Unattainable (Undeniable, #3)(91)

“I’ll admit,” she said, her tone laced with sarcasm, “that my bedside manner leaves much to be desired, but you, you f*cker, are not sick. You are cracked out, tweaking, wishing you were high. There is a f*cking difference and if you don’t stop looking like you’re plotting ways to lose me and run straight to your friendly neighborhood drug dealer slash underage hooker extraordinaire, I’m packing up my shit and going back to California.”

“She isn’t underage,” he hissed.

“Out of everything I just said!” she yelled, making him wince. “That’s what you’re focusing on?”

Shaking his head, he stood up straight and turned toward her. “I’m not havin’ this conversation again. Not inside a f*ckin’ hospital, not when I’m about to go see my old man laid up in bed because he almost f*ckin’ died less than fifty f*ckin’ feet from me and I was too f*cked-up to even know it was happenin’. Not f*ckin’ now, Tegen.”

“Cage,” she shot back. “You’re stalling. Put on your big girl panties, stop acting like a little bitch, and get in that room and talk to your father. Otherwise, we are going back home and you are going back to bed, where you should be anyway!”

He wanted to yell at her. Fuck, he wanted to knock her out for talking to him the way she did. But instead of yelling at her or adding “beating on women” to his list of wrongdoings, he smiled at her.

Home. She’d called his house “home.”

If he didn’t feel like at any moment he was going to lose what little bile remained inside of his stomach, he would have grabbed her, thrown her up against the wall, and tongue-f*cked her mouth until she goddamn choked on her bad attitude.

Fuck, he loved her. He f*cking loved the shit out of her.

She was crazy. She was loud and demanding and meaner than hell sometimes. She didn’t listen to a damn thing he said, she did whatever she wanted whenever she wanted to do it, and the bitch loved to fight. All the damn time. Face slapping, shin kicking, balls to the wall, knock-down-and-drag-out fights.

But she fought like she loved. Hard. And he hadn’t ever been loved like this; he knew he wouldn’t ever be loved like this by anyone else.

She was his. She’d always been his, and if he’d taken half a second to look up from all that * he’d been eating, he would have realized way back when that he was hers. Always had been.

“Why are you smiling?” she demanded, narrowing her eyes. “Are you high? Did you get high while I was in the bathroom?”

His smile fell. “Shut up,” he muttered, turning away from her. “For two motherf*ckin’ seconds.”

She was suddenly in front of him, sliding her arms up around his shoulders and pressing her body up against his.

“I’m sorry,” she whispered, brushing her lips against his. “I’m just worried about you.”

Taking his bottom lip between her teeth, she sucked it inside her mouth and then darted her tongue in between his parted lips. Groaning, he wrapped his arms around her small waist, took an ass cheek in each of his hands and, despite how sick he felt, kissed her hard.

“Let’s go home,” he growled softly against her mouth. “I need inside of you.”

Beautiful green eyes, full of need and dancing with laughter, blinked up at him.

“You need to talk to him,” she said, giggling. “You haven’t seen him since…before…”

She stopped talking and grabbed him, held him close, and hugged him tight. “You need to talk to him, Cage,” she whispered. “Then we’ll go home.”

Yeah. He needed to talk to his old man. Only problem was, what the f*ck was he supposed to say to a man who’d just had a massive heart attack? He couldn’t flip the f*ck out like he wanted to, accuse him of destroying his relationship with the only woman who’d ever given a f*ck about him…when it may very well throw the bastard into another heart attack.

Yeah, he might hate his old man, but he didn’t want him to die. Because maybe he still loved him too. Just a little.

The elevator doors beside them dinged and Ellie, her face streaked with tears, ran out into the hallway, Dirty following closely behind her.

“Hey,” he called out. Dirty stopped as Ellie kept walking.

He gave Dirty an inquisitive look. “What’s up?”

The man shook his head. “It’s her mom, brother,” he said. “It ain’t good.”

Cage nodded as he studied Dirty. “You need anything, dude?”

Dirty shook his head again. “Just her,” he said quietly and turned away.

Cage watched as he doubled his pace, catching quickly up to Ellie. Dirty’s arm shot out and hooked around her waist, and together they turned the corner and disappeared out of sight.

“I hate that you f*cked her,” Tegen snarled.

“Once!” he yelled. “Years ago! I barely even remember it!”

“Whatever,” Tegen muttered. “Is it just me or are they are so f*cking weird together? I mean, how in the hell did Ellie end up with Dirty?”

Cage laughed quietly. “Right. ’Cause this right here,” he said, pointing between the two of them, “is real motherf*ckin’ normal.”

Tegen crossed her arms under her breasts, causing his eyes to shoot straight to the small amount of cleavage that popped up over the edge of her tank top. He loved that she was gaining weight. Fucking loved it.