KING(68)

Or rather, I felt him.

“Get the f*ck away from her, Bear,” King seethed. A clicking sound grabbed my attention, and I whipped my head around to where King stood behind us on the dock, his gun cocked and aimed at Bear.

“Done already?” I asked, all too aware of Bear’s arms still wrapped around my waist. I made no move to push him away. “She must be disappointed that the almighty Brantley King, The King of the stupid Causeway, couldn’t last longer.”

Bear chuckled.

I’ve spent so much time trying not to make King angry, and it’s never worked. I was tired of walking on eggshells around him. I wanted to make him angry. I wanted to fight with him more than I wanted anything. I wanted to scream.

I wanted to claw his f*cking eyes out.

I wanted to hurt him the way he hurt me.

“Get the f*ck away from her, Bear,” King repeated.

“We’re just talking man,” Bear said, no sign of fear in his voice. If anything, he was amused.

“Looks like you’re doing more than that. Get you’re f*cking hands off her, and go f*cking talk to someone else,” King warned. “She’s. Mine.”

“Oh yeah? Well, you may want to tell her that because you ain’t got her thinking the same thing.”

“The only reason you don’t have a bullet in your f*cking skull is because we’ve got history. But in two f*cking seconds, if you don’t get your dirty f*cking hands off my girl, I will say f*ck-all to our history and blow your mother f*cking head off,” King said angrily through gritted teeth.

“Ain’t gotta get your pretty panties all up in a twist, brother.” Bear got up and brushed off his jeans. “Sorry darlin’. Maybe, some other time.” He winked at me and whispered, “Offer still stands. You need me, you come find me.”

I could feel the anger radiating off King when Bear walked past him, nudging his shoulder. “You might want to put your claim on that before the boys get wind that you haven’t,” Bear told him. “She’s fair game to the bikers in these parts, including me, so you best do it and do it soon. That is, if she still wants your dumb ass.”

Bear was one brave soul to talk to King while the look on his face screamed nothing but murderous rage. I half-expected King to go ape shit and make good on his promise to shoot Bear but the second he’d disappeared into the shadows, King stepped onto the dock.

“I hate the way you make me feel. Well, most of the time,” I spat. I was tired of dancing around the truth. “I hate the confusion you bring into my already confused life. I need this back and forth shit to end.” I took a deep breath. “I can’t take it anymore. You like me. You hate me. You like me. You want to kill me. You want to f*ck me. You want me to stay. You want me to live. My head is f*cking spinning over here.”

My buzz faded faster than the setting sun.

“You should leave. I don’t want you here,” I added.

“I know. I don’t care,” King said.

“Oh, I’m fully aware that you don’t care. That I know.”

“You don’t know shit, Pup,” King barked.

“Oh yeah? So you didn’t just spend the entire night at the carnival all over me, saying sweet shit to me, making me feel like this stupid thing between us is something more than just a stupid thing, only to whip out your dick with someone else the very first chance you got? Go back to the f*cking house, King. Go back to that girl. I hope she’s everything you wanted.”

“I can’t,” King said evenly.

“Why not? Seemed easy for you before.”

“Because, Pup, I don’t want to. No matter how hard I try to fight this, I’m drawn to you. You think I like this back and forth shit? You think you’re the only one who’s f*cking confused here?” He shook his head like he couldn’t believe the words that were coming out of his mouth. “I’m drawn to you,” he repeated turning my chin up to him.

“What do you expect? Am I supposed to fall at your feet and thank you for being ‘drawn to me’?” Not only was he confusing, he was f*cking infuriating. “Drawn to me? You’re drawn to me! Well, let me just take off my f*cking panties then, and let’s do this shit. Yeah, you were really drawn to me. Tell me something, KING. Do most first dates end with the guy getting sucked off by another girl? I mean, I’ve never been on one, so you tell me. I could be wrong here. Because if the answer is yes, then this date has gone f*cking swimmingly!”