“You should become a therapist.”
“Nah, I don’t like people.”
“Me either.” I close my eyes savoring the sound of silence. It’s always the ones closest to you who let you down.
Chapter 29
Nick
“You’re late.” I peer over the top of Maya. Her and Ethan seem to have dozed off in the sand. I’m livid. I warned her not to be late. “Get your ass inside right now. Lucas is waiting.”
“I’M ONE FUCKING MINUTE LATE!” she shouts, jumping up and heading towards the stairs.
“Whether it’s one minute or one hour, late is late. There’s no such thing as an excused tardy around here.” I chase after her. She’s quick, I’ll give her that.
“You’re such a fucking asshole,” she cries from the top of the stairs, her face beet-red and her body shaking.
“I warned you that I wasn’t a nice person, cupcake, do you believe me now?” I stomp up the stairs after her.
“What’s your fucking problem today? Sasha not fulfill you enough after I left so you decided to rain on my parade?” Tears stream down her face at an alarming rate.
“What the fuck do you mean? I didn’t fuck her after you left. I have no desire to fuck that whore, ever again.”
“Yeah, well maybe you should have. Then maybe you’d chill the fuck out and your internal dick will stop fighting for the top spot over your external dick to see which one is bigger.”
“Are you saying I have not one, but two big dicks?” I throw my hand over my heart in mock surprise.
“Why don’t you take one in each hand, shove one in your mouth and the other up your ass!” She screams so hard spit flies from her mouth and sweat beads pour down her face.
“If you don’t stop right now, I’m going to silence you with one of my dicks down your throat. Preferably the external one.” She can spit on that.
“You wouldn’t dare.” Her eyes wide. Not sure why she’s surprised.
“Baby girl,” I lean daringly close to her, “you can consider that the truth, dare, double dare, with a promise to repeat.”
She slams the door in my face. I look through the glass to see her running to her room, Ethan hot on her heels. He must’ve gone in the garage entrance. Great. Now I’m going to have two people pissed at me. I take a second to stretch and crack my knuckles. Emma hands me a bottle of water when I step inside.
“I can run my own firm, crime ring, horseracing business, but I don’t know what the fuck I’m doing with women.” I sigh.
“You’re not wrong.” She laughs, always finding humor in my misery.
“I warned her not to be late.” Deep down even I know my reaction was wrong. This girl can pull rage out of me quicker than anyone.
“Your response was uncalled for. When are you going to admit it to yourself how much you care about her?” What? Her face is serious. She can’t be. She is. What the hell?
“Care about her?” I’m confused. Haven’t I shown my concern for her wellbeing by everything I’ve done?
“Yeah, dummy, care about her.” She leans over, putting her elbows on the table. “Personally, I like the rage she brings out in you.” Her tone is full of amusement. Emma has the most graceful ways of laughing not with me, but at me.
She was thirteen when my parents hired her to babysit me. Her parents worked on our farm. Emma would come with them to help keep me out of trouble. She’s been trying to straighten me out—unsuccessfully, I might add—ever since. I’ve known her almost my entire life.
“Why would you say that?”
“Because you’ve never let a woman get under your skin like this. You’ve never even had a jealous bone in your body. There’s only one way a woman can get under a man’s skin to the point it drives him literally insane.”
“What the fuck are you trying to say?” I chug the rest of my water down.
“You’ll figure it out.” She snickers and walks away.
