by Maree Green
She blinked at me and frowned. “I . . . uh . . . I need to apologize to him.”
There were so many things wrong with that sentence, but that wasn’t the issue I needed to deal with just then. “Maybe you should wait until tomorrow. Think about it a little more.”
It wasn’t Ryan I was trying to protect. Hell, if this girl could rip him a new one, I would happily stand back and watch, but for some reason, she made me feel protective of her. She seemed fragile. I didn’t want her to get hurt, and I knew that was exactly what would happen if I let her go down that hall.
“It’ll be too late tomorrow,” she mumbled, almost too quietly for me to hear.
As I processed her words, she stepped up to the door and pulled it open.
“Wait,” I said, a little desperately. “You don’t want to go down there. Trust me.”
She frowned at me. It was obvious I was confusing her. “Why?”
Fuck it all to hell. I was going to fucking kill Ryan in the morning. “He’s not alone.”
It took her approximately three seconds to comprehend what I’d said, and somewhere between the third and fourth second, something kicked her into action and she was off. Not down the stairs and out the front door like I’d hoped, but down the hall to Ryan’s door.
With trained practice, I had my sweatpants on and was out the door, behind her, in three seconds flat. Unfortunately, it wasn’t quick enough to stop her from opening the door to Ryan’s room.
I saw the shock come over her face as she stood there, taking it all in. I couldn’t see what Ryan was up to, but going by the noises I could hear, I knew it wasn’t anything this girl would want to see.
She sucked in a sharp breath, her hand going to her throat.
“What the fuck!” I heard Ryan spit out.
Okay, time for action.
“What the fuck are you doing here, Amy? Get the fuck out of my room!”
“We only broke up yesterday, Ryan,” Amy said softly. “Yesterday. How could you do this already?”
Ryan laughed. The fucker actually laughed. Amy flinched, and I saw her throat tighten. I was ready to go knock my twin out.
“Baby, I was inside another girl an hour after I walked out the door. That’s what happens when your girlfriend doesn’t put out.”
He laughed again, and the girl he was with joined in.
Amy took one tiny step back, and then another. Then she was darting past me and down the stairs at a breakneck speed.
Motherfucker. I couldn’t let her go like that. She’d probably have a crash or something, driving in that state of mind.
The last thing I heard as I dashed after her was Ryan’s amused voice calling out, “You could at least shut the door when you leave!”
Asshole.
Chapter 5
Amy
I wanted to cry.
Not because I was heartbroken. I think I’d always known I didn’t love Ryan. It was more from humiliation. Seeing Ryan in bed with Kacey had seriously shaken my self-esteem. Did I really mean so little to him that he could move on so quickly?
Had he been telling the truth when he’d said he’d slept with another girl within an hour of us breaking up?
My eyes stung. Had he even cared for me a little?
My mind instantly went to Mom. Even though I’d like to believe she didn’t mean it when she said not to come home if I couldn’t get Ryan back, deep down, I knew she meant every word.
Stopping beside my car, I took a few deep breaths, determined not to let the tears fall.
These were supposed to be people who cared about me. They were supposed to consider my feelings as well as their own. They were supposed to want to make me happy, not push me to do things that made me uncomfortable.
Why couldn’t they do that? Why wasn’t I good enough for them?
“Amy?”
I turned at the sound of the deep voice. A voice so familiar to me, yet I’d only heard it for the first time ten minutes ago.
I watched Daniel walk toward me. Slowly. Like he was frightened of scaring me. Or upsetting me more than I already was.
Goddamn it. He looked so much like Ryan it was seriously hurting my heart.
I studied him, trying to find something that would allow my mind to break the link between them.
He was only wearing a pair of sweats, leaving his chest and feet bare. He was actually quite a bit bigger than Ryan, muscle wise. And his hair was shorter. Not by a lot, but it was definitely noticeable. He also had a tiny little mole on his left cheek.
But the most noticeable difference was the fact that Daniel looked worried. He looked genuinely concerned. There was no cocky smirk, no swagger that spoke of self-importance or excess of confidence. There was only honesty. Loud and clear. That was his tell.
And I liked it.
“Are you okay?” he said, moving even slower still.
The honesty in his voice made me want to give it back to him. “I don’t know. I wasn’t really expecting that.”
He nodded, his gaze never leaving mine. “You were going out with Ryan?”
I let out a humorless laugh that sounded a little crazy, even to me. “Stupid, huh?”
Daniel smiled a little. The same crooked little smile Ryan used to give me that made my insides melt. It looked even better on Daniel. Probably because it was accompanied by the honesty in his eyes.
“Nah,” he said softly. “He’s a good-looking guy.”
It took me two seconds to process his words before I laughed. I actually laughed. How the hell could he make me laugh right now?
“Seriously, though,” he said. “Did he really break up with you yesterday? Because you said no . . . ?”
I sighed and looked up at the night sky. “We’d been going out for over four months. I probably should’ve—”
“Don’t.”
My gaze snapped back to his at the firm sound of his voice. He’d moved even closer while I’d been staring at the stars. Now he was only standing a few feet from me.
“Don’t even finish that sentence, Amy. My brother’s a self-righteous douchebag who thinks the world owes him everything because our parents got a divorce. I only got here this morning, and I’ve already felt like smacking him at least three times.” He moved even closer, making my breath catch. “I’ve got a pretty darned good idea what your intention was here tonight, and all I can say is, I’m real happy you ended up in my bed instead. Not because of what happened, but because of what could’ve happened. My brother doesn’t respect a damn thing, Amy. Not even himself.”
I swallowed. Somehow, I didn’t think my mother would see it that way.
Looking down at my clenched hands, I tried to draw in a steadying breath. “I better go,” I mumbled.
When I was only met with silence, I looked up. Daniel’s gaze was intense, but he had that crooked little smile on his lips. “It was nice to meet you,” he said.
My thoughts instantly went to his body pressed against mine, his tongue softly lapping at my nipple, his hands moving over my body, and I flushed, my pulse skipping strangely.
I’m not sure what he saw on my face, but his eyes darkened, and the smile I loved disappeared.
Holy hell.
I swallowed hard, trying to stop my body’s bizarre reaction to Daniel’s intensity. “You too,” I managed to choke out.
Fumbling with my keys, I tried to unlock the car, only to find I’d already done it, and climbed behind the wheel. With shaking hands, I turned on the ignition and reversed out of the drive.
I knew Daniel was watching me. I didn’t know how, but I just knew he was. The thought gave me goosebumps, and not the kind you get when you’re freaked out. It was the kind you get when you find something thrilling.
I tried my hardest not to look as I drove away, but I’ll admit it. I was weak. I just had to know if he really was watching me.
As I glanced toward the house, I found him exactly where I’d left him, his arms down by his sides, his perfectly sculpted torso s
oftly illuminated under the streetlight, and his gaze never leaving me.
It wasn’t until I was a few blocks away that my pulse returned to somewhere near normal and confusion set in. What the hell was that? Was I so upset by everything that had happened that I was clinging to the first person who showed me kindness? Or was it the fact that he was a carbon copy of Ryan and my mind was trying to pretend it was him giving me such intense feelings?
I scowled at the last thought. No. I was done with Ryan. Even if he came to beg for my forgiveness, I could never give myself to him after seeing him like that. With Kacey.
No. It definitely wasn’t anything to do with Ryan. It was just Daniel. It was the way he seemed to genuinely care about how I felt after what I had seen. It was the honesty, deep in his eyes. I’d never seen anything like it. Not from my parents, and certainly not from Ryan.
Ryan could go sleep with every other skank girl we knew and then some, and I was pretty sure I wouldn’t care. But that left me with a problem. A real big problem. My parents. Ryan wasn’t coming to their dinner, and they were going to lose face.
And it was all my fault.
The nerves started before I’d even driven through the gates. By the time I’d pulled into the ten-car garage, I just felt sick. I had no idea what Mom was going to do when she found out I’d failed to get Ryan back. I just knew it wasn’t going to be good.
I’d hoped I’d be able to slip on up to my room without being noticed. That was usually how it happened. Neither of my parents usually gave me the time of day, unless they needed me to do something for them. Unfortunately, Mom was waiting for me.
She didn’t even say anything. She just raised her eyebrow with her usual expectation.
I swallowed, standing stock-still just inside the doorway. When I couldn’t bring myself to say anything in return, she snapped.
“Well?”
“I . . . uh . . . I couldn’t. He didn’t . . .”
“Oh, for God’s sake, Amy. Just spit it the hell out!”
My shoulders sagged. “It didn’t work. He’s not coming.”
Her glare caused a lump to grow in my throat. “Unbelievable! Just . . . you’re pathetic. What the hell did I do to deserve a daughter as ungrateful as you? It’s not hard to catch and keep a boy, Amy. They think with their goddamned dicks! Your father and I gave you the best genes possible. I gave you the tools, the know-how, to use those genes to your advantage, and what do you do? You squander it. You absolutely throw it back in our faces! You’re the most ungrateful child I’ve ever met! Thanks to you, your father and I are going to be a laughingstock tomorrow night. You can forget Paris, miss. And don’t think you’re going anywhere with those friends of yours this summer.”
If I needed any further proof of what kind of love my parents had for me, this was it. Strangely, I didn’t feel like crying. I just felt kind of empty and numb. Didn’t they know it wasn’t the trips to Paris, the fancy cars, or the expensive clothes I was looking for?
I’d have given it all just to have them love me.
Bitterness crept up inside me. “Sorry, Mother. By the time I got there, he already had his dick inside another girl.”
With that, I shouldered past her and ran up the stairs to my room.
Chapter 6
Daniel
Standing on the front path, I watched the messenger drive off before opening the letter he’d just given me. Scanning the short message, I folded it back up and tucked it back in the envelope it came from.
It wasn’t anything I hadn’t been expecting. Just reiterating what we’d been told about our leave before we left base. Companies Alpha and Delta were due to deploy for Australia September first. That meant those of us on voluntary leave needed to be back on base by August twenty-fourth. A good ten weeks away.
“Who was that?”
I turned to see Ryan standing on the porch. It’d been almost a week since the incident with Amy. I knew I shouldn’t have let it get to me, but the whole thing had left a very bitter taste in my mouth, and it’d been a real struggle to be civil to him whenever we were in the same room together.
I knew Mom could tell there was some tension on my side, but Ryan was as cool as ever, so either he didn’t get the fact that I wasn’t happy with his treatment toward Amy, or he just didn’t fucking care. Both scenarios annoyed me to no end.
I glanced down the road, where the messenger’s car had disappeared around the corner. “Just a Marine Messenger.” I held up the envelope. “Reminding us about deployment.”
The smirk disappeared. His gaze snapped up to meet mine. For the first time since I’d been back, I actually saw a genuine emotion in his eyes. “Shit,” he said quietly. “You’re being deployed?”
I narrowed my eyes a little, contemplating the worry in his gaze. This was the Ryan I remembered from years ago. The one who used to be my best friend. “Yeah.” I frowned, ready to tell him I was only heading to Australia, but I was still trying to understand his reaction. “You know that’s kind of expected when you join the Marines, right?”
He shifted on his feet and sighed, looking defeated. “You know, I didn’t actually think you’d do it,” he mumbled.
I frowned. “Enlist in the Marines? I’ve been telling you for years this is what I wanted to do.”
“I know,” he said sorrowfully. “I just figured you’d find something else before you did.”
I studied him for a while. He was confusing the hell out of me. “Is there a problem?”
He shook his head. “This is full-on, man. What if you get sent to Iraq or some shit like that?”
Trying not to sigh, I gave him a curious glance. “That’s kind of the point, Ryan. I want to be able to protect our country.”
Ryan scowled and stared down at the ground, just as his phone beeped. He swore and pulled it out of his pocket to check the message. “Look, I gotta go. Congratulations, I guess.”
With that, he hopped into his car and cranked the engine, not even giving me another look as he sped off.
I stood there for a while, watching the back of his car disappear down the street, wondering what the hell just happened. Seeing the Ryan I knew from long ago was a bit of a shock to me, but there’d been no mistaking it. That was definitely him. The real him. It made me pause. Was this arrogant, egotistical dick I’d been seeing for the last week merely some sort of cover-up?
I shook my head. No. I remembered the way he’d treated Amy. As far as I was concerned, it didn’t matter. I didn’t care how emotionally fucked up you were from a broken family. It didn’t give you the right to emotionally abuse a nice girl like her.
Tension tightened my muscles. I needed to run.
Tossing the letter inside the front door, I set my stopwatch and took off toward the local park. I’d measured the distance in Mom’s car the first day I’d arrived. It was just over three miles.
Even though I didn’t exactly need to run it in any certain time anymore, I still wanted to keep my fitness up and my time as close to my PB as possible. Twelve minutes was the goal.
I welcomed the burn in my lungs with pride when I finally reached the park. Pressing the button to stop the timer on my watch, I smiled at my new PB. Eleven minutes, fourteen seconds. Ooh-Rah!
Settling in to walk the perimeter, I worked to slow down my heart rate. The PT trainer at recruitment had taught me a technique that helped considerably, and I knew it was something that was definitely going to help me while deployed. People tended to either panic a little or not be able to rely on decision-making skills when they were out of breath. This technique not only allowed me to slow it down faster than most people, but to also pull my focus into line.
A third of the way around the park, I checked my watch, smiling when I saw my heart rate almost at normal level. I’d just passed by the fountain, when the sound of an angry voice had me looking up.
“I have a very sharp and dangerous bone to pick with you!”
I paused when I saw the voice belonged to a tall,
slim blonde. And she was marching directly toward me, her face set in a very pissed-off snarl.
“Your behavior has been absolutely appalling. I thought you were a friend. Friends don’t treat other friends like that. I seriously have lost all fucking respect for you. What you did was a complete ass’s act.”
I stood there blinking at this very attractive, yet very angry female, wondering what the hell was going on.
Movement behind her caught my attention, and I looked over her shoulder to see Amy slowly coming our way. She had her head cocked to the side slightly, like she was evaluating me, while Blondie continued on her rant.