Page 19

19

Isaac

A nger usually wasn’t an issue for me. Part of being Isaac Jones meant not letting irrational feelings like anger or jealousy get in the way of being a chill, pleasant guy. But as I followed Tovah out of The Daily Queen offices and into the parking lot where my car waited, I had to work really, really fucking hard not to give into my anger, storm back inside and up the stairs, and toss the sniveling little editor-in-chief out the window like I’d threatened.

“Keep it together,” Levi murmured to me. “There’s a time for rage and retaliation, and that time isn’t now.”

“Eh, rage and retaliation are fun,” Judah argued from behind us, slamming his hand into his fist. “Let’s break some editor faces!”

“Shut up.” Levi rolled his eyes.

Leaving him behind to deal with his twin, I caught up with Tovah in the middle of the parking lot.

She spun around, pink hair flying, as she pointed a finger at my chest.

“Why did you do that?” she cried.

“Do what? Stand up for you? Tell that envious bitch and your pathetic excuse for a boss to stop picking on you?”

“Yeah. That. Why? ”

I opened my mouth, then shut it, because I didn’t know how to answer her. Why had I done it? There was no need for me to support her or protect her; it didn’t make it easier to keep her from exposing my team, and it’s not like I actually cared. So then why did I kick in a door and threaten two strangers who’d never done anything to me personally?

You were jealous , my brain offered. That’s why the door.

My brain was right. The idea of Tovah alone in a room with another man had sent rage through my veins like oxygen, lighting my whole body up with the need to dominate and defend. When Judah texted me to let me know there might be a problem, I ran out of my Italian test so fast I could’ve won a record. Finding Tovah dressed hadn’t helped, not when she’d looked so upset.

And then when Veronica had accused Tovah of slutting it up with her boss, I’d seen red. Not even because I was jealous that it might be true, but because it so clearly wasn’t. She had hurt Tovah, had wanted to hurt her more, and it didn’t matter that I didn’t threaten women as a rule, or that I wasn’t supposed to care about Tovah’s feelings. The only person allowed to fuck with Tovah was me.

So I’d threatened the bitch. Hadn’t physically hurt her; hadn’t had to. My voice and words and the look in my eyes had done the trick.

“Why, Isaac?” Tovah asked again, interrupting my thoughts.

Her breathing was shallow and aggravated, her hair a mess, her eyes so big and brown as she stared up at me in confusion and what might be…

…hope.

“Why do you let people think you fucked your boss?” I asked her instead.

She blanched. “I don’t let people think that…”

“Bullshit,” I scoffed. “The rumor around campus is that you only got the senior sports editor position because you were fucking Toby. Why let it go on for so long?”

She inhaled, her face going pale.

Quietly, so that only I could hear her, she said, “Because no matter how much I denied it, no one would’ve believed me. In fact, the more I denied it, the more people would’ve thought it was true. So why fight it? Why not use it in my favor? People can believe what they want to believe about me, Isaac. Including you. Their opinions of me don’t matter. All that matters is my opinion of me. And I think I’m pretty fucking fantastic.”

I smiled, my dimples popping out. Usually I did it intentionally, but her words made it happen naturally.

“I like that,” I told her truthfully. “I like that you like yourself. That’s pretty rare.”

She blinked, then smiled back at me.

“Your turn,” she said. “Why come to my defense like that?”

Because the thought of anyone hurting you makes me want to burn down the whole fucking campus , I thought. Because I can’t stand the thought of anyone making you cry.

Instead, I said, “Because no one gets to hurt you but me.”

Her face fell. Seeing her look so sad was like getting hit in the face by a puck. But I couldn’t tell her how I really felt. It would give her power over me, and worse, it would give her the wrong idea of how I felt, or how things could be between us if we stopped hating each other. I wasn’t the protective boyfriend type, even if I was good at pretending to be one. I wasn’t the boyfriend type, period.

Caring for someone like that meant signing their death warrant, and I wouldn’t do that—to anyone.

“Ahem.” Judah swung an arm around my back, and another around Tovah’s.

A snarl rose in my throat the moment his hand touched her back, but I silenced it. I’d been jealous enough.

“So that Toby’s a real douchenozzle, isn’t he?” Judah commented.

Tovah rolled her eyes, lifting Judah’s arm off her body. “He’s been like that since we were freshmen newswriters.”

“Has he been into you since you were freshmen, too?” he asked conversationally.

Tovah rolled her eyes. “Toby doesn’t like me. I don’t think Toby is capable of liking anyone other than Maureen Dowd. He just likes the way us supposedly having slept together makes him seem like less of a prude.”

That snarl came back. Realistically, I knew that Toby wasn’t a threat. But he and Tovah had one major interest in common; what was I other than a dumb jock with a violent family? Not that I gave a shit.

“It doesn’t matter if he likes you,” I said gruffly to Tovah. “He won’t be touching you. Not for the foreseeable future, anyway.”

Tovah rolled her eyes. She clearly thought I was being an idiot. That was fine; so did I.

“Like I’d let him touch me,” she said.

I addressed Judah. “Was there any talk about her writing an article about the team? Exposing us?”

Judah turned serious. “Nothing concerning.” He flashed Tovah a flirtatious smile. “No, she’s been a good girl. Haven’t you, Tovah? That’s what your name means, after all.”

Before I was aware of what I was doing, I’d backed the bigger man against a nearby car, my arm on his throat, blocking his air. The car’s alarm started going off.

“Isaac, stop!” Tovah cried.

She was trying to protect him? Absolutely the fuck not. It didn’t matter that Judah was one of my best friends, or that logically I knew he wasn’t interested in Tovah and was just fucking with me to get a rise out of me. It was like my brain had switched off and some sleeper agent had taken over, and all it thought was that Judah was the enemy and was trying to steal what was mine.

Judah didn’t fight me, though. His hands were already lifted in surrender. Awareness returned, the car alarm screaming in the otherwise quiet evening. I backed away from my friend, feeling like an out-of-control asshole.

Once again, Tovah had brought out the beast in me, and I didn’t like it.

“Why the fuck?” I asked him.

He grinned. “Shit stirring.”

Levi came around the side, helping his brother stand.

“You need to accept your emotions around her, or they’re going to keep biting you in the ass,” Levi said quietly so only Judah and I could hear him.

Pulling my car key out of my pocket, I hit the unlock button, and my Aston Martin’s locks beeped from where I’d parked it out of the sun.

“We’re going home,” I told Tovah, turning back to grab her hand in mine and tug her toward my car, not bothering to respond to Levi’s warning.

“You are jealous,” Tovah said, disbelief in her voice.

I didn’t respond, just opened the passenger door for her, waiting for her to slide in before reaching over her and securing her seatbelt, closing the door, going around to the driver’s side and locking the doors, finally satisfied that she was safely inside and couldn’t go anywhere unless I wanted her to.

Only then did I look at her.

“I am, little journalist. I’m fucking territorial and possessive, even though I shouldn’t be. There’s a part of me that wants to piss a circle around you, so no other man will come near you. I’m jealous as hell, and it doesn’t matter who flirts with you or touches you, so I suggest you be the good girl you were named for.”

Her beautiful brown eyes were wide. I wanted them wider, full of tears, with her mouth around my cock and her throat stuffed full. Maybe then this roaring in my ears would go away.

“I don’t even know what to say to that,” she said. “You’re crazy. You’ve completely snapped.”

I started the car and pulled out of the parking lot. “Seems that way.”