ALL THE RAGE (writer: T.M. Frazier)(44)

“You want the truth?” I asked.

“Yes.”

“The truth is that I have to leave.”

“Not gonna f*cking happen, baby girl.”

“Fine. The truth is that I’m no one. I’m nothing. I don’t live anywhere and I don’t get close to anyone. The truth is that you know me better than anyone has ever known me, yet you don’t really know me at all. And that’s why I have to leave. You’ve seen too much. You know too much!” I yanked my head away but Nolan tugged me back.

“Bullshit,” he snapped, waving off my answer. “Where do you live?”

“Nowhere,” I said, repeating the truth.

Nolan’s jaw tightened. Gritting his teeth, he looked up to the stormy sky, like he was searching for something, anything but the answers I’d given him. A guttural roar ripped from the depths of his throat, vibrating all the way through to my black f*cking soul.

“It’s not f*cking enough,” he seethed.

“I know,” I said, turning around again. Nolan came up behind me and pulled my back into his body. The heat between us warming the chill inside of me. “You’re a good guy Nolan. Too good for me. You’re normal. I’ll never be normal. Ever. That’s why I have to go.”

“You aren’t f*cking going anywhere. The sooner you realize that, the better,” he growled in my ear and pulled me roughly against him before spinning me around in his arms. I craned my neck, his eyes locking on to mine. Hazel against blue-green. The earth and the stormy sky battling one another for control. With that one look and I knew I was losing. “You can’t tell me you don’t feel this thing between us,” he said, running his nose down my jaw. He grabbed me by the hips, pressing his erection up against my core. “This is what you do to me. All the time. All. The. Fucking. Time. You can’t tell me that I don’t have an effect on you because I know you feel me in here,” Nolan said, pressing his hand flat against my chest. “The same way I feel you.” He dragged his fingers down the front of my wet dress and across my breast and nipple.

I sucked in a breath. It took everything I had not to arch into his touch. Push my heavy breasts and hard nipples into his beautiful strong hands. My body yearned to push back against the hardness I felt throbbing through his wet jeans, mimicking my own throbbing that had been swollen and aching for more.

This is why I have to leave.

“Don’t tell me you don’t want this. Me.” He dipped his head and ran his nose from my shoulder, up my neck to my jaw, inhaling me as he went. A flush of wetness pooled between my legs that had nothing to do with the rain. “Jesus Christ. I can f*cking smell how bad you want this right now, so don’t you dare tell me you don’t.”

I shook my head, but Nolan only chuckled.

He laughed at me.

That laugh turned into the finger pushing the button on the same anger I’d showed him I was capable of last night. The burning sensation started, warning me of what was to come. I didn’t try to breathe slowly. I didn’t try to think of something else. I didn’t even try to run away again.

He wanted the truth, so I was going to give it to him.

Obviously Nolan needed to see again what I capable of in order to fully understand what he was dealing with. There was no doubt in my mind that after, he’d let me go without wasting so much as another second thinking about me.

My stomach twisted at the thought. I looked away.

“Fucking look at me, Rage!” Nolan commanded, pulling my chin toward him and looking into my eyes. He went blurry. Like he wasn’t even there anymore. I heard him calling me. I heard him mutter and swear.

Then I heard nothing but a buzz in my ears as the anger took hold, wrapping me up in her torturous embrace, feeding me what I needed, what I wanted. I may not have known how to deal with the emotional shit that makes your chest hurt, but anger? Rage?

That I could work with.

My happy place of chaos.

I didn’t need Nolan.

I was high. Downright giddy.

Until I wasn’t.

Suddenly I was ripped from the arms of my old friend, my vision focusing, Nolan coming back into view. I placed a hand over the stinging sensation on my cheek. “You smacked me?”

Nolan’s face was so close, his nose touched mine. “God damn right I smacked you. I told you I wasn’t going to let you leave and I didn’t mean just running away.”

“You smacked me,” I repeated, rubbing my hand over my heated cheek.

Nolan nodded. “Didn’t want to, but I had to bring you back, baby girl.” Nolan lowered his voice. “Had to. A kiss didn’t work this time.”

“You kissed me?” I asked, my fingers moving from my cheek to my lips. Suddenly, I wasn’t pissed off that he wouldn’t let me go. I wasn’t even pissed that he smacked me. But for some reason, it was the kiss that had my mind reeling. I couldn’t think when we were so close. The overwhelming need to put distance between us took over. I needed to clear my mind.

Without waiting another second, I ducked under Nolan’s arm and took off down the beach.

I didn’t stop.

Did I want to?

That was, I didn’t stop until something hard hit my back from behind and I was sent flying face first into the wet sand. Strong hands flipped me over onto my back. Again, I found myself gazing up into a murderous pair of hazel eyes. These eyes weren’t the kind, beautiful eyes of the boy I’d come to know in the past few weeks.