and yet he was back, had literally beat down my door and shot up my apartment to get to me. This is what I’d always wanted, right? My dream come true, my every fantasy.

“I don’t want to be like my mother!” I screamed.

“Good!” he bellowed. “’Cause I ain’t in f*ckin’ love with your damn mother!”

My chest heaving, my heart exploding, I pointed at him with a shaking finger. “You’re a f*cking whore, Cage! You’re not going to change!”

“FUCK YOU!” he bellowed. “I know I haven’t given you a goddamn reason to trust me, but FUCK YOU, BITCH, you haven’t given me a f*ckin’ chance to give you a f*ckin’ reason!”

“You’re going to hurt me again!” I screamed. “You’re going to make me say it and then you’re going to say it back to me and I’m going to do whatever you want me to do and in the end you’re going to f*ck me over. AGAIN! And I’m going to be pathetic and stupid, watching you hook up with girls ten times more beautiful than I will ever be! AGAIN!”

Cage’s eyes darkened and the muscles in his arms began to twitch and jump under his skin.

“Bitch,” he hissed. “What the f*ck do you want to hear? I ain’t gonna tell you that I’m not gonna f*ck up and I ain’t gonna tell you that you’re the most beautiful f*ckin’ woman in the entire world! Yeah, you’re too f*ckin’ skinny, you ain’t got shit for tits, and you look like a goddamn motherf*ckin’ hippie!”

My lower lip started to tremble as I fought back my blossoming tears. Seeing this, Cage closed his eyes and let out a long, frustrated sigh.

“Tegen,” he said and took a long step forward. Wrapping his hands around my upper arms, he bent his head, bringing us face-to-face.

“But, babe, you’re the most beautiful woman in the whole goddamn world, to me. You’re all I f*ckin’ want, Teacup. You got the hottest pair of eyes I’ve ever f*ckin’ seen and your tattoos, babe, they’re sexy as all hell, and your goddamn hipbones, f*ckin’ shit, me grabbin’ on to them, f*ckin’ you slow, drives me straight-up crazy.”

Air exploded from my lungs in the form of a whimper and my body, suddenly exhausted, slumped forward against Cage’s. I couldn’t hold back my tears now; they were streaming freely down my cheeks.

“You know what else I f*ckin’ love?” he asked in a growling whisper. “I love your dirty f*ckin’ mouth. I love the fact that you don’t hold back, that you’re tough as f*ckin’ nails on the outside, but on the inside you’re still my Teacup.”

“St-stop,” I whispered, unable to contain all the emotion welling up inside of me.

“No,” he growled. “You need to hear this shit. You need to f*ckin’ get it through your thick f*ckin’ skull that I want those skinny-ass legs wrapped around me, I want your tiny f*ckin’ tits in my hands and in my goddamn mouth, and I don’t give a f*ck what you’re lookin’ like as long as you’re lookin’ like it by my f*ckin’ side.”

Then Cage tilted my head back and grinned down at me. “You f*ckin’ feel me, babe?” he said, mimicking his father.

I stopped crying and started glaring. “Don’t you dare act like your father!”

Cage crushed me to him and burst out laughing. “Reel it in, Teacup. Reel it the f*ck in.”

? ? ?

Cage held Tegen tightly to him and breathed out a sigh of relief.

She was a hot f*cking mess. She was crying, trembling in his arms, yet still glaring up at him with the combined anger of a thousand spurned women alight in her eyes. But he didn’t care. She was his hot mess.

“Jesus f*ckin’ Christ, I’m on the road for a f*ckin’ month and this is what I’m comin’ home to?”

Tegen froze in his arms and he glanced over his shoulder. The man standing less than fifteen feet away, a man he’d known his entire life, was almost unrecognizable to him. His dark hair was much longer than it had ever been, greasy, pulled back in a ponytail, and he’d aged a good ten years in the few he’d been gone. He looked tired, beaten down, and extremely angry.

“This what you been doin’ on your trips home, Tegen?” ZZ said, lifting his chin in Cage’s direction. “Fuckin’ brothers?”

Cage released Tegen and turned around. Keeping his eye on ZZ, he wasn’t feeling the guy’s body language, so he bent down and grabbed Tegen’s clothing off the floor.

“Get dressed,” he said, shoving the clothes in her direction.

ZZ’s mouth curved into a cruel grin. “You’re kiddin’ me, right? Been up inside that more times than I can count. Bitch is in my f*ckin’ bed. Or didn’t you know that?”