Until April (Until Her/Him #10)(49)
“I know.” And I do know that to the bottom of my soul, but I’ve never seen him mad before this moment. I thought I had, but I was wrong. I move my hands up to rest on the tops of his shoulders. “I get why you’re upset, but feeding into him is only going to make it worse. You’re the one who told me that, and you were right.”
“Baby,” he says gently, then he drops his chin so that his face is close to mine and growls, “I don’t give a fuck.” My eyes widen. “You’re mine, so him making it seem like you two still got a shot is not okay with me. Him doing it on television where his fucked-up fans can see, feel sorry for his bitch ass, then lash out at you is really fucking not okay with me.”
“Okay,” I say, because really, what else am I supposed to say? He’s right. Cohen making it seem like he has a shot at working things out with me is not okay, and him doing that on a TV show is extra wrong.
Especially when I asked him to stop, I mean, no, I didn’t tell him about all the messages and emails I received after he went on the radio, but he had to see the negativity aimed at me, since there were a lot of comments on his posts and photos on his social media. And unless he has someone else controlling all his content and he never looks at anything anyone says, he had to see the people bashing me, some threatening to do some not so very nice things if they ever ran into me in public.
How he could be okay with any of that and still claim to care about me proves he is full of shit. Then again, I’m coming to realize he didn’t really care about me when we were together. I was exactly like that chick I ran into in the bathroom when I was out with Maxim and his sister. I was just someone who was there when he needed and gullible enough to believe the bullshit coming out of his mouth. I saw it when we were together that the only thing he cared about was himself and his band making it big and that he would do whatever he had to do to make that possible—screw anyone attempting to get in the way of that. But I never thought he would use me as a means of gaining attention.
“You’re not still in love with him, are you?” The question catches me off guard—or more, the vulnerability in his tone does. He’s never seemed unsure about anything, so him sounding unsure about me still being in love with my ex is seriously surprising.
“Absolutely not,” I say with ease, then take hold of his face in my hands and lift up on my tiptoes. “Our relationship was all drama and angst, and he never chose me even when I begged him to. He wanted to be a rock star, wanted to be on tour hanging out with the band and groupies, partying, and living it up. That life was never for me. Even if I liked watching him perform because it was something he loved, I didn’t want to do that every night for the rest of my life. I didn’t want to be another woman who was screaming for him to keep going from below the stage. I wanted to be the quiet he came home to when the show was over.”
I shake my head. “Looking back, I don’t know that I was ever really in love with him. I think I was in love with the idea of being loved by him. In love with the idea of him choosing me, if that makes sense,” I finish, not noticing until then how tight his hands on my hips have gotten or how the look in his eyes has changed.
“After I fuck him up, I’ll send him a thank you card.”
“What?” I breathe, and his expression fills with warmth.
“If he had been that guy you needed, I don’t know that we’d be standing here right now, so after I’m done with him, I’ll send him a thank you card for fucking shit up with you.” He gives my waist a squeeze. “Because now all that is you is mine.”
I swallow, pretty sure that right now is the wrong damn time to be turned on, and force myself to focus. “You’re not really going to mess him up, are you?” I ask, and he grunts in response. Knowing that grunt, having heard it from my dad, uncles, and cousins, I decide to pull out the big guns. “Please don’t.” I soften my tone and eyes while running my fingers down his jaw. “I understand why you want to, and I get it even more because I wouldn’t mind kicking him in the balls right now. But at the end of the day, he does not factor into my life, into our life, and I don’t want him to think he does.”
“Something you’re going to have to learn, baby, is I take your protection seriously, and not only did he fuck up once, but he did it twice. And now he has a harsh lesson to learn. You do not fuck with my woman and get away with it.”
“Well, I hope you know that I do not have bail money to get you out of the slammer, since I spent almost all my rainy day cash when I was out shopping with your mom,” I say while hoping I can find ways to keep him busy so he doesn’t have the chance to mess Cohen up and end up in jail.
“I’m not going to need bail money, but even if I did, I’ve got it covered.” He grins, and my eyes narrow on his.
“I’m being serious.”
“I am too.” He leans down to brush his lips across mine, then pulls back and cups my cheek, smoothing his thumb across my bottom lip. “Enough talk about him. We’ve got shit to do today.” Damn but he’s right; we do have a lot of stuff to do today, most of it including driving around and searching out other locations for either a bar or a club, since he still isn’t one hundred percent sure he wants to purchase The Drop.
“Fine.” I let out a long breath. “I need to shower and get ready.”
Aurora Rose Reynolds's Books
- Hooking Him (How to Catch an Alpha #3)
- Baiting Him (How to Catch an Alpha #2)
- The Wrong Right Man
- Until December (Until Her/Him #8)
- Until Cobi (Until Her/Him #7)
- Obligation (Underground Kings #2)
- Assumption (Underground Kings #1)
- Until Trevor (Until, #2)
- Until November (Until, #1)
- Until Lilly (Until, #3)