“That’s not…that’s not how it was. He wasn’t,” she groaned, “that wasn’t your decision to make.”
Her words snapped something in my chest.
I stepped back half a pace, my palm aching when I let her go. “You sure about that?”
Her eyes flashed with defiance. “Yes!”
I ran a hand through my hair, my frustration building. “You think I’m just gonna stand there while some guy drags you around a parking lot?”
“He wasn’t dragging me.”
“He grabbed you, Rowan.”
“And I could’ve handled it, Tex.”
I shook my head. “You don’t know guys like him.”
Her jaw tightened. “And you do?”
“Yeah,” I said flatly. “I do.”
She crossed her arms. “You don’t get to decide what’s best for me. I get to make that choice. I’m yours to protect, but I’m not yours, or whatever.”
Every nerve ending came alive at the sound of those words and I bit back the urge to tell her that she should be mine. That if she was mine, no one would ever treat her like that. That they’d be fucking dead in the ground if they did. But she was right—she wasn’t mine. And deep down I knew that was a good thing. She shouldn’t be mine.
So instead of saying the right thing, I said the wrong thing. And I knew it was wrong as soon as I said it.
“Yeah, well, maybe if you didn’t lead guys on?—”
Her face changed instantly. It went from shock to anger. Real fucking anger.
She shoved my chest hard with both hands and stepped away from me like I’d burned her.
“Are you serious? Now you sound just like the asshole you just knocked on his ass!”
I realized what I’d just said, too late.
“That’s not what I meant,” I started, but we both knew thatwaswhat I meant, and we both knew that I was wrong. She hadn’t led me on any more than she’d led the unconscious asshole on. I was just being a typical guy that threw around my own insecurities like fucking confetti.
I dragged a hand down my face. “Rowan, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean that.”
“Oh really?” she snapped. Her voice shook slightly. “I can’t believe I actually wanted to kiss you just now.”
The words hit harder than any punch I’d ever taken. It was a one-two jab and an uppercut to boot. Her words knocked me out cold, because I hadn’t known until that very second how much I had wanted to kiss her too.
Somewhere in the background I could hear my brothers laughing and joking, and I wanted to pull out my gun and shoot it in the air to get them to shut the fuck up. It felt like everything hinged on this moment and they were acting like this was some big fucking joke. My anger grew.
“Can you just calm down? For fuck’s sake, Rowan.”
She shook her head, furious. “I am not one of those women who throw themselves at the feet of every biker in a leather vest. And I sure as shit won’t be spoken to like one.”
“I know that. That’s not what I said.” I grabbed my head, feeling like it was going to explode. No woman had ever brought me to my knees, and yet Rowan could cut me with her tongue right now and I knew I’d still go back for more.
How could I have let anyone have so much power over me?
How the hell had that happened?
“It’s exactly what you implied,” she said, her eyes narrowing.
