Part 14 (2/2)

”Not until you hear me out,” Noah replied calmly, his body crowding mine, his very presence breaking my heart ripping me apart.

The atmosphere between us was clouded with a f.u.c.ked up mixture of anger and want, and the cold inside my heart that had protected me these last seven years was melting from the inside out at an alarming pace.

”I tried that remember?” I screamed, holding onto my hurt, before pus.h.i.+ng my hair out of my eyes. Noah had broken me and betrayed me, and he had done it in the worst possible way bedding my enemy. He had taken my virginity, my heart, my trust and my faith in mankind with him. ”And you hung up on me. Now you want me to hear you out? I don't f.u.c.king think so!”

Pain like I had never known existed consumed me, tormenting me, and the image of that redheaded b.i.t.c.h riding my boyfriend almost drove me insane with a toxic concoction of hurt and anger. ”a.s.shole.”

I knew I looked like s.h.i.+t, but I was beyond caring.

I had pa.s.sed the point of return.

That man had flipped a switch inside of me.

Folding his bulging arms across his chest, Noah glared down at me, his face suddenly serious. ”That night,” his voice was deep, rough, and his breath was coming short and fast. ”You jumped to conclusions. It wasn't what it looked like...you need to hear the truth, Thorn.”

”I don't need to hear about what I got a front row view of, Noah.” I sneered, feeling less like a twenty-five year old woman and more like a bratty adolescent by the minute.

”There's no talking to you,” he growled. ”You're right when you're wrong and you never back the f.u.c.k down.”

”Wow, Noah,” I spat, delirious with pain and fury. ”It sounds like you're talking to a mirror.”

Throwing his hands up in the air, Noah hissed loudly. ”You know what, Teagan, I was a f.u.c.king idiot to think that you might have actually grown up. But no. You're still the same selfish little brat I used to know.”

”f.u.c.k you!” Wrapping my arms around my waist, I tucked my chin downwards and strode forward in the direction of the bathroom, refusing to give him an inch. I needed a moment to breathe and I couldn't do that with him here. ”Keep your distance from me,” I warned him. ”I mean it, Noah. You better not still be here when I get of that bathroom.”

”Don't you dare walk away from me again,” I heard Noah warn seconds before heavy footsteps followed after me. ”I f.u.c.king loved you, Teagan,” he called out. ”And it was real love.” Grabbing the back of my nightdress, he dragged me backwards into his embrace. ”It was hard f.u.c.king love.”

”You lost the right to love me the second you put your lips on her,” I said in a flat tone, forcing myself to breathe through my mouth so I didn't inhale his incredible scent. I could feel his heart hammering against his rock hard chest and it was doing terrible things to my self-control.

”Think about it,” he argued in my ear. ”I'm a lot of things, but I'm not a f.u.c.king cheat.”

”Don't bother wasting your words on me because what we had...” I inhaled a shaky breath and spat the words out like I was ridding my body of poison. ”What we had, it's dead and gone.”

”You're the one who threw it all away,” Noah snarled, losing his patience, tightening his hold on me. ”Stop being so G.o.dd.a.m.n stubborn and just hear me out.”

”No!” Pulling free, I turned, met his stare head on and narrowed my eyes. ”So don't touch me, don't look at me. Don't f.u.c.king acknowledge me.” I was losing control of myself. ”We're done,” I hissed. ”We never happened.” Rage bubbled up inside of me, erupting like a volcano of heat and anger. ”We never met. You don't know me.”

I needed to get a grip, but every time I tried to grab onto the ledge of something rational the image of Noah and Reese together their sweat-soaked naked bodies fused together impaled my mind and I felt like bursting into flames.

”I wish I never met you.” I closed my eyes and inhaled a slow, calming breath before I spoke, ”No, scratch that, I wish you never made it out of that car. Because you, Noah Messina, are by far the worst thing that ever happened to me.”

There was a long stretch of silence, and when I opened my eyes Noah was gone.

And I was alone with a broken heart and a soul full of regret.

Sinking to the floor, I sat numbly, rocking back and forth, as I tried to piece together what the h.e.l.l had just happened.

I couldn't explain why I had behaved the way I did, only that Noah seemed to bring out the worst in me like I did in him.

Why did I have to behave like that? Dammit, I knew I would never forget the pain and betrayal that man had caused me, but I didn't need to carry it around with me for the rest of my life. It was poisoning me and I was tired of being angry.

Even though I knew we were toxic to each other, a relations.h.i.+p made in h.e.l.l, a small part of me wanted to be with him.

An even bigger part wanted to believe him.

But the biggest part of me, the part I chose to listen to, was the bitter voice inside. The voice that warned me Noah Messina had all but ripped me to pieces seven years ago, and to get back in the ring with that man would be emotional suicide.

”I WISH I NEVER MET YOU...No, scratch that, I wish you never made it out of that car. Because you, Noah Messina, are by far the worst thing that ever happened to me...”

G.o.ddammit, I had been in Teagan's company for ten d.a.m.n minutes and already my skin was burning, my heart was f.u.c.king hammering in my chest, and I had a hard on that wouldn't lie down.

I walked away from her I f.u.c.king had to because if I had stayed, I would've spurted the same cruel s.h.i.+t she had thrown at me; except mine wouldn't have been a bulls.h.i.+t fabrication of the truth, and Teagan and I tearing strips out of each other wasn't going to fix a d.a.m.n thing.

Jesus Christ, all I had wanted her to do was shut the h.e.l.l up for ten seconds and let me speak. All I wanted to do was lay it out there. Have her hear my truth. Make her understand that she had believed a bulls.h.i.+t lie for the best part of a decade.

I knew I'd be better off with a quiet woman; a nice, soft spoken, understanding woman. h.e.l.l, even a f.u.c.king grown up woman would do. But no, I wanted that little fruitcake. The little nut that never grew up. Thorn had a mouth like a sailor and the heart of a G.o.dd.a.m.n pit-bull terrier.

Stalking back to the bar, I shoved my way through the crowd, ignoring every come hither gaze from every barely dressed female that approached me.

I couldn't look at another woman now.

Ordering a whiskey from the bartender, I chucked it back, enjoying the burning sensation in my throat as the alcohol settled in my stomach.

”Don't bother wasting your words on me because what we had, it's dead and gone.”

Like h.e.l.l it was.

Signaling to the bartender for a refill, I dropped a couple of fifty euro bills on the counter before taking the bottle out of his hand and pouring myself another.

”We're done. We never happened. We never met. You don't know me...”

I got why Teagan was mad but it didn't change the facts. And the facts were she believed a lie.

I was the betrayed one.

I was the f.u.c.king innocent one.

Swallowing the contents of my gla.s.s, I grabbed the bottle of whiskey from the counter and pushed my way back through the crowd towards the exit.

No f.u.c.king way was I going down like this.

Never in my life had I walked away from a challenge, and I sure as h.e.l.l wasn't about to start now. Teagan Connolly was a thorn in my f.u.c.king side, but I couldn't walk away from her. She had left a permanent mark on me, and no amount of women, booze or fighting filled the hole she had left inside of me.

I wanted her again and I would have her at any cost.

AS I SHOVED A DRESSER in front of our doorway, my feeble attempt to safeguard our door-less apartment, I was tormented with a feeling in the pit of my stomach that told me that I had done something terribly wrong.

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