“No.” I hadn’t cared about it because I was focusing all my attention on this dreadful conversation. The longer I sat there with him, the more unlikely Hunt’s theory seemed. Could Thorn really do that to me and then listen to me confess how much I loved Hunt? How would he be able to sleep at night knowing he was causing me so much pain?
“Well, you haven’t even taken a drink.” He turned his gaze toward me, his eyes narrowed with accusation.
“I’m trying to cut back.”
His eyebrow cocked. “Please don’t tell me you’re pregnant.”
I rolled my eyes. “Of course not. I really am just trying to cut back.”
“Why?”
“I drink too much.”
“Says who?” he questioned. “We all drink. Who cares?”
“I’m not quitting, just trying to taper it down a little.”
Thorn finally stopped the interrogation and turned back to the TV.
I didn’t even know how to broach the subject. I didn’t know where to begin or how to start. If I came right out and asked the question, it could be too harsh and unpredictable.
“Is there something wrong, Titan?” he asked without looking at me. “I’m getting some weird vibes from you. You aren’t yourself right now.”
“I have something on my mind…”
Thorn ignored the TV and looked at me, granting me an attentive look. He gave me his complete focus, turning into the friend that I’d known for the ten years. He cared about everything I had to say. It was hard to believe this man could ever do something so deceitful. I was about to ask him about it, and I still couldn’t believe it could possibly be true. “I was talking to Hunt yesterday…”
“That can’t be good.”
“And he said something to me that I haven’t been able to get out of my head. I wanted to talk to you about it.”
“I’m listening.” He gave me the same stare, waiting for me to continue.
Something in my gut told me this wouldn’t go over well, but I had to ask. “Hunt mentioned it was a strange coincidence that the news story came out directly after I told you I wanted to be with him.”
His expression didn’t change.
“He insists he isn’t the one who went to the newspapers. And since only the three of us knew about it, he thinks you are a possible suspect. You didn’t want to let me go, so you got rid of Hunt by framing him.”
Instead of getting angry, he let a slow smile creep onto his face. “Wow. That guy is desperate, isn’t he?”
His reaction wasn’t setting off any alarm bells, but he didn’t state he thought Hunt’s assumption was wrong. “Is he…?”
Thorn’s smile faded away once he read the room. This wasn’t some ridiculous accusation that I’d brushed off. It wasn’t impossible, even though it was extremely unlikely. When he saw the seriousness in my eyes, his mouth tightened in a deep frown. “Wait, you’re actually buying into this?”
“Not at all. But I wanted to talk to you about it.”
“Talk to me about what, exactly?” His hostility grew like a fire that just been fed a splash of gasoline.
“Are you denying the accusation?”
He threw his arms down and rolled his eyes. “You’re kidding me, right? Do I really need to answer that question?”
I stared him down.
His eyes filled with pain when he realized I was being serious. “No, Titan. I didn’t sell your story to the newspapers just to get rid of the man you love. I didn’t risk life in jail just to keep him away from you. For the past ten years, I’ve only been your rock and you’ve been mine. The world has turned against us countless times, but we’ve always stood shoulder to shoulder. To think I would betray you in such a manipulative and cunning way…is disgusting. The fact that you doubted me, even for a second, is… There are no words.” He rose from the couch and ran his hands through his hair.
“I didn’t mean to offend you—”
“Well, you did.”
I rose to my feet and faced him, watching the flustered look on his face. “Hunt pressured me to ask you. He insists he didn’t do this, and he wants to figure out who did. His suspects are you and Bruce Carol.”
Thorn’s normally fair skin had a tint of red. His blue eyes were cold like ice, and his chest rose and fell dramatically with the deep breaths he took. He was angry, his rage slowly building and filling the entire room. “And he’s the biggest suspect of all, Titan. Why do you keep forgetting that?”
“I haven’t forgotten.”
“Seems like you have. This asshole is the one who betrayed you, and now he’s turning you against me. In case you’ve forgotten, I was the one who stabbed Jeremy in the heart to protect you.” He slammed his fist against his chest. “I was the one who gave you your first loan. I’m the one who’s always got your back and your front. One pretty man walks into your life, and you forget all of that? You strip away everything that’s so damn good about our relationship just because he plants a ridiculous idea in your head? I thought you were smarter than that, Titan. But it looks like you never learn after all.”
My tongue suddenly felt too big for my mouth, and I felt too weak to stand.
“Get out.” He turned away from me, shaking his head like he’d never been so disappointed in me.
“Thorn, I never accused you. I just wanted—”
“Yes, you did. The fact that you even had to ask is a demonstration of how much you’ve lost your mind. Get out of my house and don’t come back.”
My heart slipped all the way down to my stomach. “Thorn—”
“Don’t make me ask a third time, Titan.” He walked out of the living room and into the hallway. I knew he was in his bedroom when I heard the door shut behind him. The TV was still on, his beer was covered in condensation. A commercial came on the screen, and it was about insurance.
I didn’t go after him because he needed his space. He’d never walked away from me like that before. He’d never asked me to leave. He’d never turned his back on me the way he did now.
I let myself out.
* * *
I sat in the dark for hours, thinking about my conversation with Thorn. I felt like shit. I felt worse than I did when that article about me was published. I felt like I’d lost a piece of myself, lost a family member.
It was like losing my father all over again.
My instinct was to call Thorn and apologize. But he wouldn’t take my calls. He was angry with me, and what he needed right now was space. Pestering him wouldn’t get me anywhere. I would give it a week before I tried to speak to him again.
I felt like an idiot for asking him that stupid question.
I dragged my hand across my face and sighed, feeling the distant ache in my entire chest. It was the painful precursor to tears, the beginning of an action I worked so hard to avoid. I didn’t let a single tear fall, but keeping it in was somehow more painful.
My phone rang.
I grabbed it and hoped to see Thorn’s name on the screen.
But it was Hunt.
I didn’t feel like talking right now, so I silenced his call and set it on the cushion beside me.
He didn’t leave a voice mail, but a text message popped up. I need to talk to you.
I could feel the urgency in his message. It was the only thing that caught my attention in that moment. I was in pain, but for some reason, his pain seemed more important to me. I picked up the phone and called him.
His deep voice filled the silence. “Hey.” He seemed down, like he’d already heard the news about Thorn and me. He only said a single word, but the pain in his tone was heavy. It was unmistakable.
“Hey…” I couldn’t speak without my voice cracking. I was a master at hiding my emotions from everyone, but with Hunt, all my skills were useless. He could crack through my hard shell with a single word.
His concern exploded through the phone. “Baby, what’s wrong?”
I shouldn’t let him call me that anymore, but it felt so nice. It
blanketed me with his affection, his love. It was like being cradled in his big, strong arms without his even being there. “I talked to Thorn…”
He sighed into the phone. “What happened?”
I didn’t have the energy to tell the entire story. Reliving it would just be painful. “Denied the claim…and then was hurt that I would ever suspect him doing something like that. Told me to get out of his penthouse and…not to come back.” I struggled to keep my voice steady, but it was useless. It kept shaking. The pain and emotion combined together to make a single storm.
He sighed again. “I’ll be right there, alright?”
I shouldn’t want to see him, but that was the only thing I wanted. Nothing sounded better than having his masculine kisses all over my body, his comforting words spoken directly into my ear while his powerful arms protected me from the coldness of my reality. “Okay.”
He arrived less than ten minutes later and helped himself inside my penthouse. The elevator doors opened, and he headed right toward me. His heavy body sank into the couch and his arm wrapped around me, pulling me against his chest, right where I wanted to be. His lips brushed against my hairline, giving me a kiss that was more searing than the kind he gave when he was between my legs. His breath fell across my neck, and he felt perfectly comfortable positioned that way.
I wrapped my arm around his waist and snuggled into his side. I didn’t talk about Thorn because there was nothing more to be said. I’d hurt his feelings, and I wished I could take it back.
“I’m sorry.”
“It’s not your fault.”
“It is my fault,” he whispered. “I told you to ask him.”
“And I shouldn’t have listened to you…”
His body stiffened in reaction. “He seemed sincere when he said it wasn’t him?”
I nodded. “And if he was just doing it to get rid of you, he ended up getting rid of me himself. So your theory is debunked.”
“He didn’t get rid of you. He’ll come around.”
“You didn’t see him.”
His lips brushed over my temple, and he placed a kiss on my forehead. “I had to know it wasn’t him.”
“And he still thinks it’s you.”
“It’s not me,” he whispered. “I promise it isn’t me.”
“And you told me to accuse Thorn because you knew this would happen…that I would push him away.”
“What do I get out of that?” he asked. “Seeing the woman I love almost in tears? I have kinky tastes, but I’m not into that.”
I moved away from his touch and sat upright on the couch. I looked at the floor, avoiding his gaze. “I wish I could undo all of this. He seemed so hurt by what I said. I feel terrible.”
“I promise you, he’ll come around.”
“Even if he does, it won’t be the same. I violated our trust.”
“All you did was ask a question. You didn’t accuse him of it.”
“It’s the same thing—we both know it.”
His hand moved into my hair, and he forced my gaze on him. His brown eyes were warm like hot coffee, and his t-shirt fit snugly against his frame. He looked sad in a way I’d never seen him before. He hurt when I hurt, but this was different. It seemed like he was troubled on a deeper level. “Is there something wrong?”
He held my gaze, his fingers moving through my soft hair until they reached the tips. His eyes glanced down, and he looked at my hair as it stretched across my shoulders. His hand traveled between my shoulder blades and down my back. His pregnant pause stretched on with no end in sight. “No.”
“When we spoke on the phone, you seemed down.”
“Just missed you.” His eyes moved up again, his brown eyes no longer easy to read like a book. He seemed to be hiding something, a thought or an emotion. “I’m sorry you’re in pain, baby. I hate seeing you like this. I know how much he means to you. He’s more than a friend…he’s family.”
“Yes…he is.”
“He’ll come around.”
I bowed my head because I didn’t believe him. There was a finality to our conversation, like things would never be the same between Thorn and me. He was the best thing that ever happened to me, the best friend any person could ask for. Now he was gone.
“Try talking to him again.”
“I need to give him space. He’s too angry right now.”
Hunt grabbed my hand and leaned toward me. He pressed a kiss to my shoulder and rested his mouth there. “Tell me what I can do.”
I didn’t want to think about it anymore. I wanted a distraction, something to take my mind off the throbbing pain inside my heart. I wanted a clear head so I could get some sleep. Otherwise, I wouldn’t get any rest for the next week. “Fuck me. Fuck me until I can’t keep my eyes open anymore.”
11
Hunt
I’d called Titan to tell her about my father.
About the insulting conversation that took place in my office.
He threatened me. Said he despised me. Wanted to make my life miserable.
As a man, it took a lot to wound me. I was covered in layers of muscle, but also built with steel. My skin was tough like hide, and it was difficult to land a blow that actually affected me. But my father’s words cut me all the way to the bone. I was still bleeding even though the wounds were invisible.
I made my peace with the fact that I didn’t have a relationship with my father. I had my reasons, and my reasons were good enough. But I’d never hated him, and it hurt to know that he hated me.
My mother would be disappointed in both of us, not just him.
We stood on opposite sides of the battlefield, and neither one of us was willing to call a truce. I set off an explosion that I couldn’t take back in order to win Titan back. She still couldn’t trust me, and I wasn’t sure if it’d all been for nothing.
I hoped not.
But when I arrived at her penthouse, she was on the verge of tears. Titan was just as strong as I was, and she hid her emotions deep below the surface. She wasn’t the kind of person who cried when something tore her down. She spent her energy finding a solution to her problem, not moping about it. Seeing the wetness in her eyes told me how much she ached. The sadness written all over her face made me feel so depressed. I couldn’t mention my own pain when she was the only thing that really mattered. I was hoping to drop my armor and let her tend to my wounds. Instead, I hid them away and pretended I wasn’t bleeding at all.
This was all my fault.
I thought there was a good chance that Thorn was the one who betrayed her, but since Titan didn’t have a doubt he was telling the truth, I had to rule him out as a suspect. That left me with only one culprit, and I had to pursue it until I got some answers.
But for now, I had to make this right.
Which was why I was walking up to Thorn’s assistant inside his building. “I need to see Mr. Cutler.”
“Do you have an appointment?” She looked up at me from under her thick eyelashes, taking in my features without being discreet about it.
Titan would be jealous. “No. But it’s important.”
“Your name?”
This part would be tricky. “Diesel Hunt.”
“I’ll see if he’s available.” She picked up the phone and spoke with him directly. “There’s a Diesel Hunt here to speak with you. He says it’s urgent.” When she heard his response, her features hardened slightly. “Okay, sir.” She hung up and hardly looked at me. “He says he’s too busy to help a little bitch like you…his words, not mine.”
My temper would normally rise to an insult like this, but right now, it didn’t matter. I turned away from her desk and walked right into Thorn’s office.
“Sir, wait!”
I shut the door and drowned out her voice. I entered his office and saw him sitting behind his enormous desk, his eyes on me. They were cold and hostile, full of unfettered rage. “Get the fuck out, Hunt.”
“Just listen to me.” I held up a hand as I slowly
approached his desk. I stood farther back than I normally would, not wanting to make this more confrontational than it already was.
“I don’t have to do a damn thing. Now get out before I call security.”
They’d better have guns because that was the only thing that would stop me. “Don’t be upset with Titan. I was the one who told her my suspicions. I know you don’t believe I’m innocent, but I am. I have to find out who’s behind this because Titan has an enemy. I don’t want something worse to happen to her.”
Thorn gave me a blank look like none of that meant anything to him. “Titan might believe your bullshit, but I don’t. The only reason why my sleeves aren’t rolled up and my knuckles aren’t against your face is because I’m in my office. Now if we were in a dark alley somewhere, I’d be putting your dead body in a dumpster right now.”
His anger matched Titan’s when she’d first read the article. She slapped me several times, hit me hard enough that my cheek was red for nearly a day. “I saw Titan last night. Her eyes were full of tears, and she was devastated. She’s scared that she’s lost the most important person in her life. When I first accused you, she rejected the idea and said it was impossible. It took nearly thirty minutes just for her to agree to run it by you.”
His anger dimmed, but not substantially. “You’re trying to rip us apart. How does she not see that?”
“Then why am I standing here trying to put you back together?”
Thorn clenched his jaw, the hard lines of his face deepening.
“Forgive her. Please.”
He rested his fingertips against his lip, his eyes still ice-cold. “What do you want, Hunt? What are you after?”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“You betray her, and then you spend all this time trying to convince her otherwise. What’s the point of it all? Why don’t you just admit you fucked her over and move on? Did you plan to do it but then fell for her? And now you’re trying to make up for it?”
“No. I didn’t do it, Thorn. Someone framed me.”
“Why?” he demanded. “Even if that’s true, what’s the motive?”
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