More Than Lies (More Than #1)(90)

Tara: Don’t do that. Don’t complicate it.

Jared: Just come over, babe. You know I can take the pain in your chest away. I can replace it with the pain you crave. The pain you need.

Tara: Can’t you just talk to me instead of it always turning into more?

Jared: I want more, Taralynn. I want you. ALL OF YOU.

Tara: No you don’t.

Jared: Yes, I do. I miss you in my bed.

Tara: Jared, stop!

Jared: Damn it, woman, I love you. Let me fucking love you. I will make you mine. Until then just come over and let me give you whatever it is you need. My dick or my mouth is yours to do with as you please, baby.

Jared: Respond to me, please. Braden doesn’t want you. Not like I do. You know that just as well as I do.

The fuck? Over my dead body. She’s mine. I’m going to murder that dickhead.

“Shawn.” I hear the girl call my name as I place Tara’s phone back on the table, but I ignore her. Looking out into the bar I see Jared sitting with his friends on what we’ve agreed to as “his side” of Mac’s pub and where I am is my side. He’s staring hard toward the bar. I glance in that direction to see Tara grabbing our beer bottles off the counter.

“Shawn.”

For the love of God, would this bitch leave me the hell alone?

I don’t address her. Instead I look back over at Jared. If he continues watching my girl the way he is, separated sides aren’t going to keep me from beating the fuck out of him.

He loves her? He can’t love her. I don’t fucking think so. He’s a douche-prick.

I’ll be damned if I let Jared put his paws on her again. And what the fuck does he mean by replace her grief with the pain she craves? I’ll kill that motherfucker if he hurts her. I know she likes rough sex, but pain?

His face is slowly turning in my direction, which tells me Tara is walking back over. I hope he sees me looking his way. From the messages I just read, he either knows I’m sleeping with Tara, or he’s playing on her feelings for me to get into her pants. That thought alone makes me want to rip the fucker’s dick clean off his body.

It’s not until I hear a breathy voice speaking into my ear that I feel a hand running up the length of my thigh and another hand on the back of my neck. “You know handsome, I really want to get to know you a lot better. Much better in fact. What do you say?”

I look up to see Tara slamming the glass bottles on the table before grabbing her phone and storming off. Liquid spilled out, but I’m not sure how one of them didn’t break from the force she used.

Fuck my life that did not just happen. Of course it fucking did.

I turn in my chair so the woman stumbles back but not before grabbing onto my bicep for support. “Don’t ever lay your hands on me again. And no, Lacy, is it? I don’t want to get to know you better.”

I jump up, leaving my beer on the table to go look for Tara. She walked toward the back.

Passing the bathrooms, I enter the storage room at the back of the building. It’s dark inside, but I see Tara standing with her palms on top of what looks to be a deep freezer in the back of the large room. Moving quickly, I walk up behind her, running my right hand underneath her T-shirt to rest on her warm belly and fusing my chest to her back. I need the contact. I need her to feel me and me only.

“Baby.” For the briefest of seconds, two, maybe three at the most, she relaxes into me, but it doesn’t last, which doesn’t settle the tension that is coiling in the back of my neck.

“Don’t.” She tries to pull away, but I don’t allow her to. “Just leave me.”

“No.” I state firmly. “I didn’t realize she was touching me or I would have stopped it. I’m sorry, Tara.” Make her believe you, the voice in the back of my head tells me. It’s the truth.

“Yeah, right.”

“You think I’m lying?” I don’t give her a chance to answer, before I spit out another question. “You think I want her?” Anger is taking hold of me.

“She was practically sitting in your lap, Shawn. Her chest was pressed against your arm and her mouth was on your ear.” Her words are forced out. “Are you saying you didn’t feel any of that?” She twists around to face me. “What about when she not so quietly begged you to fuck her. Huh?” Her own anger nearly matches my own.

Yeah, she’s pissed.

When she puts it that way, I can’t really blame her. I was the same way when I read the messages between her and Jared. Motherfucker.

“I was distracted, so no, I didn’t feel her until I heard her. And then I saw you. If you hadn’t left, you would have heard me tell her not to touch me ever again. I don’t want her. I have you. I only want you. Jesus.” What does she want from me? I’m being honest. Doesn’t that count for anything?

“You don’t have me, and I don’t have you. You’re free to go screw her if you would like to. Hey, use the public bathroom. You’re accustomed to them anyway, right?”

I step closer, invading her personal space before reaching under her thighs and lifting her ass to sit down on the flat surface of the deep freezer. Tara’s blue jean skirt rides up due to me standing between her legs.

“What the fuck is that supposed to mean? If I don’t have you then who does? Jared?” His name comes out as a bark. “Are you fucking him too?” My anger is about to explode. I don’t want to be an asshole to her, but hey, that’s who I am. After reading her text messages with him, I need somewhere to aim it before I come unglued.