Page 102 of Loving Wild

“It’s not. It’s definitely not. But some blokes are just dicks. I don’t think that’s ever gonna change. I’m proud of you, so fucking proud that you stuck up for yourself and Dani, but, babe, seriously, you could’ve got hurt.”

“I don’t care. I was fucking angry . . .”

“I saw the video, babe. I fucking get that. You broke his tooth.”

“Good. I wanted to break his head.”

“Yep, got that too, but I still wish you’d left him to the bouncers.”

I get no response to that, so I continue with, “We need to get cleaned up, it’s late, and I can guarantee either my brother or sister are gonna come looking for us in a minute, and neither one of them is gonna want to see my bare arse.”

I slide her bra straps up her arms, and she tucks her boobs away. I kiss the top of each one before handing her a bunch of paper towel I pull from the roll beside the sink and sliding out of her.

Once I’ve cleaned myself up and done up my jeans, I help her down off the bench and watch as she pulls on her clothes, then pulls a mirror out from the cupboard over the sink and swipes at the makeup under her eyes. After combing her fingers through her hair, she looks up at me, brows pulled down in a frown.

“Do I look like I’ve just been fucked?” she asks.

“Absolutely,” I reassure her.

“Great,” she replies, one hundred per cent sarcastically.

I pull her against me and kiss her hard. “I’ve fucking missed you.”

“That’s nice,” she smiles sweetly and says.

“That’snice? Woman, don’t fucking pretend you didn’t miss me. I heard how much you missed me the other night when your fingers were moving in and out of your pussy, I tasted, and I fucking felt how much you missed me just now.”

“Didn’t say Ididn’tmiss you. I just said it wasnicethatyoumissedme.”

“Are you drunk?” I question.

“Nope. I had a nice buzz going on earlier but going two rounds with a misogynistic cunthole sobered me right the fuck up.”

“Cunthole?” I question with a grin. She shrugs.

“I’m tired, it’s the most offensive word I could come up with.”

I study her for a few seconds, something’s off, and I don’t like the way she’s snapped from crying to joking so quickly.

“Ren.” She looks up, her eyes directly on mine. “I know what you’re doing, putting on a brave face. You really okay?”

She shakes her head. “I wasn’t, but I am now. He scared me. I need to process that. Then you showed up, and I felt safe, I do feel safe, but I still need to process what happened and how it made me feel.”

“You need to talk about it now?”

“No, and I might not need to ever. Right now, I’m just angry.”

“I get that,I’mfucking angry.”

After a long moment of just looking at each other, I lean in and kiss her again, just because she’s here, and I can.

“I love you,” I tell her.

“I know. I felt it tonight. The way you looked right at me when you climbed out of Coop’s truck, then the way you checked me over, I felt it.”

That makes my gut pull tight. I both love and hate she has the ability to do that, has that power over me that I feel her words on the inside.

It’s a whole new experience that scares the fucking shit out of me.