Until the End (Sea Breeze #9)(78)

He shook his head. “No. I just . . . I like her.” He glanced at her. “A lot. I like being with her, and I like talking to her.”

“And you like f**king her!” Matty roared, trying to break free from my hold.

Green glared at him. “Don’t say that. It upsets her. Can’t you just shut up and stop doing this in front of her? She’s crying and you don’t even care. She’s scared and upset. Let Blythe take her and calm her down. Then we can get on with this.”

Well, that was interesting.

“He more than likes her, dude. Are you listening to this?” I whispered in Matty’s ear as I held him back.

“She’s too young for him. He’ll hurt her. Hell, she already thinks she loves him. How’s she gonna handle it when she sees him f**king a groupie?”

Green stalked toward us. “SHUT. THE. FUCK. UP.” His face was bright red, and the vein on his forehead was standing out.

“Back up, Green, or I’m letting him loose,” I warned.

“Noooo, please!” the girl cried out.

Green glanced over at her and his expression softened. Damn. I almost laughed.

“It’s okay, Trinity. It’s okay. Just please stop crying.” His voice was softer when he spoke to her.

Matty’s tension eased some. He heard it too.

Green looked back at Matty. “She’s . . . different. For me. I’m trying to figure this out, but I don’t want to be with anyone else. It’s an exclusive thing and I respect her. I want to protect her and I don’t ever want to hurt her. I did that once, and I swear to God I won’t do it again. Just give us a minute, okay? She needs to calm down.”

“He can’t fall in love in a f**king week. Give him time,” I said, and Matty sighed heavily. Then he nodded.

“Fine. She wants you. You’re gonna be good to her. What the hell am I gonna do about it? Her momma should’ve never sent her for me to watch over. My friends are all f**king dicks. Fucking horny dicks.”

I let go of Matty, and thankfully he didn’t lunge at Green. He turned to look at Trinity. “He’s a good guy. For the most part. But he’s not perfect, and as much as he doesn’t want to, he will f**k up.”

Green snarled, and I put up a hand to shut him down.

Matty shook his head, then headed for the door. He stopped when he got there. Looking back at me, he said, “I would have never touched him with Blythe so close. I’m not stupid.” Then he turned to Green. “If you do anything other than respect and cherish her, I’ll find you where Krit isn’t around to save your ass.”

We all stood in silence for a moment until we were sure Matty was gone. Then Green turned to the girl and she ran to him.

I was done with this drama. Blythe walked back into the room and I went straight to her. “Don’t you ever scare me like that again.”

She gave me a small smile. “I knew he wouldn’t touch me. I was the safest thing for Green.”

“You don’t have to save Green’s ass from being an idiot.”

She smirked. “You did.”

Blythe

He knew something was wrong with me. I was trying so hard not to let the fact that he had a ring hidden under the bed with dust on it get to me. But all I could think was that he’d bought it for Jess. As much as I liked Jess, I was so freaking jealous. We had been together a lot longer than he was with Jess. He had been ready to propose to her after only a couple months. We had been together close to a year, and he wasn’t even mentioning it.

Today I had given in and cried about it. Every day that passed and he didn’t say anything about marrying me, I became more convinced that it wasn’t my ring. It was for someone else. Who was now married to another man.

GOD! I hated feeling like this. I loved Krit. Even if he never wanted to marry me, I would stay as long as he wanted me. I was that pathetic. Seeing him smile made my day brighter. When he kissed me, I would forget momentarily that he didn’t love me as much as he had loved Jess.

Then the awful fear that he was still in love with her would sink in, and I would be all kinds of screwed up for the rest of the day. Looking at my book sales no longer made me happy. My heart was breaking more and more every day.

I curled up on the sofa with a cup of coffee and covered myself with a blanket. Krit was still asleep, but dreams of him proposing to Jess, which was ridiculous, had woken me up. I needed to get away from him and get my head together.

He would wake up and be upset that I wasn’t there beside him. I felt guilty for not being there. His favorite part of waking up was sex. But images of him putting that ring on Jess’s hand did not put me in the mood for sex. I wanted distance.

Pulling the cover up, I snuggled up against the morning chill and sipped my coffee. There was no reason for me to be acting like this. I had a wonderful life. Krit did love me. I was sure of that. I had finished two novels, and it looked like maybe I was going to make a career out of this author business. These were dreams I’d had for so long: being loved and writing.

This stupid ring was ruining all of that. I was letting one pretty rock upset me, take away my joy. Maybe if I just told him I’d found it. Explained to him that I’m being a baby about it but that knowing he had been going to ask another woman to marry him bothered me. He would understand why I had been so moody, and then I could let it go.