Page 102 of Broken Beauty

“You are awful!” She slaps my chest and shoves me away from her. “You always have to cause trouble!”

“I didn't like how close he was to you. You looked like you wanted to punch him yourself.”

“It doesn't mean that you should go and punch him, Ash! You can't keep doing that. You are the one who said this was over. Not me. So fucking act like it Ash. Stop going back and forth,” she argues.

“So next time someone touches you like that you want me to turn my eye?” I lean towards Ariella and she doesn't say a thing. “Let me tell you something, Ariella.” I walk closer to her and she bumps into a car. I place a hand on the car, next to her head and lean closer until our lips are an inch apart. “Anyone lays a hand on you and I'll fucking end them.”

Ariella closes her eyes. “Please, leave me alone. You have hurt me enough, Ash.” She opens her eyes and a frown is placed on her lips. Her eyes look watery but I know she won't cry. Not in front of me. “You don't love me, you used me. Please just stick to your word and stop playing with me.”

Fuck.

Knowing that she actually believes that hurts me.

She couldn't be more wrong.

If only I can just hold her again. If only I can just have her as mine without worrying about the consequences.

Forty-Eight

Ariella

Present

“I swear I don’t Bridgette. He’s a fucking douchebag.” I mutter while flipping a page over in the book I’m reading.

“But the way he looks at you, says something entirely different,” Bridgette argues while I roll my eyes.

Bridgette is such a hopeless romantic. Although she has troubles, or at least had trouble before getting together with Jace officially.

“Well, we’re done. He never cared about me.” I close the book, not even in the mood to read anymore. Talking about Ash, being reminded of his heartless words and heartless self is making my head hurt. “Look, I have to go. I have a lot of stuff to catch up on for classes.”

Bridgette and I hang up after saying bye and I toss my phone on the side table next to my bed. Goosebumps appear on my skin and I feel the hair on the back of my neck rise. I turn around and see Ash leaning against the doorway.

The last time I saw him was at the party. After I told him to leave me alone he walked back inside the house. I took a few minutes outside to calm myself down and when I went back into the house I saw a girl talking to him.

I felt enraged but also heartbroken. My heart and head are all over the place and I know I told Ash to stay away and just do his own thing, but it hurts seeing him try and move on.

When I saw him with the girl I went to Bridgette and told her I was leaving. We took my car so I left without her because she said that Jace was going to take her home.

When I got home, I spent the night crying and letting myself feel pathetic, only when no one could see me.

“What are you doing here? Didn’t you get the hint yesterday?” I ask, sitting up and suddenly feeling insecure with my legs out in the open.

I feel so revealed to him by just wearing this thin tank top and short cotton shorts. Ash’s eyes go to my nipples, which I’m sure are puckered and poking through the shirt.

His jaw ticks and he leans off the door before walking towards the bed. “I did but I just wanted to know something.” Ash gets on the bed and he leans against the headboard, resting his long, muscular legs on the bed.

Ash is wearing gray sweatpants and then a black compression shirt that shows off his arms beautifully.

“What?” I ask, bringing my legs to my chest, trying not to touch him.

One touch from Ash would ignite everything inside me.

“Come here first,” Ash says before his eyes move to his lap and back to me.

Hell no.

He can’t just come here and demand things like that from me.